Find out all the details after the jump.

Assumptions

1. 10% down payment
2. Pathfinder insurance
3. You have desire to administer (paperwork, etc) all aspects of owning your own aircraft
4. You are okay with flying your own (brand new) helicopter for your initial training
5. Acquisition January 1 of year 1 and sale of aircraft on December 31 of year 5
6. Flight time of at least 100 hours per year
7. Inculdes some cost for a CFI in year 1 and recurrent training (you may need more or less)

Robinson R22 Ownership Cost Calculation

Disclaimer: This information is strictly hypothetical and should not be relied upon as advice to help you with your specific situation. Each aircraft purchase situation is unique and must be analyzed by professionals including, but not limited to, an attorney and tax professional licensed to practice in your area.

If you are interested in the actual spreadsheet so you can customize your own figures, please contact me.

Let me know what you think!

A few days ago, on the heals of the ENG helicopter crash in Phoenix, there was amazing video of an apparent engine failure on Bell 206 Jet Ranger Helicopter for the FOX station in Dallas-Fort Worth. The video shows them en-route when you can clearly hear an alarm tone — most likely the engine failure warning — go off in the cockpit. It sounds like the helicopter rolled after landing on some uneven ground. Everyone got out and there were only minor injuries. In a helicopter you only have a few seconds to: realize the failure, start the autorotation, get turned into the wind if possible, pick a safe landing site, and hopefully walk away. More details and links after the jump!

Here are a few video links if you want to see some video.

Raw Helicopter Footage:

http://www.wfaa.com/video/wfaageneral-index.html?nvid=162777

Helicopter Pilot Explanation of an autorotation:
http://www.wfaa.com/video/index.html?nvid=162772

Note: The WFAA site has lots of ads and if you have a seeded hosts file you’ll need to disable it to see the video. Make sure you delete your browsing history including your cookies after you view the video.

Despite these recent ENG helicopter stories, it does not deter me from wanting to someday be a helicopter pilot. I guess it’s a pilot thing.

It just so happened that I was out in the Los Angeles area for a training conference with 10,000 other network engineers and I realized how close to the factory we were going to be. A co-worker and pilot friend of mine and I decided to skip lunch on Tuesday and go take the tour in Torrance. Keith is not much of a helicopter person per se, but I’ll keep working on it. Full write-up after the jump!

The factory was in a “low key” industrial part of town and just as the AOPA article points out there is not much noise. I observed lots of people working hard and their efforts turning out about 2 or 3 helicopters per day.

The tour took began with us right out to the assembly area. No pictures were allowed until we visited the delivery area, however, the AOPA article online has a few good manufacturing pictures.

The blade assembly area was pretty cool. In this area the tour stops and they demonstrate how a small sheet of aluminum honeycomb is stretched the entire length of the blade to give it strength. Engineering is so cool… One thing I did note is several racks of much wider blades — blades that were much larger than the current R44 blades. The tour guide claimed to not know any specifics about them, but I would wager a guess they are most likely for the new Robinson R66 turbine powered helicopter due sometime in the next couple of years.

The overhaul area, the next stop, was very busy. The tour stops here for you to sit in and look at several helicopters that are in for some type of maintenance work, however, still no pictures. A test pilot was in the area and stopped to answer questions. It is evident that Robinson employees are passionate about their helicopters. No question from the tour group went unanswered.

In the connecting building, which is next on the tour, you see the manufacturing area. Here raw materials are milled into 85% of the parts that go into the current Robinson models. This is done to control production, parts supply and the very tight tolerances to which these parts are manufactured. It was amazing to see all the precision machines working to make all sorts of parts.

Next stop, the delivery area — finally. Here about 15 helicopters were waiting and all ready to be picked up from the factory. All North American deliveries are flown from the Torrance plant. We got to see all sorts of R22 and R44 helicopters in various configurations. We were also lucky enough to be taking our tour during a Robinson Safety Course week. There were lots of helicopters doing auto-rotations and flying to and from the Robinson flight line. I could have sat and watched for hours…

The final stop was the international shipping area where three out of four helicopters are taken apart and shipped in two large wooden crates overseas. Depending on the destination, some go by sea and some by air. The tour concludes with returning your visitor badge, safety glasses and receiving a commemorative R22 lapel pin.

If you are ever within a close drive of Torrance, Robinson Factory Tours are offered on Tuesday and Thursday at 1PM local. (Be sure to call the factory ahead of time and reserve a spot) I highly recommend it and my non-helicopter pilot friend Keith even enjoyed it. I think it was well worth skipping lunch and I can now thank Frank Robinson and his staff for my renewed excitement of someday adding the words rotorcraft-helicopter to my pilots license.

I welcome your questions and comments.

Read about what advice a local CFI gave me about my “plan” after the jump.

I decided to fire off a late night email to Jesse Sherwood, owner and flight instructor for Executive Helicopter Solutions in Olathe, Kansas to get his opinion. I explained what options I was considering and he came back with an excellent recommendation — one I had not considered. Get the Commercial and CFI in the airplane then come back and do a commercial add-on rating in the helicopter. Since doing the private helicopter add-on will take 40-60 hours of flight time in the Robinson R22, Jesse indicated it would be faster to combine some of this training towards the 50 hours required for a commercial ticket in helicopters. Then when I am done I can maybe flight some revenue generating flights (sightseeing, photography, etc) Makes sense to me!

Sounds like I have a plan! I have already started cracking the books on the CFI and Commercial material for the airplane but plan to follow it up with the commercial helicopter. I can’t wait to get started! I’ll have to put my Robinson R22 POH and Training manual away for a little while (sigh). Guess I also need to update my budget and get my wife onboard with the new plan. I will keep everyone posted on my progress. Maybe I can sleep better tonight…

Read about my evaluation of purchasing vs renting a Robinson R22 after the jump.

One thing that has kept me from getting my license since that introduction flight in 2003 was the huge cost of helicopter rental. With rental rates $200/hr range, I had a hard time justifying the expense of adding that rating. I’ve read a lot of books on helicopter flying, but unless I can instruct in the helicopter (or come across a huge inheritance to at least get started), it was looking grim.

Last night unable to sleep, I had a “light bulb” moment — maybe I can buy a Robinson R22 and use it for training — then when finished I can keep the helicopter! As I began working on a spreadsheet, I needed some key figures including insurance costs etc. Two hours later, after working the numbers every way I could think possible, I decided that renting the R22 would be about the same cost. Renting that R22 would be much easier then purchasing one in my situation unless I found a good partner or two. Insurance is huge. Unless you have a lot of time in helicopters expect to pay about $10,000/year in hull/liability insurance. If anyone has any other (legal) ways they financed a R22 (especially for training), please let me know. Oh well. Back to bed I went…

Update 04-2007: The numbers change quite a bit if you calculate operating cost for training then selling after, say, year 5. I’ve had several people also email me and said that Pathfinder Insurance in the Bahamas will insure for between $6,000 and $8,500. Philip Greenspun’s review of his 2005 Robinson R22 says the same thing.

Update 09-2007: I’ve made a post here with some sample cost calculations.