Have you ever stopped to think that we are all doing the impossible?
What would you say if someone told you that you could take a mechanical device with no built-in stability and make it fly by remote control with no on-board autopilot and no control feedback to give you any 'feel'? Obviously it's impossible, yet we do just that on a regular basis.
We are not the only ones, however. Consider using a stick with a lump on the end to knock a small ball several hundred yards and make it land within a few feet of where you want it. Maybe the lump on the end of the stick does have a flat on it, but the only way that you can tell the location of the flat is by looking at it. How can a golfer possibly do something so precise by such means? Even that can't compare with the idea of poking a small ball with a stick and by making the said ball hit another ball, push that ball into a small hole while making the first ball go to a predetermined position. Add to that the fact that both balls may have to bounce off walls in the process and it is obvious that any competent snooker player is a magician of considerable powers.
Let's go back to flying model helicopters. Consider an autorotation. If you autorotate a full-size helicopter, you have lots of 'seat of the pants' feel and the help of a rotor speed indicator, plus the sound of the rotors, to tell you just what is going on - and you can still get it wrong. When you autorotate a model, you have none of these to help you with your 'energy management', yet many of us seem to manage alright and on a regular basis. Right now, I'm only talking about a straight line auto, add in a 180 degree turn and a spot landing - not to mention the sort of thing that Bob Johnston gets uo to - and you have something akin to black magic! You may not agree, but it is clear to me that there is a lot more to this business than meets the eye. Putting things in more general terms it seems obvious that anyone who is any good at all at any of what we might call the 'control sports' is using something more than just the usual six senses. Let's forget for the moment that handful of people who are REALLY good - we already have enough problems.
Some years ago, we in the UK regularly saw on television a snooker player called Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins. This man was totally unreal! He could literally do the impossible - but not always. There were clearly times when his 'talent' let him down. This was my first real inkling that there were forces at work here that did not follow the accepted laws of nature. It seemed that while even a 'good average' player was using something extra, there were a handful of people who had an abundance of this extra talent. From this it seemed clear that most people had some degree of whatever this extra ability was. In other words we all had it to some extent, which explains why anyone of normal abilities can learn to fly a model helicopter.
Do be careful, however. If you are one of the handful of REALLY talented people, you might come to the attention of 'them'. However, most of us have little real ambition to become a famous snooker player or golfer, although most of us would like to be a better helicopter flyer - after all, fame is a terrible drag. It should be quite safe to sink all your energy into flying model helicopters because there is little chance of becoming famous outside of our own little universe.
On the other hand...
There is another side of this coin which may strike a chord with some of you. It may actually have little to do with the above, but I think it does. It concerns the business of 'lucky' and 'unlucky' models. I had a model (fixed wing) once which it was impossible to take a photo of. Several well-known modelling journalists of the time attempted to photograph it and never produced a usable photo. My own attempts were invariably blurred, or wrongly exposed. This particular machines greatest claim to fame was that it once came second in a contest with two entries - and the other entrant didn't even fly!
I eventually gave this model away to a friend whose first attempt to fly it ended with a crash. After repairs it was stored in a lock-up garage which the friend rented to store models and fuel. Subsequently, the garage was broken into and the only thing stolen was - yes, the said model. Fortunately, through the efforts of the police, the model was eventually recovered. The rather distinctive colour scheme had been overpainted with a layer of black household paint. I apologised to the friend, assured him that I didn't want it back and advised him to give it to someone he didn't like!
I was once in the position of having a pair of similar models which were used in competitive events. There was little to choose between them and I had some difficulty in deciding which one to use for a given contest. At one particular event, I experienced a problem with the model that I had chosen and decided to switch to the other. The otherwise completely reliable motor refused to start. When persuaded into life it would only run for a few seconds with the model held in one position - obviously a tank problem. A couple of days later I took the model out to find what was wrong with it. It started and ran perfectly. You can believe what you like, but to me there is only one logical conclusion - it was SULKING!
From then onwards, I always took great care to talk to both models on the way to the contest, inform them which one I intended to use and why, and reassured the other one that this in no way could be taken as a slight on its abilities. It seemed to work.