When the engine roared into life, producing a strong smell of gasoline, I felt slightly nauseous. The helicopter lifted gently off the landing pad and soared above the green fields, gaining height every minute. From our vantage point, the outline of the airfield was easy to distinguish and fitted exactly Dou's description of the land as an "islet", surrounded by water and connected to the outside world by just one narrow strip of road. Dou said that when the facility is running smoothly, he'll introduce a few yachts, plus some boats that will act as venues for barbecues.

When he's not ensuring the calm operation of the airfield, Dou - who spent six months and 3 million yuan learning to fly different types of aircraft in San Diego - still enjoys training pilots.

Private flying culture

Dou trained in San Diego, California, where the culture of private flight is well established, and now he's attempting to bring that culture to China.

According to Wang Xia, secretary-general of the China General Aviation Committee, there are 220,000 private all-purpose aircraft in the US, but in China the number is about 1,370, although Wang estimated that a further 2,000 private planes and helicopter are unregistered.

Whatever the true figure, Dou is often busy with customers. Because of the tremendous heat in summer, the flying school takes a break between 11:30 am and 3 pm, although it's officially open between 5 am and 7 pm. Employees who live in the local town usually have to be up and about by 3 am so they can catch the company bus and arrive at work in time for the early start.

I'm not the world's most enthusiastic flyer, and the helicopter's constant changes of direction and altitude, allied to the smell of the gasoline, heightened my feeling of nausea. However, after a few swift circles of the airfield at an altitude of about 300 meters, we finally returned to Earth.

When Dou turned off the engine, the ground staff quickly came forward and pushed the helicopter into the hangar.