Aviation has always been a part of my life ever since I started to earn real money, but I kind of fell into the rotary wing game by accident. First it was skydiving. That was poor man's flying, a hell of good time, with such unbelievable camaraderie. I quickly got a (now obsolete) static line jumpmaster rating (just carbon dated myself
), and then found myself alone with pilots on the way back down to pick up the next load and having an opportunity to sneak a few minutes in flying. As the day job got better and I saved more money I obtained my fixed wing certificate. But this never progressed beyond the odd weekend fling in a C150. Then the career really took front stage, and a few other hobbies to boot, but eventually, after getting injured a few times at some other hobbies, I decided to circle back around to aviation, which was much safer than what I had been doing
As I started to ramp up the effort for refresher training, with serious thoughts about buying an airplane (I had saved quite a bit by then), I happened to notice that there was a helicopter school on the field. I also happened to notice that they had an incredibly inexpensive GroupOn deal: an introductory lesson for only $150! I couldn't pass that up, not even if it only turned out to be a one-shot amusement park ride, which was exactly what I thought it would be. By the time I came back from that ride I knew without any shadow of a doubt that that was what I wanted to fly. It was so much more fun, with the potential for so much more freedom, and so much more challenging, that I was absolutely hooked, much the same as I was after my first parachute jump.
The rest, as they say, is history, as is the money that got spent to get there! I'm actually working casually (i.e. not every day) now as a commercial helicopter pilot, something I probably couldn't really do as commercial fixed wing pilot. So I suppose that might disqualify me as a "recreational pilot". But since there's effectively no money in the kind of commercial flying I'm doing it really is still quasi-recreational. I've just barely started my CFI training. I hope that goes well, I'd really like to be able to teach someday, and it'll be a good gig when I retire from the day job.
I rarely have flights that go paved runway to paved runway, personal or otherwise. I have no aspirations to travel far, and the places and things I get to do locally are much more interesting. My most recent flight had me picking some folks up in their front yard (4 acre field, actually) and landing them on the 2nd fairway of a resort golf course (and reversing that two days later for the return trip). Much more interesting. I get to do a fair bit of personal flying, and in these parts there are many options for dining and other fun that are simply not available to fixed wing pilots. And I can land and take-off from my property as well. Indeed we moved somewhere where that would not be a problem.
But it does take cubic dollars (or pounds, or Euros, etc.) to do it. Let there be no doubt about it. But I know that if I was more mainstream, and had spent the money on say an IR and a Mooney, I'd be flying a LOT less than I am right now, and probably having a lot less fun, too.