The heights of great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

DUANVALE,Trelawny

Noel Malcolm is one of those men who epitomises one of Longfellow’s greatest lessons.

Thirty-four years ago when he decided to go practical with his flying obsession, he was just 20 years old. Today, at the age of 54, Malcolm, the auto mechanic who is affectionately known to Duanvale District as ‘Pulley’, is just a 1800 cc VW engine away from realising his dream: a fully functional, self-manufactured helicopter.

All he needs is the right sponsor.

“Currently, the engine I have in this helicopter is a 1600 cc engine. It is not suitable to fly this helicopter. The 1800 will be more suitable,” Malcolm explained.

According to Malcolm, so far, the 1600 engine is only able to rock the chopper off the ground, but expressed confidence that once powered by a 1800 cc engine the chopper will take off, with the Civil Aviation Authority’s approval.

A past student of the Duanvale Primary School, Malcolm became obsessed with becoming an aircraft engineer at age 15. With this in mind, he would walk nine miles to the Falmouth Library twice weekly to study any aviation book he could put his hands on.

He subsequently migrated to Kingston to live with his sister. There he worked with a printery, while continuing to hammer away at aviation work at the Tom Redcam Library every Saturday.

Four years after he thought he had saved enough money, ‘Pulley’ returned to his rural community base to launch his pet project. His relatives and close friends were not amused.

“During that time family members thought I was wasting time. They thought it was impossible for me to build a flying machine,” Malcolm noted.

After six years of assiduous trial and error work on the aircraft project, the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) got wind of the enterprise and offered to help.

Arrangements were made for the Trelawny man to move his operations into the JDF camp in Kingston.

But, after four years, Malcolm left the JDF camp, opting instead for a job as an aircraft mechanic with Trans Jamaican Airline at the Tinson Pen Aerodrome. Four years after that, he bought a minibus then returned to Trelawny.

“As a self-employed person, I thought I could get spare time to work on my project,” Malcolm said.

Since then, the auto mechanic has completed the framework of his chopper, which he has fitted with “main and tail rotor blades, seat instruments, suitable drive system, power plant and controls”.

The self-styled mechanic, however, stressed that building the rotor blades has been the most challenging aspect of his 34-year effort.

Still, he has never become frustrated. In fact, whenever he feels depressed, all he has to do is look at his endeavour, which he intends to spruce up with a posh cabin after he has acquired the engine.

“Yes, I’d love to have a posh cabin in, but that can come after I’ve ensured that the main things are in place,” he said.