My solution was to sell all my toys, buy an R22, rent it to the school I was with and fly myself as often as possible.
The Heli was in pristine condition, its owner only sold it because the 10 yr rebuild was 22 months away.It had 800 hrs remaining of the (then) 2000 hr life.
I was lucky - No major costs, rental income paid for insurance and because the Heli became well known for being a nice one it was easy to sell. Adverts in Helidata get the phone ringing like crazy. Spring/summer in UK = big market for an R22. (Only buy a Beta if you have the choice.)
I sold it with 480 hrs remaining and dropped only 2k on the original price.I had spent around 5k on fuel and so on.
160 hrs in my book = 7k. Want some? Buy one!
