I wrote an article on this for Blades Magazine about two years ago. PM me and I’ll send you a copy. An S300C at USD600/hr is extortionate. You’ll come out better price-wise doing both FAA and JAA (soon to be EASA).
Unlike our JAA licenses, your FAA PPL (H) is quite simple and less expensive to keep. The license doesn’t expire, for an extra £60 you can find an AME to give you both medicals at the same time (Class II lasting 2yrs for 40ish year olds) and you only require a biennial flight review (BFR) every two years. The best bit is the FAA PPL (H) doesn’t have type ratings (and requisite expensive annual LPCs) for each helicopter. All helicopters under 5700kg* are lumped together.
* The “Cut & Paste Brigade” can correct me if the weight limit is incorrect, I didn’t bother to check – it’s from memory