PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Recreational pilots - why did you choose helicopter
Old 15th Mar 2020, 18:33
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Hilico
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Harwich
Age: 65
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I had wanted to fly a helicopter since I was three, when someone gave me a yellow plastic S-51 - it wasn’t ‘what’s this thing?’, it was ‘ah, this is what I want’. There was no question of ever being able to afford it. Got my fixed-wing PPL at 19, realised I couldn’t fly to work or indeed anywhere else without a runway, and it soon lapsed.

in 2002, earning well as an IBM programmer, I managed to afford an hour a month even in addition to raising a young family, until halfway through that year when the customer decided they could manage without me. Progress was rapid (as I thought about heli flying all the time anyway) until the plug got pulled.

The very occasional adventure apart, I knew I would never get to do any flying and was quite contentedly resigned to it. Then in the space of a week, just before I was sixty, my wife died of the heart disease we never knew she had. Suddenly at age 60 I had three pensions coming in (while still doing a full-time job I thoroughly enjoy), life insurance money, and not much to spend it on (even once I’d seen the kids right).

I did not even have to think about it. The three-year old was going to get his wish, and in an R-44, too. Ever since then I have been shaking my head in disbelief that I get to do this.

We could blame whoever gave me that yellow plastic Dragonfly I suppose, but essentially I love flying and only rotary feels right. Anything else would be a mistake.
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