tax efficient
 

Hi K77,

if you are careful and precise in your wording in your Memorandums and Articles and you take Minutes of meetings you have (assuming you run your business within a Ltd company)

training and flying CAN be claimed as an expense.

It's not complex, but you should take sensible advice from an accountant that is sympathetic to your requirements.

The basis of your justification is that

(a) you are NOT commuting to your usual place of work, and instead you have been contracted to go to and from various places in order to do the work you've been asked to do. Then, the fact that you choose to go by air (as opposed to first class rail, taxi, hire car, Smart car) has no relevance to the tax deductibility.

(b) the training is firstly required by law and secondly in the interests of heath and safety.

Watch out for Benefit in Kind - the usual outcome is that you will come to an arrangement with the tax man that nn% of your flying is for personal gain and the the rest is tax deductable. As an owner of a multi-site distribution business, our agreement with HMC&R was 1% personal, and 99% business.

We were satisfied with this outcome.

do check with someone qualified to advise you that knows your circumstances.

you don't have to have a Ltd company, nor does it need to be VAT registered, but it does help.

Whilst I am not doubting that the above poster managed to get PPL(H) training through his business books, may I ask everyone to be very careful with this. This is an unusual allowance and not one I would say would be the norm.

On the whole, training of this nature would not be allowable by HMR&C any more than offsetting learning to drive costs would be!

Getting up to commercial level is different!

Cheers

Whirls

More good advice, thankyou.

PPL-H hours
 

Such a good thread for newbies and as whirls says let hope the pro's on pprune don't get too grumpy!

To add my 2 penny worth....
52 hrs training on R22 to achieve PPL-H with an excellent instructor in Aberdeen.

Dennis -your to blame for my lack of cash! after an hour in an Enstrom with you in the mid 1980's i was hooked and after years on autogyro's i made the leap onto the r22 and never looked back.Great training machine although i now fly the 300cb at Sterling which apart from the cost is even more fun.

Best piece of advice i could offer someone starting their ppl-H is find the right instructor for you and stick with him/her to the end if you can.
I still get the grin everytime i fly and i hope it never stops!

Chaps,

There's some un-nerving comments about the R22 in the thread entitled 'Robinson Helicopters', just wondered if I should have any reservations about training in one?

Bladefrabber, 52 hours, i'm impressed, lets hope I can do it in that!

Knievel

The R22 is an excellent training helicopter and with the right training its as safe as any other.There are certain aspects of its low inertia rotor systm that require good handling skills which if taught correctly in the first place will keep you safe.

Many highly skilled CFI's have thousands of hours on R22's and swear by them as a training platform so don't be put off by everything you read about them.

BG

BG,

Thank you for your reassurance, as in a lot of walks of life one negative comment seems to outweigh a thousand positive comments!

If anyone from my flying school reads this PLEASE don't take it personally, this is purely for my information but what would happen if you block book a whole load of lessons at the reduced rate or you are half way through your training and the school goes out of business............do I have any more come back other than the usual?

Is their any type of insurance to cover this because travelling further afield to another school to complete my training would be out of the question.

Sorry about all of these questions............is it advisable to buy ones own headset or just use the one thats installed in the helicpoter?

Use the ones in the helicopter; having your own headset is more of a fixed wing tradition!

Cheers

Whirls

R22
 

I did my initail training on R22's and then typed on R44.
Still keep current pn both. R22 is a great little 'copter. I have even displayed it now two years running at our Local Members day air show.

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...o/IMG_8274.jpg

At the end of the day as long as you are enjoying yourself the 'copter of choice doesn't matter.


To compare fixed wing, the R22 is for fun like a Piper Cub.
But for touring the R44 is better like a Pipe Warrior.

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g..._photo/125.jpg

Use the ones in the helicopter; having your own headset is more of a fixed wing tradition!

Yes, if you want to go deaf in 15 years time.

Get your own headset. Flight school headsets are invariably cheapo bottom of the range Peltor ones with crap all over them, and god knows what else. Plus if you are flying the Schweizer you will need a decent headset as they are VERY noisy.

Ooooh hush my mouth! I bow down to your superior wisdom!

Cheers

Whirls

Hi there. I Instruct down at Swansea and in 2007 managed to get 8 pilots their PPL/H of these five of them got their licence at 49 hours including their GFT and the one at 39 hrs ( he had a couple of hundred fixed wing hours) the others were around the 55 to 60 hours mark. Hope this is of use to you.

Whirls,

While you're bowing down there... give my shoes a clean eh?

ho ho!

Surprised you didn't ask for something else :rolleyes:

Cheers

Whirls

Great reflection of JRED's shadow in the front corner Ken. Nice pic.

Now did anybody hear the recent call at Denham in a 44 of "5 on board"? Unique, but correct as there was a baby in the back in a rather intriguing safety sling.

Yeah, sorry Whirls, but 'fraid I'm going to have to disagree with you too! :O

I got my own headset - admittedly while I was flying fixed wing first - but I used the adaptor so I could also use it in the helicopters.

Just think about how close you have the boom to your mouth, and think whether you'd like to share whatever the previous users have left all over it.

:oh:

Unless it's different over there? I've never seen anyone here sterilise or clean a headset mike... :hmm:

Of all the heli students I've met, I've only known one who had his own headset and, like you KC, he was originally fixed wing! Plus all helis I've flown already have headsets in them which need to be disconnected and made safe.

Perhaps we're more hygenic in Norfolk?

Cheers

Whirls

Quite possibly Whirls, by the sounds of it! :)