When I was a kid my dad was into radio-controlled stuff. At the weekend he would load up the Ford Corsair and we would head the few miles to a field next to the river where we would lug the plane and his specially constructed r/c toolbox that held all the various tools, transmitter, fuel, starter motor etc required to get the machine going. He started with a glider and over the years progressed through ‘beginner’ planes without ailerons to my favourite a ‘Red Baron’ type biplane complete with action man pilot. I was about seven. I think he let me have a go with the glider but my stints were all too short, the transmitter soon back in the safe hands of my father.

Later he built a helicopter. This was back in the eighties when China was proper communist  and before the cheap counter rotating blade toys of today. Flying a r/c helicopter  back then was more akin to flying a real helicopter… difficult. I remember that before even finishing the build he made a Mechano test bed. Imagine a Mechano tray sitting on a base with servos controlling the pitch and yaw of the tray. Add a ball bearing or a marble and now try and keep the ball bearing steady in the middle of the tray using the transmitter.

Once again we headed off to the field next to the river. Excited by the prospect of watching this thing zooming around the sky I kept well back as my father fuelled the beast up and applied the starter motor until whisps of blue smoke streamed from the exhaust. 30 minutes later all I’d seen was this thing skim around the grass about 2 inches off the floor, beads of sweat rolling down my fathers cheeks. This was repeated then next time I went along. After that I got bored and never went again. I never actually saw the thing ‘fly’. The highest I’ve ever seen it is in the garage hanging from the joists above his classic sport car.

Having never really flown any of these things it was with relative excitement (I’m a little older now) that on the last time I went back to the UK he pulled out a Twister Bell Medevac 4 channel helicopter. ‘You want a go?’ he said. Dammed right I wanted a go. I had a couple of test flights in the back garden and attempted to hoover the thing (easier said than done) but with only a limited time back in blighty helicopter flying past me by for a while.

Until now. Obviously being in the position of self imposed unemployment I have a long and ever expanding list of chores around the house to complete but there has to be time to enjoy my new found freedom. So I picked up this second hand Twister Bell 47 from a mate at my old work. Very similar to the medivac, the motors have a different layout and some of the electronics are different but it does gain alloy upgrades from the previous owner which should help both flying and crashing ability. I’m looking forward to testing my new toy out.