I hope this post is going into the right thread, and that I get a little bit of feedback. I was reluctant to start a new thread being a new guy, and given that my questions are probably nothing new. I'll try to be brief. It's worth mentioning now, that I'm pursuing instruction purely for pleasure.
I've wanted to fly helicopters for as long as I can remember, and though I started flying fixed wing and got 30-odd hours into things, my heart wasn't in it, and all I wanted to do was get behind a cyclic. I approached Biggin Hill helicopters a while ago and got a couple of trial lessons in their 500, and got a couple of trial flights in R22s at other schools. Given that that my goal was to be qualified and competent in a 500 (no reason - I just love how they look/sound/go etc) and ultimately buy a 500 or a share in one, discussions with BHH resulted in my deciding to block buy 100 hours in a 500 and do all of my training in that. Deposit paid, that's all she wrote on the BHH side of things, as they now seem to have gone the way of the Marie Celeste.
So. I had thought about training in NZ. Not because it's cheap, but because in my naievety, I thought it would be quiet there, scenic, that I could make it a holiday as I've never been but always wanted to go, that I'd get a break from my mobile 'phone and that I would find a smallish school offering relaxed but relatively intense one-to-one tuition. I got in touch with Heliflight, and Daneka there got back to me with costs and syllabus details, but told me they've 40 students on the go at the moment - so...quiet it isn't. Reading here, it seems that NZ is up to its balls in helicopters and everyone trains there. I wasn't keen on the 'States because I was worried about getting put on a conveyor course where no-one would remember my name (or I theirs), and whilst Oz is interesting, no-one there has answered my emails yet so I'm thinking they must be busier than NZ. Counting against the US as well, is that it's apparently impossible to do anything in a turbine there without taking the entire administrative staff of the school with you in case you fly off with it or crash it or something. No doubt they're hung on this issue by liability insurance issues.
What I'd like to find, is a smallish outfit where there is access to a Hughes 500 and an instructor who can fly it like the devil himself. Once hopefully through the PPL(H), I wanted to do as much diverse flying as possible and some additional courses (night/mountains/low-level) as I'm already concerned about being as trained, proficient, experienced and competent as I can possibly be before letting anyone I know near me when I fly one of these things. My post might read very blase, but I'm serious when it comes to mastering anything about which I'm passionate. I'm the same with my cars, and in the pursuit of proficiency have trained with anyone/everyone, do trackdays, regular pilgrimages to the 'Ring, have done some club racing etc etc. Back to helos; I'm happy to train initially on a 300 as I believe it's an easyish machine to transition to a 500 in.
I don't mind where in the World I have to go so long as the weather's nice and I get to feel like I'm on holiday. It would be nice if it was somewhere pretty, and some decent wimmin wouldn't exactly kill the situation I suppose.
If there's a brilliant guy in the UK on 500s, that's of interest to me as well, as I'm not totally prejudiced against training in the UK - as I mentioned above, I'd already decided to go with BHH as I figured it made sense to train where I'd ultimately be flying. To that end, getting an overseas PPL(H) and coming back to the UK to transition and do additional training in the 500 is definitely an option. I'm not loaded, btw. All of this represents a sizeable commitment from finite resources, but falls under the category of 'I could be dead tomorrow', so I'll spend what's needed.
Can anyone offer advice here please? With many thanks in advance.
Col
