I got excited when I saw something about helicopters. There are hardly ever any articles about helicopters on HN. I have a commercial helicopter license and almost 900 hours of combined helicopter and airplane flight time. If any extra rich people in the bay area or Sacramento want to buy a heli I will be your personal pilot available 24/7. Helis can go almost anywhere. I love to fly but it is hard to fly them unless you have a lot of money. You can get a used Robinson R-44 4 seater for about $500k. Maintenance and insurance are expensive but no insurance is required if you pay cash. Let me know.
i did an open door heli flght in Kauai, Hawaii - as well as an over night Tokyo ride. Both were unforgettable. And I'm definately done dancing with the devil!
I'm not sophisticated enough to know for sure, but I wouldn't give that much extra credit for airplane hours. For example, if I thought that 500 helicopter hours was sufficient to entrust my life to someone, I wouldn't take someone with 300, just because he had 200 (or even 300 or 400) hours flying a completely different type of craft.
If it were going in the other direction, I might be more likely to be accommodating, since my sense is that helicopters are harder to master than airplanes. But I'm no expert here, and I would definitely ask around to see if my understanding is correct.
If I were to say combined 5 years of professional experience in rust + C++, employers would definitely want to see the breakdown, unless they really don't care if it's 0+5.
I think there’s a certain point at which you are considered safe to fly by yourself? Most commercial pilots seem to have hundreds to thousands of hours of combined flying time.
> I love to fly but it is hard to fly them unless you have a lot of money.
I have a comfortable amount of money, and I have been certified to fly some small airplanes, including one turbojet model, yet helicopters still elude me - it's just so much harder. Much respect to you sir.
