Don't buy ANYTHING before you start. Find out what you need as you go along and what works best for you.
Everyone says you HAVE to have sunglasses, don't they. But I hate the damn things and never wear them. I finally bought a pair the year I was instructing fulltime, as I was getting headaches. But if I'm doing less flying that that - ie less than 4-5 hours a day - I don't bother.
Kneeboards? I like them - you can write lots of stuff in advance, and if you have the ones with pockets, you can have everything to hand (eg sunglasses!). Some pilots hate them and I even knew an instructor who told all his students categorically that they shouldn't use one...how's that for insisting everyone does things your way!
I'm almost never seen a flying school helicopter that doesn't have headsets in it.
So get started, and take it from there. The only thing you'll really need, starting at this time of year, with the weather as it's likely to be in Northern Europe, is patience....
