In 1958 I was 7 years old living on the family farm in central Canada .... a Bell 47 flew over the farm at about 300 feet and I have been hooked ever since.
I have always been mechanically inclined , was an auto body technician and painter by trade , I could build or fix almost anything so in 1978 decided to order a home-built Rotorway Kit from Arizona .... but Canada did not have a home-built category at that time.
Rotorway factory owner B.J. Schramm himself phoned and told me it would take an act of parliament to change the rules.
So I took the money I had set aside for the kit and spent it on basic training on a Bell 47G2 ..... did my first solo flight after only 14.7 hours of dual instruction
Best thing that could have ever happened to me .... very few of the original Rotorway Scorpions ever got off the ground .... they used a converted Mercury outboard motor which had marginal horsepower for a helicopter
My love of helicopters remains just like when I was 7 years old.