Flying my own model 'copters -Madhavan

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Posted: 19 years ago

Flying my own model 'copters
By: Subhash K Jha
August 26, 2006

"I've always been a gizmo freak, and wanted to be a pilot. In fact, I was a pilot for a while too. I gave up that profession because they gave me helicopters to fly instead of fighter planes.

My role in Rang De Basanti was a fantasy come true. I wanted to find a hobby that justified the fours years I spent studying electronics before I joined films. So I got into aero-modelling. Now I construct and fly my own helicopters. I buy the kits and set it up piece by piece. Oh man, it's like a three-day long orgasm!

The wife doesn't mind

R Madhavan in Ramji Londonwaley

But for aero-modelling, you need to know a bit about electronics to set it up. Then you've to make the fuel and fly it like a real plane. I need to have three uninterrupted days to build a helicopter. So I do it only when I've no shooting and after my wife Sarita and I have had enough of each other.

This is one passion that my wife doesn't mind. Once you get into it, you don't know how time flies. I've constructed several helicopters. I've a hobby room in my new home where they're all beautifully poised. On Sunday mornings, we go out to the outskirts of Chennai and fly them. The runway is cleared.

The sandwiches and the beer flow. My colleague from Chennai, Ajith, is also into aero-modelling. On Sundays, we go out and fly our planes and cheer when the other person's plane crashes. We fly our model planes like real planes. We do somersaults in the air, flip and flop the plane like the real thing. If you saw them in the air, you wouldn't know the difference except that they are one-fourth the size of a real plane.

Thrill ride

This hobby revives the child within me. I can't describe to you the thrill of building a plane and then flying it. On the day I go out to fly my planes, I'm up at 4 am looking out of the window to see when it will be sunrise. I quickly have a bath, pray that I don't have a crash and drive off to the airport. I don't think anything else gives me such a high, except golf, which I'm very passionate about. I've won two national championships.

Lately, I've been neglecting golf because Mani Rathnam didn't want me to be out in the sun and get tanned while shooting for Guru. But between golf and aero-modelling, the latter wins hands down."

As told to Subhash K Jha

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Flying my own model 'copters -Madhavan

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