Bell 407 vs 206-L ride

[Joseph-Sherman]

How is the ride or feel of the 407 vs 206-L?

Also vibration comparison?

How do they compare period?

Any opinion which might be better?

Which is the better work horse disregarding creature comfort?

Not worried about cushy seats.

[Dnr032]

I have a couple thousand hours in both L4's and 407's and I have no idea how to begin to answer such open-ended, pure opinion type of questions....

 

Good luck in your quest. It is obvious, from this post and your previous post about medivac operations, that you have very little experience with helicopters. I strongly suggest that you use a good deal of your money to hire an experienced pilot. The FAA accident data base is full of owner-pilots who had more money than pilot skills.

 

"Budget not a problem."

[Nearly Retired]

Yeaahhhh...talk about unanswerable questions...

 

A nicely-tuned L-model is as smooth as any helicopter can be expected to be.

How do they compare? Well, it's safe to say that the 407 is going to be more expensive to purchase and operate. But it can carry more...so...

 

Which one is "better" or the better "workhorse?" Hmm. At what? Too many variables. They're both great helicopters. But so is the Astar.

 

It all depends on what you need it for, and what you plan to do with it, how big your wallet is, and how wide your hangar door is. There really isn't one singular definitive answer.

[Eric Hunt]

2-blade versus 4-blade

teeter Vs rubber

skinny Vs fatter

slower Vs faster

FCU Vs FADEC

cheap Vs expensive

 

But they will both take an inexperienced pilot (and passengers) nicely to their graves under the wrong circumstances, which is when most SAR missions take place.

[cherminator]

I wish the passenger seats were removable/foldable in either of these helicopters. They would be so much more versatile. The Airbus H125 and H130 (AS350/EC130) are much more useful in this respect.

[Wally]

Never even sat in a 407, but I. Love. The. Long. Ranger. Series. Not as fast as a 407 (widely acknowledged) but much easier to fly to a satisfactory landing engine out (also, I believe, widely acknowledged). Not Huey easy but pretty near.

 

My ex-employer of 15 years moved away from Astars in their single engine fleet a couple years ago to 407s. The pilots generally liked them: at the local altitudes and temps, they had more power than the 350B2s; were faster than Astars; had fewer CG issues; and easy to fly. Not that Astars (and 130s) are 'hard to fly' they are different in small control techniques.

 

But the rumor is that the 407s are much more expensive and difficult to support. That should be taken with a couple grains of salt, the company was used to Astars and had a great depth of experience with them. They are mid-50s tractor simple machines. On the other hand, my previous employer, also a 3 letter company but in the GoM, uses 407s preferentially to other air frames in that class.

 

to cherminator:

AS350/H125(?)/Astar seats are foldable/removable. If you have the old fashioned aft cabin bench seats that fold off the wall, remove and stow the pads in a baggage compartment, loose the Dzus (cam lokcs?) on the seat support columns and the legs fold against the seat base which folds against the wall, held there by a strap that snaps onto the cabin bulkhead.

Some more recent air frames have aft seats mounted to a rail on the bulkhead, easily remove but harder to stow and then replace.

Pilot/copilot seats are even easier to remove, a couple pins on the buttons in the seat track adjustment rail and they lift right out. I never removed a pilot/copilot seat without maintenance supervision, but it is dead easy.

 

The 130s I looked at were similar, except all the company 130s had aft bulkhead rail mounts for the seats.

 

Some/all of these may or may not be allowed by your GOM or require maintenance supervision. The after seat pins and camlocks are small and easy to lose, amongst other things.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Wally

[cherminator]

 

to cherminator:

AS350/H125(?)/Astar seats are foldable/removable. If you have the old fashioned aft cabin bench seats that fold off the wall, remove and stow the pads in a baggage compartment, loose the Dzus (cam lokcs?) on the seat support columns and the legs fold against the seat base which folds against the wall, held there by a strap that snaps onto the cabin bulkhead.

Some more recent air frames have aft seats mounted to a rail on the bulkhead, easily remove but harder to stow and then replace.

Pilot/copilot seats are even easier to remove, a couple pins on the buttons in the seat track adjustment rail and they lift right out. I never removed a pilot/copilot seat without maintenance supervision, but it is dead easy.

 

The 130s I looked at were similar, except all the company 130s had aft bulkhead rail mounts for the seats.

 

Some/all of these may or may not be allowed by your GOM or require maintenance supervision. The after seat pins and camlocks are small and easy to lose, amongst other things.

 

Yes I know the seats are foldable/removable in the H125/EC130(I used to own one). I said I wish the seats where foldable/removable in the Bell 407/206-L

[Wally]

 

Yes I know the seats are foldable/removable in the H125/EC130(I used to own one). I said I wish the seats where foldable/removable in the Bell 407/206-L

 

I think all the seats are sitting on fuel tanks....

[SBuzzkill]

Having flown 4 main rotor and 2 main rotor Bells I can say a few thing about them.

 

I prefer the 4 blade in turbulence/mountains and any time I need extra agility/maneuverability.

 

I prefer the 2 blade for rotor inertia, forgiveness, and stability compared to the 4 blade birds.

 

Both of them can be just as smooth as the other and likely just as reliable.