Many years ago I worked for the world's largest civilian operator of the 500 type - at one point we had 85 of them. We started with C models and, just as I was leaving the company, had upgraded to D models.

We had a contract with the World Health Organisation in West Africa to spray the rivers to prevent "river blindness". We had a fleet of 9 500D's (plus a couple of Ayres S2R Turbo Thrush, which replaced Pilatus Turbo Porters). We flew a LOT and flew the machines HARD. Always hot, always heavy, often in severe confined areas, sometimes following a river under the tree canopy.

We had a great maintenance schedule. Every week each machine went through a 50 hour inspection. First a 50, then a 100, then a 50, then a 200, then a 50, and so on. These were the days when Makita first came out with their 7.2V NiCad-powered cordless drills - we wore out quite a few of them opening and closing access panels, particularly the rear floorboard panels.

As the "radio man" the 500's kept me busy. There were some items which were just a giant PITA to work on, particularly the standard equipment intercom box which was nearly impossible to access.

I was treated to quite a lot of "radio check flights" with dual controls in the helicopters. I got so I could hover in a tailwind, so I was reasonably proficient, but, of course, without one minute of that time captured in a logbook. No, I'm not helicopter-rated. Given a lottery win I would most definitely pursue the addition of the letter "R" to my license.

With that same company I flew the Bell 206 family, of which the L1 was my fav'. We had a straight 204 which had seen military service - it came to us as a basket case and I cut my teeth on it by having to pretty much re-wire the entire helicopter while on a forest fire fighting contract, doing a little bit every night to ensure the machine was ready for duty by 7am every morning. I enjoyed flying it; given its history I was proud to have been able to work with such an old warhorse. We had 212's as well; I enjoyed working on them but really didn't enjoy flying them.

We also had a fleet of AS350's. I got a bit of stick time in them. I hated maintaining their electrical systems - the pushbutton switches and PCB in the centre console were frustrating in the extreme.

Of all the helicopters in the fleet, the 500D was, by a huge margin, my absolute favourite. The comparison to the Ferrari is accurate - a 206 felt like a lead sled in comparison. Oh, it didn't help that a 500D is about 25% faster than a 206B. The 5-blade rotor head, spring-boosted fully mechanical controls and phenomenal visibility made the 500 an absolute blast to fly.

Of course there's no record of me ever having flown one of these machines, so everything written above is just a figment of the imagination. Still, if I could have a helicopter it would be a 500. Next in line would be a Gazelle - second most fun helicopter to fly.

What ever happened to the Notar (No Tail Rotor) version of the 500. It seemed to show up for awhile and disappear.

500 with no door (doing suspended load work for the local utility):

NOTAR is more of a novelty. Not very efficient and more complex than a conventional anti torque rotor system