Paul Mantz, Jr. wrote: When I was in California, I got to see Larry Jolly fly helos. He used to do model flying for movies. Amazing talent!
Hey Paul, I met Larry a bunch of times at our heli flying field in Garden Grove CA, and also at his shop a couple of times. A buddy of mine worked for Larry for a few years. Great stories. While the rest of us are trying not to crash our machines, these guys do it on purpose! And with explosives!
That flying field was an "unsanctioned" (i.e. not AMA insured) field at a small soccer field. It was bordered on two sides by busy streets, and on a third side by a freeway. On one of the last days I flew there (before moving to San Diego), someone turned on their transmitter in the pit area and almost shot me down. My .60 heli (in a fiberglass Jet Ranger fuselage) corkscrewed a couple times while I ran toward it to overcome the interference, and images of my heli diving onto a crowded freeway ran through my head. I saved it, but the landing clearly revealed my shaking hands. The guy was a ham operator (I'm one too) who just assumed that he was the only one on 53.whatever MHz. Idiot. So much for an unsanctioned field with no frequency control. And so much for flying near freeways.
My understanding is that these days, the radios frequency-hunt all by themselves? That would be awesome!
Manfred