You didn't say whether you want a commercial certificate or not, so ignore the rest as you see fit. I looked into getting a rotary commercial ticket for the hell of it, and discovered that if you have the flxed wing commercial ticket you can credit a lot of hours towards those needed to get the rotary CP. That saves money as fixed wing is a lot cheaper than rotary. This is under the FAA system, which might be similar to Canadian system Nix2709 lives under. So Nix2709, I'd take advice from the other board, but also look into getting a fixed wing commercial ticket first and 'converting', as it might be the best way for you to do it. From what I've heard, in north america the Vietnam guys are starting to retire, so there could be a big demand for helicopter pilots soon. Certainly the places I know about that need helicopter pilots (medevac outfits) are lowering requirements. Helicopters are a lot harder, they appear inherantly unstable to me, whereas fixed wing is inherantly stable. Or I could just be getting old.