Sky's the limit for Ireland's growing fleet of helicopters

THE number of helicopters registered in Ireland has doubled in the last five years, it emerged yesterday.

Property developers are using helicopters to get a bird's eye view of sites while other wealthy owners are using them to avoid traffic and fly to the Galway Races.

According to new figures from the Irish Aviation Authority, the number of helicopters registered has risen from 56 in 2000 to 113 now. The most high-profile helicopter owners are businessmen like Ben Dunne, Michael Smurfit and Larry Goodman.

But there are recent additions to the aviation register such as Citywest hotel owner Jim Mansfield and Cork property developer Seamus Geaney.

The Irish Helicopters company said the growth in the sector had been phenomenal.

"It's the resurrection of the Celtic Tiger. A very high percentage of these owners would be businessmen," said commercial director Fred Balcomb.

He said the cost of buying a helicopter was very high, ranging from €90,000 for a second-hand model to €2.5 million for the latest Bell Augusta models.

"There's not only the initial purchase price but all the maintenance, insurance and piloting as well," he said.

Many businessmen are using the helicopters to avoid rush-hour traffic and have built heli-pads in their back gardens to land their aircraft. Last week, there were up to 300 landings per day at the Galway Races.

Mr Balcomb said there was a waiting list to buy one popular model, the Bell 407 helicopter, which costs over €1 million second hand and is known as the sports car in the air.

"There's more 407s in Ireland than in England. I think that in terms of helicopters per head of population, we have exceeded them."

He said that most owners used a small pool of freelance pilots to ferry them around rather than learning to fly themselves.

The head of Milltown Engineering in Carlow, Stephen Murphy, recently used his helicopter to fly a 16-year old girl over the town of Bagenalstown on the day of her birthday to the delight of her family.

However, Mayo businessman Pat Staunton aroused different reactions when he decided to build a helipad and hangar in the back garden of his house in Castlebar without planning permission. A neighbouring farmer objected on the basis that the helicopter was disturbing his animals and An Bord Pleanala ruled in 2003 that it was not an exempt development.

And the risks involved in flying were starkly demonstrated in Derrybrien, Co Galway, earlier this month. Two men died and a third was seriously injured when their helicopter crashed while returning from the Tall Ships Festival in Waterford.