i appreciate all comments immensely. i certainly don't feel like
anyone is attacking my product or ideas. opinions and other viewpoints
are critical to any intelligent discussion and help me to define the
product.

1) the time logged in a Heli-Chair is NOT time you can log in your
logbook, and i would like to eventually change that (a huge project!).
i would think at best it could count as 5 hours or so. think about it
this way: why spend hundreds of dollars per hour learning how to use
your feet or how to finesse the cyclic when you can be learning
autorotations instead? i think 'most' students spend far in excess of
the minimum 40 hours (30 if already an airplane pilot) in obtaining
their rating. in that sense, actually logging the time really isn't
that important. a student spending 60 hours to obtain a private
rotorcraft rating is not uncommon. those 20 extra hours you spend
learning at around 200 an hour really add up (on the good side they
count towards insurance requirements). if you can go to your first
lesson armed with the muscle memory necessary to hover immediately,
you'll be very likely to finish the rating in the absolute minimum
amount of time.

2) the upfront cost of the Heli-Chair is quite high, but again there
are other considerations. for one, i would like to deploy these at
flight schools as a training tool, where the cost is not on the
shoulders of a single student. also, the Heli-Chair is really quite
tough and has a great resale value (in my opinion); when you are done
with it, get a friend to buy it and recover a portion of your
investment. i am doing my best to come up with a creative and safe way
for me to lease these to people on a buy-back program so that when
done, i can let someone else have a go at it.


kas