To answer the OP accurately. If you want to learn to fly a helicopter there are, imho few choices. I have no experience of Hillers but anyhow they are not an available choice these days, so, No 1 by a long, long country mile tops is Bell 47.
No 2 and 3 - I'd hate to choose between H269 (Hughes 300) or an earlier Enstrom. By preference a straight F28a or maybe at a pinch cheat with a turbocharged F28c. In all cases with no correlator.
I learned on Gazelle. Spoilt! Fabulous beyond imagiation. Then the CAA fcucked up and forced me to do totally unnecessary 30 hr course on the B47 for a CPL.
I learned as much about flying a helo in that short time as the Navy had taught me to Wings level in 65hrs Gazelle time - and thought I had the light helo skillset more or less there. I learned about as much again on a summer season in charter, pipeline and joyriding an the F28A. That 'unnecessary' B47 time served me very well indeed in instilling fundamental procedures and considerations of helo P of F hat the brute power and sophistication of the Gaz had masked or minimalised. Do not be decieved that sophistication in a training helo is an advantage. I'd argue the exact opposite.
But I suppose it depends what you want a PPL for.
All those months of minimal power ops in the B47 and F28 set me up perfectly for dodgy hot, heavy and high bush ops in Africa later in B206s, leave alone the highly questionalble world (performance wise) of Cheltenham, Ascot, Silverstone, gardens in Acton and Guildford, pipeline and powerline surveys beyond normal endurance and charters galore.
Guys, the message is; learn the basics first!
Last edited by meleagertoo; 28th Jun 2023 at 19:09.