One group of Irish entrepreneurs is so bursting with confidence and cash that Ireland has more of the latest status symbol per head than either Britain or the US. That most cherished of toys is the helicopter. . . and, unsurprisingly, industry sources report that it is the property princes who are paying to play.

Where Ireland's wealthy would once have been slow to flaunt their assets, the modest days are long forgotten.

An estimated 200-plus helicopters are now operating in Ireland, industry sources reckon. Of those, 105 are registered with the Irish Aviation Authority and the balance on the British 'G-Reg'.

So great is Irish demand for the Robinson R44 helicopter, the starter purchase of choice these days for the self-flying Irish property mogul, that Irish customers have helped make British company Heli-Air the busiest Robinson agency in the world.

One quarter of Heli Air's clients are now Irish, according to chief executive Mike Smith. The company has sold so many helicopters into Ireland that it sends a maintenance person across the Irish Sea every week to look after them. Heli-Air now has about 35 Irish customers and sold 15 helicopters into the country last year alone, Smith said.

The Irish buyers had a lot in common. They were all male, business owners, in their 40s or 50s, and wealthy.

And they were all in the property business.

Smith expects to sell another dozen helicopters to Irish buyers this year. "There has been a huge growth in demand, and it has been steadily building up over the past year, " he said. "You'll have to imagine what the attraction is. It's the dream of a lot of people to be able to fly."

There are other signs of the helicopter boom, too. In the first half of last year, light aircraft movements in the greater Dublin area were up by 147%, with the bulk of that traffic accounted for by helicopters, according to a spokeswoman for the Irish Aviation Authority.

So many helicopters are now whirling around Dublin skies that the authority is working on plans to introduce commercial heli-lanes, or designated helicopter lanes, to make life easier for pilots and air traffic controllers.

Anecdotal evidence suggests there is a trend towards throwing helicopters into property deals. At last year's annual builders' hooley, the Galway Races, there were more air movements in one day at the race track than there were in a month at the airport. About 70 helicopters were registered to operate in the area of the racecourse that week.

Ireland now has five registered helicopter pilot training schools: three at Dublin's Weston aerodrome, one in Cork and one in Galway.

Weston-based Eirecopter reports that it sold 300 helicopter flight training gift vouchers as Christmas presents.

The number of licensed student pilots in the country grew by 71% to 1,352 in the past five years. Over the same period, the number of private pilot licences rose by 33% to 942.

Some of the less monied aspirant pilots buy in syndicates. The entry-level Robinson R44 costs 320,000 new, but that is only the start of it.

Training for a private pilot's licence costs another 22,000 on average. Many fliers go on to train for a commercial licence, which costs around 60,000. And upgrading the chopper is often the dream.

"These guys are selfmade guys, entrepreneurs, they always want to be doing something, " said Alan Nee, who runs Westonbased Premier Aviation, which currently has 30 students on its books. "Pretty much most of the students are training to be ready for when they buy their own helicopters, and a lot of them buy and then train on their own helicopter."

The Robinson R44 is the fun end of the market, even if tax considerations dictate that the helicopters are generally bought by companies. Some tycoons opt instead to start at the top and sit in the back.

It seems likely that Norbrook Laboratories chairman Eddie Haughey, who was elevated to Britain's House of Lords last year, enjoyed buying the British queen's old Sikorsky S76B. (She was upgrading to an S76C. ) The helicopter, worth about 6m, can carry a pilot and 12 passengers, and Haughey has set up a charter business with it.

Former tile mogul turned property investor Patrick Rocca also ascended the dizzy heights of helicopter ownership by buying an S76. Currency gambler JP McManus and Ryanair founder Tony Ryan both own Bell 430s, worth more than 5m apiece.

Supermarket magnateturned fitness king Ben Dunne is collected several times a week from his Castleknock, Dublin, home in an Augusta 109 worth about 4m, a favourite helicopter type in Ireland. Other Augusta 109 owners around the country include property developer Sean Mulryan, Frank Kane of Mercury Engineering, Quinn Direct's Sean Quinn, beef baron Larry Goodman, solicitors Noel Smyth and Brendan O'Mahony, and Galway entrepreneur Joe Lally.

CityWest Hotel owner Jim Mansfield, who has owned helicopters for more than 25 years, now has both an Augusta and a Bell 206 Longranger, which is worth around 950,000 new.

And what are the bets that another Bell 206 owner, developer Pascal Conroy, will be upgrading before long after getting the go-ahead from An Bord Pleanala last week for the 75m redevelopment of Phibsboro shopping centre in Dublin's north inner city?

Developer Gerry Gannon of Gannon Homes is the proud possessor of a Bell 407, which costs close to 1.5m new.

Paddy Shovlin, developer of Dublin's Beacon Hotel and enthusiastic driver of old Formula One cars, flies his own EC130, which would be worth nearly 2m new.

Cork pilot training facility Blue Star is ordering eight helicopters this year, some pre-sold and some bought on spec. And Irish buyers just can't get them big enough.

Among the mega helicopters on order, industry sources report, are two 10m Sikorsky 76 helicopters. Confirmed orders are in for the 6m-plus Augusta 139 from JP McManus, Frank Kane and Sean Mulryan. At least three Augusta Bell 429s, worth between 3.5m and 4m, are believed to be scheduled to arrive in 2009.

The chopper boom is also supporting a clutch of businesses offering helicopter management services, including supplying businessmen with pilots.

One of these is Dublinbased Ask Aviation, run by pilot Paul Wynn. "The attraction is the time saving and the convenience that owning a helicopter affords the guy, " he said. "It allows someone to be more productive."

Wynn noted that the Dublin/Galway trip can be done in an hour in an R44 and just 45 minutes in an Augusta 109, while Cork/ Dublin takes an hour and 15 minutes in an R44 and an hour in an Augusta 109. Tripping from Dublin to London takes an hour and 50 minutes in an Augusta 109, and two hours and 45 minutes in an R44.

Not all owners are obsessed with comparing their 'copters.

Some choose to charter from one of the country's four licensed charter businesses.

Informal charters are offered by some helicopter owners, and internet chat rooms warn that this may lead to dire insurance consequences.

Some magnates prefer using private jets to do their business, and others use the Irish multi-millionaires' network to hitch a ride.

But a minority of Ireland's higher-profile tycoons have . . .

so far, at least . . . ignored the craze. Notable exclusions from the helicopter-owning hordes include stud farm magnate John Magnier, who is not keen on flying, and Treasury Holdings' Johnny Ronan.

Both moguls content themselves instead with owning two of the only three Maybach cars in the country.

Given the starting price tag of 250,000 for the Maybach, that option is, at least, reassuringly expensive.

Setting down gets hard as fleet grows

IRELAND'S wealthy helicopter owners are watching for future fall-out from An Taisce's battle last year with property developer Bernard McNamara.

An Taisce went to war with McNamara over the alleged disturbance the developer's helicopter landings were causing birds at the neighbouring Booterstown marsh bird sanctuary in Dublin.

In November, An Bord Pleanala ruled that the helicopter pad that Ailesbury Road dwelling McNamara operated beside the sanctuary was not exempted development and needed planning permission. This case may encourage neighbours irritated by the din of whirring helicopter blades.

With the exponential growth in helicopter traffic in Ireland, landing spots are at a premium these days. There was a time when having helicopters parked in your grounds represented kudos for hotel owners, but some have got tired of it.

The owners of the Slieve Donard hotel in Newcastle, Co Down, put the foot down last year after a constant stream of helicopters landed in its grounds only to pour out their occupants to play the Royal County Down golf course across the road. The hotel is now charging a landing fee.

Leopardstown Racecourse used to be a favourite landing spot, but helicopters have now been restricted to race days.

North Dublin offers a paucity of landing spots, but there are some oases. The brothers in All Hallows College in Drumcondra allow Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to land in their grounds, and have been known to extend the same privilege to others.