Noel Edmonds has quit flying helicopters..
This is mainly for the UK readers.
Shot an ident for Sky the other day with Noel Edmonds. And having heard he flies and own helicopters, I chatted a bit to him about it between takes.
Trained on a Bell 47. He said he'd owned a 206, a Squirrel (single engine) and an Augusta A109, which was his last helicopter. Apparently he flew it a lot between his house in Dorset and Northolt, mainly. He also used Battersea sometimes, he said. He loved the Squirrel the most, since it had so much extra power.
I asked why he got rid of the helicopter and he said he stays most of his time in France now and the communte would be to expensive and long in a helicopter. He also mentioned that he hadn't flown for some time now and when I asked about why, he said:
"You know - I have 4000hrs on helicopters and I've had my license for 23 years - I just recently lost a friend in a crash and I just come to the conclusion that I've kind of done that whole helicopter bit. It was great fun and I don't regret it, but today I'd rather spend the money on a private jet flight".
When I finally asked him if he'd flown the Hughes 500 (he hadn't) or any other type he enjoyed, he said that he'd been invited to fly the Sea King by the navy. Apparently they dropped some dude off in the sea and the instructor took it away and Noel had to fly it back to the drop point in pretty bad weather. He said that was the most challenging fun he'd ever had in a helicopter.