School Girls Take Helicopter To Prom

[jnelsoninjax]

What are you to do with when all the limos are booked up on your prom night?

For best friends Chloe Webb and Lauren Huggett, the answer was to take a ?500 helicopter ride instead.

Looking more like celebrities than schoolgirls, the 16-year-olds upped the glamour stakes by flying to their end-of-year party just eight miles from where they live.

In a scene more akin to the US high school prom-craze, the two girls touched down outside the venue and stepped out in their ballgowns wowing their shocked school friends.

The pair had hoped to get a limo for their trip to the prom at the Whitminster Inn, Gloucestershire and were disappointed to discover they were all fully booked.

But they certainly weren?t disappointed for long.

Lauren?s dad Jason Huggett stepped in to help, and arranged for the girls to be glamorously dropped off to the prom by helicopter instead - and also went along for the ride.

The girls were picked up in the Robinson R44 twin-engine chopper at Cashes Green playing field in Stroud and treated to a half-hour ride before surprising their friends when the chopper made its landing at the venue.

Chloe said: 'It was a fantastic trip - really good fun. We got in the helicopter and flew around for half-an-hour before being dropped off at our prom.

'All our friends were really shocked - they could not believe it.

'We landed on a patch of grass right next to the tent where our prom was taking place in.

'We had wanted to get a limousine to the venue but they had all gone by the time we went to book it - but this was even better.

'The prom was brilliant too.'

For Chloe the prom marked the end of her time at Archway School in Stroud.

She now plans to study beauty therapy at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, while Lauren, from Cashes Green will stay on to study in Archway?s sixth-form department.

The girls may have been inspired from the blinging ways of across the pond, where extravagant high school proms are treated as a rite of passage.

Thanks to shows such as My Super Sweet 16 and films like High School Musical, the US-style proms have been increasingly on the rise in Britain.

Parents are being persuaded to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds on dresses, hair, spray tans, tiaras and limos as US-style proms take hold in Britain.

Last week Amy Powell, aged 16, from Billericay, Essex, confessed that her parents Dee, 51, and Phil, 52, spent a staggering ?799 on styling their daughter head-to-toe and waving her off in a limo.

She said: ?Of course on the day, people will be judging everyone else?s look. With that many girls, and that many spray tans and big hair, there will be bitchiness.

?Even now, everyone is keeping their dress secret as they?re so paranoid that someone will copy them ? and they want to keep it as a surprise for their big entrance.?

Source

[ahhell]

That article makes me sick. What a ridiculous waste of money.

[jnelsoninjax]

^ I completely agree! 500 pounds is $776 USD and about $780 ca, so yes it is a total waste of money!

[episode]

^ I completely agree! 500 pounds is $776 USD and about $780 ca, so yes it is a total waste of money!

Why would they care what it is in USD? Doesn't make sense.

They spent ?500 to take a helicopter to their prom. Its not really that crazy. The limo cost was probably around ?200 anyway.

[Buttus]

looking at those pics of them, that wasn't worth it at all... maybe the copter ride, but the amount to style their hair, etc....

[ShMaunder]

I thought this was common. Theres always a helicopter for a group of girls every year here. Its normally in the local paper.

[Paul Ferson Veteran]

Proms are always a waste of money. My school operates them as well and limos are common at them. It's ridiculous what people will spend money on. You'd expect the actual prom to be the main cost, but turning up at it (and buying alcohol for the inevitable house party afterwards) are the two main allures here. Seems like a waste of money for something relatively insignificant, if I'm honest.

[Axel]

Like how some people feel they can so readily judge how someone else spends their own hard earned cash. People pay for pleasure flights all the time - sounds fairly appropriate to actually use it as a method of transport. Good on them for having a good time!

[Bryan R.]

A helicopter ride is actually pretty awesome if what you're getting at is flash and posturing which is what prom is largely about anyway. ?500 seems reasonable too considering how much prom costs to begin with.

[ShMaunder]

Like how some people feel they can so readily judge how someone else spends their own hard earned cash. People pay for pleasure flights all the time - sounds fairly appropriate to actually use it as a method of transport. Good on them for having a good time!

You mean their parents or the welfare ?

[Axel]

You mean their parents or the welfare ?

You'll have to elaborate.

[amberchan]

they all fitted in that small helicopter? might have been better using a chinook

[123456789A]

Oh I thought the girls were taking the helicopter to the prom, like as their date, like dancing with Airwolf. They could just spin around on the rotors or something.

[ShMaunder]

You'll have to elaborate.

Most have never worked at that age. There is a maximum number of hours somebody under 16 can earn and I can't see them raising 500 quid. Either the parents funded it and/or if they are on welfare allowance, then the state did.

[Bryan R.]

Most have never worked at that age. There is a maximum number of hours somebody under 16 can earn and I can't see them raising 500 quid. Either the parents funded it and/or if they are on welfare allowance, then the state did.

I don't think anyone assumed the students bought it themselves... Also, I find it interesting that you automatically assume the kids couldn't save up a measly ?500 when they don't have expenses of their own. Either way, the money belongs to one of them, or possibly it was split, and it's for them weigh the value of helicopter ride, not some internet warriors.

[pack34]

That article makes me sick. What a ridiculous waste of money.

Eh? It's just 250 euros each. It wouldn't take that long for both of them to save up that money from part time jobs. People spend a couple hundred bucks on clothes for a once in a life time party. Big whoop.

[Shaun N.]

So what? This article is a waste of space on the Neowin DB

[jnelsoninjax]

Lauren?s dad Jason Huggett stepped in to help, and arranged for the girls to be glamorously dropped off to the prom by helicopter instead - and also went along for the ride.

Source

I think that this shows that the dad pitched in for the helicopter ride...

[Dick Montage]

I looked at a helicoptor for the wedding to deliver me and my groomsmen. I personally thought it was a LOT cheaper than I expected (and was prepared to pay). The problems were:

1) I got obsessed with repelling out, which they said no to.

2) Nowhere near enough to land it :(

[ILikeTobacco]

I looked at a helicoptor for the wedding to deliver me and my groomsmen. I personally thought it was a LOT cheaper than I expected (and was prepared to pay). The problems were:

1) I got obsessed with repelling out, which they said no to.

2) Nowhere near enough to land it :(

That's why you get married in a small church out in the country! Fields to repel onto!

[Glassed Silver]

People get waaaay to wound up on this.

Hilarious! :laugh:

*sits back and continues checking for comments*

Glassed Silver:mac

[ShMaunder]

I don't think anyone assumed the students bought it themselves... Also, I find it interesting that you automatically assume the kids couldn't save up a measly ?500 when they don't have expenses of their own. Either way, the money belongs to one of them, or possibly it was split, and it's for them weigh the value of helicopter ride, not some internet warriors.

Oh right. May have taken it out of context slightly.

I never went to the leaving prom, but I was 15 when it happened. I worked for the year maxing out at 6 hours a week during term time, and about 12 hours a week during non-term time. The wage was about ?3.80/hour. I didn't work during exams or building up to them. I got about 650 quid for about 9 months of work.

In theory, I would have worked for ~132 hours = 88 days = 22 weeks to gain 500 quid. OK legally, you can work for a little more than what I did, but not by much considering I was working on school days and not weekends.

Blowing 22 weeks worth of wage on a half an hour helicopter ride would be insane for anybody. I believe the kids that have to work for it actually realise that its not worth it.

[ShMaunder]

Eh? It's just 250 euros each. It wouldn't take that long for both of them to save up that money from part time jobs. People spend a couple hundred bucks on clothes for a once in a life time party. Big whoop.

If it is their own money which they earned themselves then more for them. But this is year 11 - most of the kids go directly to sixth form at the same school with the same people anyway. This prom isn't a big deal in my mind - the sixth form one is far more of a bigger deal than year 11. Also most of the students in the sixth form proms are adults and then have their own responsibilities.

I'm not saying cancel any celebrations at year 11, but I don't think a full blown prom is required at such an age.

[Bryan R.]

Blowing 22 weeks worth of wage on a half an hour helicopter ride would be insane for anybody. I believe the kids that have to work for it actually realise that its not worth it.

Quite possibly. I'm not sure what the child labor laws are like over there but when I was 16 and in high school, I worked 30 hours a week which is the limit for 16-17 year olds.

[Ambroos]

Eh, why can't they do with their money whatever they want? I'd enjoy a helicopter flight too.