Comments on: Purchase vs Rent Robinson R22?

By: Jane

Jane — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 07:41:58 +0000

Hello Maria!
I know these posts were last year, but I am really interested in talking to you, if you have a spare minute?
I am looking into buying my first 22 and would really like some of your words of wisdom!!
In regards to what age, and maintenance requirements to buy one at and one a reasonable price is, etc.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated and you would be MORE than welcome to come and fly the machine whenever you were to visit Africa!

By: edgar

edgar — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:33:34 +0000

you are missing in your calculations the ammount of principal you have to pay after you sell the helicopter. that will increase your hourly cost. regards

By: ~Buzz

~Buzz — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:23:21 +0000

Hi Maria, I’ve been contemplating the same thing you’ve already accomplished! I’m interested in your transition time to the R44…how long was that process for you, and what was the most challenging aspect? Do you recommend starting to train in a ’22′ before moving to a ’44′, or if you had to do it over, and cost was no object, would you start with the R44? Having said that, do you think you are a better (more responsive) pilot having learned in the R22?

~Buzz (Portsmouth, NH)

By: Maria

Maria — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:52:33 +0000

Paul, am contacting you by e-mail.

A note to everyone else: I don’t own the R22 that’s for sale. I sold it to the guy who is now selling it. It’s listed on Trade-A-Plane.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:23:13 +0000

My brother is buying a R22…
I would like to contact Maria
Paul
Washington DC

By: Maria

Maria — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:02:18 +0000

I bought a 1999 R22 Beta II and used it for my commercial training. (I already had my private ticket.) As you know, you have to build a lot of time and you really don’t need it to be dual. I wound up building over 1,000 hours in my R22 over 4 years before selling it and buying a factory-new R44 Raven II (which I still own and fly). My cost to operate the R22 (back then) was about $85 wet. It’s probably closer to $100/hour now.

I should mention here that the flight school still wanted $75/hour dual IN MY AIRCRAFT. I think that’s obscene, but they wanted to maintain the same profit per hour that they got on a regular dual flight. You could probably get a much cheaper rate for instructor only if you went directly to a qualified CFI.

Personally, I think this plan can work IF you get several folks together in a partnership. It’s tough to plunk down $100K or more (or finance it) for a used R22 and then deal with the $2K-$5K of annual maintenance and $4K-$8K of annual insurance costs. But with 3 or 4 folks splitting the tab, I think it’s doable. Be sure to come up with a contract for all partners. There’s a great book out that discusses aircraft partnership — my husband found it invaluable when he set up a 2-owner partnership in his plane.

BTW, my R22 is for sale again, if you know anyone who wants to buy one. I sure wish I could buy it back, but the guy put new blades on it (there was an AD 3 weeks after I sold; talk about luck) and now wants $20K more than I sold it for in 2004. It’s a good little ship and I miss it. The R22 is a great one-person helicopter — even though it has two seats.

By: Pilot Mike

Pilot Mike — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 03:09:12 +0000

I have been working on my calculations and have made several revisions. I hope to post an article with my findings sometime soon.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 04:38:35 +0000

I would love to see a follow-up post with your calculations. I’ve had a really hard time getting the flight time per year to offset the fixed costs.

By: Kris Johnson

Kris Johnson — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 23:40:00 +0000

At the place where I took my helicopter discovery flight (http://www.prestigehelicopters.com/), the lessons are free if you buy a helicopter from them. Of course, a new helicopter isn’t exactly cheap, but lessons at no additional cost is worth quite a bit.