Beyond being more fun to fly, helicopters as just far more useful and enjoyable for flying in the UK or Europe.
It went straight to RW 15 years ago as a PPL(H) and have no desire for a FW license. Maybe, if I lived in Southern Africa or the Canadian Northwest a bush plane would be really fun. However, living in London (like you) I must ask why would anyone want to fly fixed-wing in the UK – it honestly looks pretty grim. Fixed-wing pilots in the UK generally land at small underfunded aerodromes with scant facilities and poor food; if you want good food or an interesting location, you then take a taxi somewhere else. In a helicopter (in the UK and Europe) there are a plethora of places to land by helicopter – hotels/pubs/restaurants/etc. I have never once visited an aerodrome because I wished to visit that specific aerodrome; other than my home base, I only land at other aerodromes if I need fuel.
Additionally (regarding the US posters here), whereas the US has a fantastic fixed-wing private flying community, they barely have any private/recreational helicopter flying community in the US. Living in London, you can find 5-6 places (in under a 1hr drive) to fly/rent a helicopter privately, whereas in the US (though everyone will rent you plane) renting an R44 is always hard work to find one – the usual commercial/military guys have no clue (many don’t even realise a PPL can self-fly-hire a helicopter) as most have never flown a helicopter purely for recreation in the US.
Last edited by RMK; 17th Mar 2020 at 14:37.