When I started this hobby I never would have thought that I - well one of my models - would appear on ‘Top of the Pops’. ABC were one of the top pop bands in the UK during the 1980s and I was asked if I could fly a couple of my models on their video for their song ‘That was then, but this is now’.
The video featured a map of the world with various national flags on it. This being the height of the cold war between the USA and Russia, the video was to cover a mock battle between two helicopters – one from either side but both supplied and flown by me.
One helicopter was a ‘pod and boom’ model painted red but as it would only be seen from the front it didn’t matter – this was the Russian helicopter. The other model was a scale model representing the USA that would fire rockets (six of them – three from each side of the fuselage) at the Russian intruder.
The rockets were standard household fireworks but without their stabilising sticks or nose cones as they had to fit completely within the rocket tubes on the helicopter. They were fired by electronic detonators. Unfortunately, during the filming of the sequence, one of the rockets hit the stage which then caught fire.
For the final sequence, it had to look as though the US helicopter had shot down the Russian helicopter. To make this more dramatic the Russian helicopter would fly through an 2cm thick, 2 metre square polystyrene sheet that had a timber frame all around it. The filming would take place in front of the polystyrene so that as it broke, pieces would fly in all directions. I was asked to hit the sheet while performing a half roll, so that the model would be on its side when it came through.
There was only one chance to get this right, however, I managed to hit the wooden frame around the edge of the sheet with a rotor blade tip. The sheet broke and I was momentarily blinded by the lights as they shone through the now gaping hole, all of which made landing a bit tricky. Fortunately my automatic reactions kicked in and I managed to land the model on its undercarriage to a standing ovation from the film crew.
It was a good shoot. You can see the resulting video on You Tube.