Then came a period of more sober thought. In spite of all the fine words and the sophisticated machinery, each pilot still had to learn to fly - there was no getting away from that. But was it really so difficult? Crashes were grequent, mechanical parts were almist impossible to repair, money was spent freely on replacement parts and for weeks, the model would not be flyable. The modeller would turn up at the flying site, sneak off to a corner and make his helicopter hop around for a while; colleagues would laugh quietly at his antics, and he would usually end up with another broken model. For many the new hobby was not very satisfactory, but there were some who learned to fly competently, and gain enormous enjoyment from their helicopters. They appeared to be able to fly their machines without difficulty, and their skill and enthusiasm convinced others.

Flying a helicopter is really not as difficult as it may appear to the newcomer - and even to the modeller who has been working at it for a time. The model helicopter must be easy to build, robust, easy to maintain, not too difficult to control, and respond swiftly to commands in a way which the pilot can understand. And when breakages occur, the model must be repairable quickly and at reasonable cost. It is important that the pilot can continue his practising the following weekend - at the latest - and preferably a few hours later, or the following day. And the most important point of all: it must be possible to set up the model accurately after a repair, so that it responds exactly as before. If not, then the experience the pilot has gained is lost, and he has to start from scratch. These considerations led to the design of the simple all-metal helicopter based on a self-supporting chassis, which eliminated the complex, relatively fragile fuselage as an essential load-bearing component. The model in question was the famous "Heli-Baby" of 1975, followed two years later by the "Bell 222", which for the first time could be started from the above without a belt. Today, virtually all helicopter manufacturers offer these features. Model helicopter flying is a great adventure! The model can hover motionless, move off in any direction, spin on its own axis and then climb away vertically. It can fly at high speed, thunder low over the flying site, climb high and fast and fly loops, rolls, Immelmanns, Split-S and stall turns; at the end of the flight the model can be set down accurately and gently on a specified point after a previsely judged landing approach. And if the motor stops - whether deliberately or by accident - then the model helicopter can be landed safely without motor power by autorotation. A model helicopter needs no landing strip, and can be flown from any small patch of ground.

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