It would be so much fun to fly a helicopter and I bet that ladies take kindly to a man with a helicopter.
i'm married so only one lady for me! @pulsar i used to live in uk but moved to usa to learn to fly as it worked out about 1/2 the price. never looked back. the uk is more expensive because of the petrol prices i guess. are you still flying? you should keep it up if you can. best thing i ever done!
Britain is world’s favourite country, say pollsters But Brits are boring while Yanks are ignorant By Paul Hales in Jerusalem: Tuesday 21 February 2006, 14:24 POLLSTERS RECKON that there’s no better "brand" than Britain when it comes to being a country. But despite being reckoned the top place to invest or to visit or indeed to emigrate to, Britain’s notional value in terms of pounds, shillings and cents is less than that of the USA, Japan or Germany. The value of Brand USA is reckoned at $18 trillion whereas Brand UK is in 4th spot in the brand value league table, pinned at $3.5 trillion (£2 trillion). The Anholt Nation Brands Index (NBI) is complied on results of an Internet survey of some 25,907 people in 35 countries. Tina Louise, European marketing director, for Global Market Insite, Inc, reckons Internet-based research means "we can now collect and measure global opinions about people and places incredibly quickly and accurately." So, evidently if you’re not online your opinions don’t count. Aside from evaluating the countries in terms of investment or culture, respondents were also asked to assess the inhabitants of the various countries. According to this assessment, UK citizens are considered to be the most polite, most boring and best educated, while the French are seen as the rudest and Americans are the most ignorant and most ambitious. Here’s the top ten: 1. UK 2. Switzerland 3. Canada 4. Italy 5. Sweden 6. Germany 7. Japan 8. France 9. Australia 10. United States And here’s the L'INQ to http://www.nationbrandindex.com http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29824
ireland - that makes interesting reading, i guess this world is made up of many different people with many different opinions. i lived in UK for 30 years & i hated it. i have been in usa for 3 years now & do not find the americans ignorant (not been to new york yet however lol) i guess all counries have their boring & ignorant people. i love the usa though. not wanting to get into politics but the uk is way overtaxed, it seems the government are doing ALL they can to stop people driving yet are not offering any alternatives. they are putting up speed cameras every 100yards & the british people are overcharged for evrything - did you know that bassets liquorice allsorts are made in uk then some are shipped to france & it is cheaper to buy them in france than in the country where they are made? it doesnt make sense. this is to name but a few problems - believe me i could fill your servers with hates about uk lol. (i am not even going to mention the lousy weather! rain rain rain oops wasn't going to mention it lol anyway ireland where are you from (ireland i am guessing) in my opinion the uk is a nice place to visit but a horrible place to live but thats just my opinion. @pulsar took about 3 months to get to private pilot that was training 2 - 4 hours a day 5 - 6 days a week.
i just rent, you can rent an R22 for $190 an hour here in usa thats about 100 pounds. maybe one day i will get my own. i am thinking of opening a fight school here.
no i was never in army or anything. (i wanted to but got married young) i wish i did go into the forces as i had to pay privatly to learn to fly
my favorite part? hmmmm it is all fun, i have always been interested in aviation since a was a young boy (my father worked at an airport), it is no nice to work doing something that you are passionate about & get paid to do it, to wake up every morning & want to go to work is something i never used to do (i used to be in the motor trade & most of the time hated going to work). flying over florida coastline is also a good part of it, things look totally different from 500 ft up. you can look down into the ocean & see dolphins, mantees, rayfish & sharks this is something i had never experienced in my life. it is also fun to fly over the everglades & hover over the alligators. helicopter flying is something i never thought i would acheieve, but am so glad i did it. the best feeling in the world is when you do your first solo & realize that it is all you & there is no instructor there. (at first scary but then adrenelin kicks in.)
someone did ask how long it took to get a licence?? yep i am lucky & know that i am, it did cost me a lot of money to start off, but worth it in the end like i said it's the best office i ever had
In the UK you need a minimum of 40hrs flying time to take the test. A lot of Brits get their hours in the US (half the cost of UK) You can then take your FAA licence, but to fly in the UK you need a CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) licence. This is as far as the rules were when I accrued my hours a few years ago. I think the cost in the US is $7000-$8000. In the UK most people take 50 hrs & £9500-£10000 to pass.
in the usa it is a minimum of 45 hours before you can take your license. although they say the average pilot takes 60 hours at about $200 per hour so can cost up to $9000. pulsar is correct that you will have to go back & take a CAA (now JAA) test for europe which from what i have looked into is basically a lot of ground school (so should cost too much to convert). i took a career pilot program which is private,instrument,commercial, & CFI which cost about $45,000, it is a lot to spend out but i consider it as in investment as you will soon earn it back once you begin working. one guy i knew bought an r22 before he started flying, then leased it back to the flight school (so he was getting paid when he wasn't using it) he would just pay an instructor to teach him in his own helicopter so just had to pay the instructor & gas. at the end of his training he had saved paying out on rental helicopters got money back from leasing back & ended up with his own helicopter. i dont know how much he saved but i'm sure it was a lot & i wish i had thought of doing it. if you have the money this would be a good option. even if you just learn to fly for fun it would be well worth the money, it is such a great experience & there is nothing better than sitting around bored on a saturday afternoon then deciding to just go rent a helicopter & fly for an hour! makes life more interesting lol. i would recommend it to anyone. PULSAR KEEP IT UP! you will never regret it.
