I recently read on the BBC news website that the younger generations are getting nostalgic earlier.  This is thought to be due to the onset of digital media where the ability to take, organise, share and carry around your entire photo library on a smartphone has transformed the way memoirs are organised.  Nostalgia then extends to physical objects portrayed in the photos and before you know it you are prowling though eBay for long lost items you used to own.

For me this has taken the form of an attempt to rebuild those models I remember most fondly from my early ‘fleet’ when I entered the hobby in my early teens.  Back then I was on a tight budget of pocket money and weekend jobs, although a lack of experience was the biggest hurdle and contributed to most of the set-backs I experienced.  My desire to ‘go it alone’ didn’t help either and my advice to anyone is to always join a club.

It began innocently enough a few months ago when I started downloading all the instruction manuals for every plane, helicopter, radio and servo I’ve ever owned.  A number of the manuals took some finding and it was typical that those I most wanted I couldn’t find anywhere.  It was then that I was very lucky to find un-built examples on eBay and before I knew it I’ve won the auctions and was the proud owner of kits I had spent hours of my youth trying to get flying.  I can’t easily describe in full how much these mean to me but while other boys were outdoors playing football, I was alone indoors pouring over advertisements and magazines carefully researching what I was going to buy; I had amassed quite a scrap book in the end.

My first helicopter was an MFA Sport 500.  Primitive by design and outdated even then but to me it was a thing of beauty.  Unfortunately the design really required a bit of helicopter experience to ensure the pitfalls of an all metal construction didn’t surface.  This machine consequently acquired a bit of a bad reputation that perhaps wasn’t really deserved.  I acquired mine right at the end of its production run and although I never actually got it into the air my poorly built example gave me a crash course in assembly and maintenance.  Now I have another and this one I intend to build more carefully.

A few years later after having diverted to RC aeroplanes, a new helicopter appeared on the market that combined the modern all-plastic construction with a reasonable price tag.  More importantly it was able to use my standard aeroplane radio.  A bit of research later and I’d purchased a Century Hawk MK 1.  After the Sport 500, this machine was a revelation and it even came part built.  I learnt to fly circuits on this machine and finally laid it to rest following an over ambitious auto-rotation that ended in a nasty boom-strike.  I was unable to find the MK 1 manual online and checked eBay only to find an un-built boxed example exactly like I remembered it!  The number of manufacturer’s and helicopters on the market has changed since I left the hobby in 2005 but its pleasing to see the Hawk has stood the test of time and is still in production at MK IV spec.

I’ll leave for now with pictures of my new purchases and will report on the building later.

I first saw a radio controlled model aeroplane parked on top of the wardrobe at my Great Uncle David’s house in Edinburgh.  Further exploration revealed aircraft were hiding all over the house and many were as long as I was tall.  As a practicing doctor and researcher at the university he really did not have the time to answer all the 1001 questions that an over-active 8 year old with an aeroplane obsession bombarded him with.  However the bug had bitten and I would go on to talk about nothing else for many years.

Around this time we had close family friends and used to visit them every few months.  One of their two sons was close to my age and the other closer to my sister. Visiting them would entail a long car journey and sometimes even the ferry if we or they were stationed overseas (both families were in the forces at the time).  To this day I suffer from motion sickness, but back then when 5 minutes seemed to last an hour it was close to unbearable. It was worth it however as the two brothers had the coolest toys, the latest computers and a whole room full of completed ‘Airfix’ plastic model aeroplanes.

On one journey when they were stationed in RAF Waddington I found on their shelves two amazing new toys, a pair of ‘Keil-Kraft’ balsa wood model aeroplanes.  One, the Cadet, a beautiful glider, the other, the Eaglet, a rubber powered high-wing cabin type.  Like the airfix kits, the bother’s father was the builder.  It was a shame as they never developed much interest in aviation.  My absolute obsession with these models was such that I spent hours just test gliding them across the bedroom exploring how they flew and what adjustments impacted on the (very!) short flight path onto the bed.  Naturally again came 1001 questions and I soon found out model aeroplanes that could fly weren’t just big expensive radio controlled aircraft but came in small relatively inexpensive versions within reach of my pocket money.

Catching the ‘tail-end’ of the traditional model aviation hobby as a child meant that finding kits like these became harder and harder for me. A different story now as there is a burgeoning online market in vintage and replicate kits.

My first attempts at model aircraft, both plastic and balsa were not exactly successful.  Having an obsession that was several generations out of date and that no one else shared meant I didn’t have any friends with which to share ideas and skills.  I was also reclusive and would spend a lot of my time researching aircraft and what I was going to purchase next.  With parents not online this meant school lunch breaks were spent in the local library with its limited resources.  With a strict pocket money determined budget it would take me a while to save up enough pocket money for each tin of paint or glue let alone an actual model.  I therefore wanted to ensure that I made the correct purchase.  Unfortunately impatience and frustration would take over and in an effort to finish a model I would ‘substitute’ with often undesirable results.  However my repertoire of model making skills steadily increased and I would later come to value this.