Leaseback
If money is no object keep it at home!
Unfortuantly most owners of 44s only seem to fly abour 50hrs a year, and come the annual end up paying between 4 to 6 K for work carried out, due to S/Bs and leaking hydraulic actuators due to lack of use. Combined with ever increasing insurance costs, owners are seriously looking at getting a little back with self fly hire.
I am sure you could find 1 or 2 local guys who would like to use your machine and treat it with care rather than putting it out to a school.
Most instructors dont care about the machine that they are flying, they never put the covers back on or clean them, then end up doing run on landings, autos to the ground etc etc that basically end up with you having to pay large bills, letting students start the machine and warm it up whilst they finish their coffee! Student overspeeds the engine on start up! Owner ends up with a 40k bill.
I could go on and on! 44s are going out at £150hr dry in a few places at the moment!
I put my R22 out to a select few guys at £110 dry and the guys treat it as their own and I have had no problems, it keeps my costs down whilst burning the hours off that I could never fly.
Avoid flying schools as they are all nearly on their arse and will put you at the bottom of the food chain re payments for hire.
Good luck with your choice, I feel that everyone is feeling the pinch and if you can have a local syndicate or non equity group more people will be able to enjoy the enjoyment of flying helicopters, but unfortuantly the kudos of having it on the drive seems to win!
PB