To think this was the most dickheadish thing I’ve ever seem

[Getoffmyhelicopter]

Have name changed as this is outing (especially if anyone was also there).

Dh and I went for a break this weekend. Nice country hotel but not like that amazing.

Anyway - a family turned up via helicopter and parked it on the main lawn - so basically left it where everyone was sitting eating dinner/having drinks,

Unsurprisingly a parked helicopter gets quite a lot of attention from children playing on the lawn. As a small child with his mum went to peer into the window the husband came running across (a very long) lawn screaming “DONT TOUCHMY HELICOPTER” kid wasn’t touching it and do t park a fucking helicopter in a huge public space if you don’t want anyone looking at it.

First AIBU to think the guy was an absolute duck and secondly have you ever experienced anything as ridiculous.

@mrsBtheparker

Next time take it's number and call an anonymous drug line saying you suspect it's been hired by dealers and it's been seen at (location) then sit back and enjoy the blues and twos.

We were in a queue for a flight many years ago when a loud woman arrived with her 'entourage' and her 'don't you know who I am' attitude, long before you could book priority etc and she wanted to be treated as a VIP, I think her hisband kicked a football around. It was very funny and amused the queue, especially a couple of HM's grandchildren who were queuing.

Sure, and then you'll get arrested for wasting police time. And possibly sued by the owner of the helicopter.

Not a smart plan.

@MatildaTheCat oh god why / golf clubs never do a decent sandwich

The Devonshire Arms Hotel at Bolton Abbey has a helipad near the champagne and seafood bar you know. It's frightfully lush.

If I were a helicopter pilot who just happened to witness the OP's account (unlikely, I know) I would have been tempted to steal the bastard and take it for a very fuel-consuming spin around the valleys while he was busy berating the lowlife specimens. Then bring it back when it was running on fumes.

Class is one if those things you are either born with or learn. Money can't buy class.

@WildRosie I was eyeing it up wondering how easy it would be to “drive”.

The two helicopter pilots i know would have been delighted to have shown the childern the aircraft and let them have a sit inside it

I was going to post that if I was rich enough to have a helicopter, I'd let any children that looked interested have a look round it!

A prime example of “money doesn’t buy class”

Lol.

People of average means who want people to think they're rich will henceforth be known in this house as "the sort of person who hires a helicopter".

Haha what a dick!

I have a terrible helicopter story. Working for a Big 4 firm in consulting. At the end of the job, the director on the job flew his helicopter to the client and parked it on the glass outside their offices. But the client was a county council and the job had been to take £50m a year of cost out because the council was broke. I thought this was THE most tone deaf thing I have ever heard of. At least he didn’t hire it though

He sounds a bit embarrassing but I'm really cringing at all the posters using "new money" and "definitely rented" as an insult.

[quote Getoffmyhelicopter]@shinynewapple2020 haha she looked well... normal I suppose. In her 40s two teenage children and a husband who is very particular about his helicopter 🚁[/quote]
That exactly describes this MNer and my family

(Well, I'm 50, only have one DC and DH can't drive a car, never mind a helicopter, but it's close)

It is a bit of an exprence to get the hang of it, but unlike fixed wing aircraft thats more of a bit like bike riding once you get the feel for it then there much the same.

If you get a chance to have a flight, fixed wing i.e. nortmal aircraft to or for real fun a glider then just go for it!, most any pilot will let you take the controls theres a bit of discpline in that, "I have control" or "You have control" etc!..

Interesting reading:)

www.gliding.co.uk/

@Bbub

He sounds a bit embarrassing but I'm really cringing at all the posters using "new money" and "definitely rented" as an insult.

Completely agree, @Bbub .

Surely those who use new money & nouveau riche are dickheads in their own right (helicopter or no helicopter!).

Definitely somewhere to go when you think you are a bit posh, when you really, really have no class at all, just a bit of new, company money, which has gone to your head.
Taking some old skank there for dinner, when your wife is at home, breastfeeding your new baby would probably prove that.
Strangely, I have never seen this as a classy venue.....

That's so funny. We were staying there too. I was in the pool when the helicopter landed and because I'm completely uncool and not used to people arriving by helicopters, actually jumped out of the water to have a good stare when the chopper landed, hoping it was a major celebrity. Missed the shouting, alas.

I hate helicopters. The one time I went in one and realised if the engine stopped you can't glide like a plane. It was mildly unpleasant tbh

@GNfan me too!! Wow what a small world - we must have been in the pool at the same time!

I went to prep school with someone whose dad had a helicopter - he used to fly him to school in it and land it on the playing field

Probably my boss, he has a helicopter 🤔 and he is also a duck...

I'm always too scared to go in those things because of stories about crashes, especially in light of what happened to Kobe Bryant and the Leicester chairman. I hate flying enough as is.

Also, yes, the guy was a dick. The kid just wanted to have a look.

So tacky!

I've not done many breaks in this country, and reckon I'll be crossing country hotels off the list after this thread! I'd be going there for the lovely old building and grounds so I wouldn't enjoy looking at a hunk of metal while eating. Not to mention feeling like a prop in some attention seeker's grand entrance.

Like PPs, I'm uncomfortable at how these threads always bring out comments about nouveau riche v old money. They prove just how obsessed we still are by class - and how impressed we are by our 'betters'. How depressing.

I hate helicopters. The one time I went in one and realised if the engine stopped you can't glide like a plane. It was mildly unpleasant tbh

No you don't as such Glide you "autorotate"

Autorotation is a state of flight in which the main rotor system of a helicopter or similar aircraft turns by the action of air moving up through the rotor, as with an autogyro, rather than engine power driving the rotor. The term autorotation dates to a period of early helicopter development between 1915 and 1920, and refers to the rotors turning without the engine.[4] It is analogous to the gliding flight of a fixed-wing aircraft.

HTH..

[quote Wavescrashingonthebeach]@EvilPea

Apparently its very common to hire your helicopter and you pay per hour spent in the air.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. He's only paid for the hour to get it to the hotel, then is basically going to show off and brag about it for the duration of his stay, then pay the one hour home. Amateur. I rent my helicopter for at least a month [/quote]

@Buccanarab

I worked in a very posh hotel years ago where helicopters weren't an uncommon form of arrival.

Always remember one guest who wrote to us after his stay to state his "disappointment in the lack of interest in my arrival by helicopter". Not sure exactly what he was expecting tbh.

This thread is a scream!!!

Oh god I have been to that hotel