For me it was when I was in kindergarten and first grade when they were showing shots of the Vietnam on the news …then later the local National guard flew Hooks and Hueys over our house …man I love those sounds!
I sure wish that there was a larger kit of the Agusta A-109…1/72 is too dang small… that is one sexy bird!
When I was in 4th or 5th grade, Gulf War I. The media coverage and guncamera footage and all that stuff had me psyched up. Granted, I was still running around playing with GI Joes, but that’s when I first remember wanting to fly helicopters. Unfortuanately, later in life, I found out my eyesight was too bad to enter any military flight program, so I ended up working on them instead. (Personally, I think the military missed out on one good pilot[;)]) It’s ironic that I ended up making my own journey over to the place that sparked my initial interest.
I rode them in VN but never had much of an interest until lately. Call it looking back I guess. I was always an airplane nut. Helos were too slow and too ugly for me to model, But now I model Helos out of respect for those who ride them into hell and back…
Also the availability of so many Helos kits in my choice scale … 1/72.
Seven days after graduating high school, June '65, I was walking on pins & needles because my Draft No. was coming up. I had just got my civilian Private Pilot certificate 8 weeks before, so the Army brochure about Warrant Officer Flight School I found on the table of the breakroom where I worked, caught my attention. “Hmmm… I can do this!”
That was the point I seriously considered the possibility of it becoming a reality, so I ventured to the nearest Recruiting office, took the test and was accepted. At least “I” would decide my military fate and not some draft quota requirement.
Helicopters are my second love… fixed wing will always come first. None of the helicopters give me butterflies quite like the site of a Yellow & Red Aeronca 7AC… (the type I first learned to fly in.)
Take care,
Frank
My next door neighbor was rescued off of an ice floe by a helo from CG Air Station Detroit in late 60’s early 70’s, Right then I figured that is what I wanted to do, rescue people from a CG Helo. Never gave “pilot” a thought, I wanted to be the guy operating the hoist and actually putting out my hand to help.
In 1990 I was part of the crew that rescued three guys who fell through the ice in Lake St Clair. We were out of. . .CG Air Station Detroit.
Always loved the plane that can hover and actually do some good.
And as Butch said, lots of choices in 1/72.
Don
I always thought that I would end up as an AF pilot as I dreamed of myself doing punching big holes in the sky with an F-15C. Grades in college caught up with me and I enlisted in the Army as a 67T and the rest is history. I just love the challenge of keeping such an amazing collection of parts working together the way Igor envisioned it.
Mac
As stupid as it sounds, probably TV. I was a big Magnum PI fan when I was a kid. I also loved that movie Capricorn 1, where the two 500’s go searching for the astronauts in the desert. To this day, that movie has some of the best stunt helo flying in it. Then there’s Blue Thunder of course… Another film with incredible flying. If you look at some of the shots they did in downtown L.A. in that movie, it’s incredible… There’s one shot in particular where both helos come up Spring St. about 40’ off the ground, then flip around the end of the block and go back up the next street over. If you told the city you wanted to film a shot like that today, they would laugh at you.
Dave
-DPD Productions - Helicopter Reference Photo CD-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/
Had always modeled fast-movers (still do) but there were a number of things that happened close together that got me interested. When I moved to the house I live in now a couple years back, I discovered that TN ARNG Blackhawks departing the airport pass right overhead (very low mind you) on their way north. That summer, my friends and I played friendly games of “chicken” in a Protector (http://www.protectorboats.com/) with USCG Dolphins off the Carolina coast and I got to see a bunch of TN ARNG Apaches arriving at the airport here.
Sitting in an LZ in Quantico, VA during training. We were cold, wet, and tired, but when we heard those blades popping and saw that bird (Phrog) coming in to get us, our morale boosted. [:)]
The TV show Chopper Squad when I was seven years old.
Check the link:-
http://www.classicaustraliantv.com/ChopperSquad.htm
Neil
My interest has evolved over the past three decades. I got into military history at a VERY young age (3 years old) when I learned that my grandfather was an Infantry officer in WWII. I was hooked from that point. Interest in airplanes came naturally. I wanted to be a pilot from age 8 onwards. Through high school, I thought I was going to be a fast-jet pilot, and even joined AFROTC my freshman year in college. That’s when I started thinking about airpower application and really got frustrated with the Air Force’s ideas of close air support. My interest in the use of aircraft to support troops on the ground really blossomed from there and it was a short time later that I realized that the best platform for supporting our guys down in the mud was an attack helicopter. From there, it was on!
I’ve been researching armed helicopter ops for just about a decade now and I’m finally going to get to put that research into practical use!
Talk about variety!
Seeing the Blue Angles fly in person!..man the way they taxied in at the end of the show and the ground chiefs would salute to the pilots, everything so precise… I was sooo impressed…My eyeballs were too bad for military flight as well.
Great topic, Papa Echo!
When about all of my school friends had dropped their childish wish to become a pilot, I watched a helicopter documentary and have been helo-mad ever since. Never had much with military stuff, I like the civil birds better.
As with AH1W-snake: wearing glasses made a helicopter carreer in the mililtary impossible, and not having rich parents ruled out the possibility of a civil license. Thank god for modelling!
Regards, Gertjan
P.S.Neil: weren’t you the one that had a question about 206 floats??[;)]
Wearing glasses means you can’t fly helos?
Do you mean if your eyesight is not correctable to 20/20?
I have worn glasses since grade 5 and know many a pilot who wore them too.
In boot camp they tried that ‘no glasses’ thing on me but I did my homework and made the appointment to see the flight surgeon anyway. . .results? Passed, ready for school, unlike the three others who listened to the wrong poop.
So I got to spend 19 years fixing AND flying them.
Don
Believe me dkmacin, that is not my opinion but -in my case- the opinion of the Dutch airforce. At the time I had glasses of about +3, but my application bounced because I had answered a Yes to the question if I wore glasses or contactlenses. No further medical details were needed: no military flying job. I’m speaking of 1984 here, and I don’t know if this rule still applies.
The reason why we here sometimes do see Dutch military pilots wear glasses (as I asked after my failed application), is that they started needing them when they were already pilots. But: when you apply (/applied) while even having the smallest eyesight problem: no chance…
regards, Gertjan
I’ve like airplane back as far as i can remember and here was a TV show about helo’s back in the late 50’s. When it was time for me to go into the service, i wanted to work on aircraft(would have loved to be a pilot, but my eye’s were too bad for that) and the Army was the only service that wouls grauantee that. The rest is history.
I always loved Hueys!
Gertjan,
Too Bad. . .but I was talking 1976 so things may have changed here too.
Don
When I went in pilot eyesight requirements were 20/20 uncorrected, once you were a pilot and your eyes got worse they allowed glass, but not contact lenses. Later they did lower the eyesight requirements.
I was always interested in airplanes, so I got a degree in aero engineering. I got a job at NAVAIR and initially worked on fixed wing stuff. When I started there was an older guy in our group who worked on all the helicopters and was really the only one who knew anything about them. Well he retired over ten years ago now, and I was assigned to take over his area. Over the last few years I think I have become him. As I have worked on the helos and worked with the test pilots and crews, I have developed an appreciation for their capabilities. Even though I have a fair idea of how they work, I find them simply amazing. I have also developed a great respect for the courage of the pilots and aircrew who fly these things into harm’s way.
In case you want to know, my technical area is store separation, which means I calculate the launch and jettison characteristics of external stores from all USN and USMC helos to determine safe envelopes. I also support flight testing to demonstrate stores release characteristics.
Regards,
Phil
