Thanks for the replies everyone.
wokkaboy - it does indeed seem like a good flying carrer, and a one which I'd love to look further into.
At the moment, theres no way that I could self fund to commercial and ATPL level, at least at the moment. I'll take a look into the Bristow Helicopters scheme, which sounds a very good option.
The slighty stupid thing is, with the help of my parents, I'm about to (re)start my fixed wing PPL training - I can't afford to tie myself down to helicopters at the moment. I assume this wouldn't cause a problem with an interview at Bristow Helicopters, would it - there isn't some kind of prejudice againsts fix winger's is there?
Also, does anyone have any idea of the annual intake at Bristow Helicopters?
Luckily time is on my side - I'm 17 with a year left of full time school education. Then I'll probably be off to university.
Anyway, thanks very much everybody.
John.