Enstrom Helicopters

[cougar6903]

Anyone have time in a Enstrom F28 series? How are they as primary trainers?

 

[Crimson03]

Expensive. At KLEB an enstrom is $325 an hour, I do not know if that is the usual going rate or not.
PS I've never flown one.

 

[cougar6903]

Is $325 for a turbine Enstrom? I've seen some 1970's F28's selling for less than $60K. Had pretty low TT (1500) and good time left on the components.

 

[scarface]

I flew the F 28c briefly in the mid 70's, in a non instructional environment, and found it to be relatively easy. I had never flown a manual throttle helicopter, being Navy trained we flew TH 57s and TH-1Ls in helo transition, and had little trouble making the transition. No, I'm not insinuating I'm a super jock; average at best. It seemed to have a low inertia rotor head so autos would be interesting.

 

[pilot737]

I have logged about 3K hours in Enstrom's with all of it in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Many of those hours were in the mountains in support of forest fires and mountain winter snow survey's. I have extensive experience with fish and game work, wild horse round-ups, search and rescue etc. The machine only has about 5 parts that have specific hours for replacement. The Enstrom is the finest piston helicopter in the world hands down. In all those hours the Enstrom's never let me down even once. The most important thing is to have all maintainence work done only by a factory certified mechanic. (someone who has attended a factory school) I do have a few very tragic stories where this was not the case and owners paid with their lives.

 

[helimech]

Two Words for the F28................ MAINTENANCE HOG!!! That's why they cost so much for training. For regular personal flying.... they are spectacular, but if they are trainers..... watch out!!! As pilot737 stated, Definately make sure the mechanic taking care of the ship knows what they are doing. Other than that he is also right about them being relatively easy to fly, they are rugged, but they should have never been used for training. I don't know what it is, but i have 2 in the shop right now, one trainer and the other not, both owned by the same person, and the trainer is a Piece o junk. And $325 sounds about right. My customer charges 390 with an instructor, so it's pretty close.

 

[GVFlyer]

I flew the F 28c briefly in the mid 70's, in a non instructional environment, and found it to be relatively easy. I had never flown a manual throttle helicopter, being Navy trained we flew TH 57s and TH-1Ls in helo transition, and had little trouble making the transition. No, I'm not insinuating I'm a super jock; average at best. It seemed to have a low inertia rotor head so autos would be interesting.

Scarface was HMLA 367, were you in that outfit?

GV

 

[scarface]

Actually scarface used to be HML 367; I was in that outfit.

 

[GVFlyer]

Scarface

Actually scarface used to be HML 367; I was in that outfit.

Do you know John O'Meara? (Are you at ABEX?)

GV






~

 

[scarface]

I was a Transition Pilot at HML 267 when O'Meara was an IP. He had returned from RVN when I met him; but he had an outstanding rep as a load hacker and a real stick. Not the most PC person you'll meet, and I mean that in the most positive way.
I've been at ABX for 19 years and since they won't let me fly Hueys anymore I've had to settle for the 767, which has put me into advanced PMS.