Always loved helicopters. All that potential violence harnessed and sitting motionless in space as herculean forces are perfectly balanced.
In 1995 I got a new boss, and along with him we also got a new Chairman of the Board, as a turn-around artist was brought in to save our company . My new boss was a rich guy who had retired, then got bored and came back to work. Our new chairman was a guy who had made a bundle in the helicopter business and then transformed himself into a turnaround guy, with our company being his 29th "save".
The new chairman was Stan Hiller. Yep, that Stan Hiller.
The new boss, a retired self-made rich guy who got bored and re-entered the workforce, had a 206, a Schwietzer (which he pulled around on a homemade trailer behind his motorhome as he was getting bored) a Beaver, and a Fairchild Merlin (short Metro).
New boss gave me some illegal (I didn't know at the time) and unlogged hours in the helis and the planks. Planks were ok, but basically hrs of boredom, then some fun as you land. Helis were a blast.
Boss only lasted a year, when you are a rich guy you don't take crap from the Board of Directors. He quit, and took his toys with him.
Inspired by Stan's flying platform, in 1996 I started work on a quadcopter. 4 chainsaw motors, 3 axis gyros, gps and thrust vectoring and killing vanes for control. By '99 I had it flying well, and intended to scale it up with VW bug motors and use it as a transport/drone for "heli" skiing. It would carry me to the top, then follow me down as I skied through the untracked powder to carry me back up.
Wife threatened divorce and meant it, so abandoned project. Ex-boss said "If you make that out of electric motors that would be a really cool toy" I said, naw, nobody would buy that. That's why he was a rich guy, and I am not.
The chainsaw quad copter still hangs in my garage as testimony to my stupidity.
2009, next boss dies of ALS. I get battlefield promo to CEO. Kids are grown, debts paid off, got some money to fly. Wife not with program....every movie she has seen helis catch fire and crash.
2014, rupture Achilles, takes two surgeries to fix it. Driving to Boise with wife, foot in cast propped on dash of the suburban, flatbed passes us with an AStar on back, followed by a fuel truck. Truck says "Wasatch Powder Cowboys" on the door. I mutter "GD it, those guys are gonna have more fun in the next day then I'm gonna have in the next year"
Wife says "I'm sick of you whining and moping around the house. Go take helicopter lessons, I don't care if you get killed."
Cast comes off, HELI LESSONS!!!!! Instructor never noticed for the first 5 months I was pushing the left pedal with my heel.
So now, I'm 250 hrs on the R44. Great business tool, also use it for bird hunting and yes, some skiing.
Contrary to VF and the rest of the PPRUNE world predictions, no close calls yet in the Robbie. But the wife has never heard of PPRUNE, nor will she. And I get the Robbie bashing. Just don't have a viable alternative in anywhere close price range. So I don't fly turbulence.