My RC experience started out with model aircraft but I soon became bored with them. Then one day a friend of mine said “Why don’t we build a radio-controlled helicopter?” My initial reaction was “don’t be stupid”. This was still in the early 1970s when helicopter kits hadn’t been thought of and only one or two people had even attempted such a complex feat of engineering. I told my friend that no one else had managed to build one so what makes him think we could, and if we did, where would we start? “Well”, he said in his naive manner, “It’s very straightforward – we just copy a full size one.”
Basically neither of us had a clue – and not only that, we hadn’t even got basic machine tools such as a lathe or the experience of using one. Another major obstacle was the connection to a servo - you couldn’t buy ‘ball-links’, which today are essential to controlling the moving parts on a helicopter. But it didn’t stop us – after all it was ‘a challenge’.