I agree with Larry that the GRE/Radio Shack models are popular around here. You can find the PRO-106 and PRO-197 on sale at RS from time to time for about $300 with coupons. If you need "extras" included in your purchase, the GRE radios might be a better choice.
Regarding Palmetto 800, currently it's a mixed-mode 3600bps Smartzone system, so any trunking scanner will technically work. With rebanding slated to occur soon, you'll certainly want a radio that supports rebanding. And a full migration to P25 is in the works, but who knows when it might actually occur. For that, you'll want a digital scanner.
Regarding Flightcomm, where you are listening fromwill determine what you'll hear. LifeFlight in Anderson is dispatched on the Palmetto P25 system from what I understand, but they'll occasionally be heard on the Flightcomm talkgroup on Palmetto 800. If you don't live in earshot of the Anderson PP25 sites, you're not going to hear their dispatches. GMH MedTrans is dispatched on 38352, and you'll hear that on the Site 35 Greenville Simulcast. I don't hear that talkgroup affliliated on Site 19 Spartanburg simulcast. Regional One is dispatched on 30064 Spartanburg Air-Ground, and you'll hear that on Site 19 but probably not on other tower sites.
So, unless you're in a particularly sweet spot where you can hear all of these tower sites simultaneously, you won't be hearing all of FlightComm's dispatches. Just be cause you can hear "a" Palmetto 800 tower site doesn't mean that the talkgroups you are hoping to hear will be afflilitated with that tower site. For example, in the Upstate we can't hear dispatches for the SC Lifenet helos. And folks in the Midlands and Lowcountry aren't going to hear Flightcomm.
I hope that helps explain things. I don't want you to spend $$$ and be disappointed that you can't hear what you're expecting.