u/Frost-Bourne

Was looking into potentially booking a discovery flight. Theres no business that offer heli training in my town, so was looking at options nearby and saw Chinook Helicopters in Abbotsford recommended on this sub. Gave them a quick call and the price i was quoted for an introductory flight was $840ish.

This would be for a 1 hour flight in a Bell 47 (also had an R44 option which would be around $1050 for the same flight).

My question, is im wondering if that is fairly typical pricing for what is being offered? I knew/was expecting it to be more expensive than a fixed wing discovery flight. Just that it was *even higher* still than what I was expecting. For reference I was quoted $320 by Victoria Flying Club for their discovery flight in a Cessna 172S.

Have been contemplating pivoting careers and getting a CPL. But was wanting to have a discovery flight in both types of aircraft first before proceeding any further. (Helicopters have always interested me more but Ive seen the countless posts and replies on here about the challenges and sacrifices of taking the helicopter route, hence why I also was looking at fixed wing as a potential alternative to compare the two discovery flights against).

Booted up squad for the first time in a couple months and wanted to fly some helis. However immediately noticed the Iranian UH-1H was bugged for me. None of the instruments had any needles so I was flying completely blind and having to use pure muscle memory when J hooking and landing (only way to view my collective %, speed and altitude was in the landing camera).

Is this a known bug for the new update? Just a client-side bug that would be fixed with a reload? Cause damn did it make for quite the "interesting" challenge for flying for first time in a couple months lol.

https://preview.redd.it/9eomxhcgf83h1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=66bb88e6c06c80985674ff4bda889083173f0749

So for most of my playtime with AC6 I hadn't touched melee that much. So at the start of my NG++ run I wanted to try finally making a melee build. Have been liking lightweights so I decided to go with the laser dagger as my weapon of choice.

First iteration of the build was *eh* (bad energy mainly). So decided to swap out some parts, also upgraded the weapons while I was at it (was using Sampu on left arm and the starting x4 missile rack on right shoulder originally). But for iteration two it felt like I landed on something fairly solid that carried me thru the rest of NG++. But curious what y'alls thoughts are on this build. I dont play the PVP mode, so built this with intention of only doing PVE in it. But would be curious to know if this would be any good in PVP as well.

https://preview.redd.it/6u3rsn07gu2h1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=1299288e2dad1b896dce1d52210444dfbb5a88fa

https://preview.redd.it/6y2xgn07gu2h1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=a2eb141a13d670040e860f973edef5170f6bf027

Here's some gameplay footage of me running the build (sorry for the bitrate, it couldn't keep up with how fast I was moving lol). Spoilers for NG+ arena and final boss fight of NG++ ending.

NG+ Arena Fight

NG++ Final Boss Fight

Eyo, bit of a pre-warning that this turned into a bit of a long post. Have had a lot of my mind lately on this subject.

So, to start the post off, as title mentions im sorta weighing the idea of starting down the path of having a career in aviation. I dont have any prior flight time so Id be starting off from scratch.

I have a couple reasons as to why im thinking this might be something that interests me, but I also have some reservations about the idea too that have left me at a bit of an impase here. So am hoping that by asking here I can get some insight from those in the business.

Bit of a background about myself. Currently I have been working in a completely seperate industry (3D animation as a Look Development Artist). But unfortunately was furloughed back in October and have been struggling to find more work in this industry since then. So, because of that Ive been starting to think about potential plan Bs. Not quite ready to "give up" on this industry as I love the work. But rather more thinking on what potential other paths would interest me if I *do* end up needing to pivot away from animation. And one of those ideas has been aviation.

I did have an interest in flying back during highschool. Was looking into what it would take to become a helicopter pilot (as I found the idea of piloting that style of machine incredibly cool), but after doing some research into it decided against that path and pivoted towards my other interest being the animation/games industry mentioned above. Reason for pivoting at that time was due to the costs, as well as what Ive heard with rotor jobs being hard to come across/requiring you to move to where the jobs are at (and I like where im living currently), and so wasnt sure if the interest was big enough to stick with it through out those challenges.

But with me recently considering plan B options. Im wondering if that interest in flying has sorta sparked up again, as Ive been thinking a lot on it this past week or 2. I can start by saying I think my goals have shifted slightly if I were to take this path. Where in highschool I was deadset on being only interested in helicopters and 0 interest for fixed wing at the time. Where as now its broadened up some, and more just fascinated with the idea of being a pilot period (like I think ot would be really cool to be a pilot). But im wondering if im viewing that idea of 'being a pilot' with rise tinted glasses to some degree.

I mentioned prior about having some reservations on this idea. Those have come from doing some research into what it truly takes to work as a pilot, as well as some of the realities of the job. For example, while looking into flying for an airline I can see myself being fine with the lifestyle that comes with those jobs. But the actual *flying* of airlines with just going point A-B and seeing nothing but clouds for hours on end, I feel like id find it incredibly boring. So then on the flipside, I was looking at what kinds of jobs you can get flying smaller planes. Im In BC so ive heard theres lots of bush/float plane jobs in the province, and thats a style of flying that I think id get a lot more enjoyment out of. But im not a very outdoorsy person and not good with manual labour (if having a career sitting in front of a computer screen for 40hrs a week was any indicator haha). So while the *flying* looks fun, the *lifestyle* of being out in the bush for extended periods of time idk if id be very well suited for. I do have Harbour Air in my city, but ive heard how highly coveted those pilot jobs are something that takes a lot of building up/working towards im assuming.

So yea, i guess it comes down to while I find the idea of flying and being a pilot incredibly intriguing. Is this something im actually going to be well suited for or as sorta mentioned prior, have a hig enough of an interest to stick through with it. Since I recognize its an incredible amount of time, money and effort to go from 0 hours to CPL (and then thats just the start of things of course). So trying my best to look at things realistically here. I probably just need to try out a discovery flight and go see. But as mentioned at the start, wanted to ask/was hoping to get some insight on this from those who have undergone all this already.