I've not posted for ages, no excuse really other than struggling to get the time to fly let along write about it. But I was prompted to blow the dust off Light on the Skids today by an seriously frustrating experience.
I live in the centre of a small city. It's great, but I would really like more space one day - perhaps a garden big enough to land a helicopter.
I've been thinking about that a lot lately. So it was pleasantly surprising to come back from a cancelled Jetranger lesson to see details of a nice looking rural property had popped through my letterbox.
I rang the agent and asked how big the garden was. "Not really big enough for horses," came the reply, and I rather stupidly responded: 'But big enough to land a helicopter." The agent said she'd call back to let me know when I could view the property.
Half an hour later the call came back and said: "I'm afraid there isn't suitable to land a helicopter." Having taken a closer look at the details, which included six photos showing clear rural approaches and enough space for to do a five-aircraft fly-in at the property, I said: "It looks like there is plenty of room to me." At this point the agent confessed that the vendor did not want to sell the property to a helicopter pilot in case it 'upset the neighbours'.
I dug a little deeper and apparently there are already a few other nearby residents who land helicopters in their gardens and that this was a bit of a local issue. Explaining that I didn't even own an aircraft and that I would land in the garden only occasionally had no effect whatsoever - the strength of anti-helicopter feeling was too great for compromise.
So - there you have it, if you are looking for a place big enough to land in the garden just remember not to mention the fact you are a helicopter pilot until the purchase is complete!
Rural country types don't surf! Blow them back to the Stone Age, son.
Posted by: Briggsie | 15 June 2007 at 10:29