Original Message

I don't ever hear about 206's doing mountain rescues (real mountains, mind you). A-Stars are used almost exclusively in Nepal (and it's not because Airbus makes a cheaper product). Cabin space and overall visibility is better. Have 3000hrs in Bell 206/407 and only 100 in the 130. HATED flying the 130, but all the above are true. A-Star/130 (basically same aircraft) are stupidly designed plastic pieces of crap, BUT the cabin and cargo space is unreal and I loved the amazing visibility. I do miss the no warm-up time and 30 second cooldown time as well. Still don't understand how Allison, Rolls-Royce, and others can't figure out how to make their engine designs capable of doing that after all these years. I know 1 minute and 2 minutes aren't long but after you've done it in an A-Star or 130 it sucks to go backwards when getting in a Bell. Not sure how Airbus maintains such poorly written RFMs, poorly designed latches, poorly designed/located foot-step/hand-held, dash layout, button layout and location, etc. What a dumb helicopter.