Original Message

I flew twins in the GOM and it gave me a great sense of comfort knowing I had two engines. Then I took a job flying a 206 in south Alabama. Some of our flights were late at night, over some heavily wooded state forests and other sparsely populated areas...meaning friggin' *DARK*.  Guess what, people turn their house lights off after midnight.  And with motion-sensor porch lights, even those are off.  So I'd fly along, thinking about an engine failure and the old, "turn the landing light on/turn the landing light off" joke. Then I thought about a tail rotor failure...or a trans chip light with secondary indications...or some of the other problems that might necessitate a landing RIGHT NOW.  

Then I didn't worry so much about the engine failing anymore. 

Turbine engines are an order of magnitude more reliable than piston engines of old.  Olderndirt talks about the redundancy that twins bring, and he's right.  But there's still only one transmission, and one tail rotor. If something hasn't already gone wrong, it's about to.  Solution: I don't fly helicopters at night over dark, inhospitable terrain anymore. I was asking for trouble so much, I'm surprised it didn't find me.