The Winter Festival organisers welcome the Air Ambulance stall for the best of reasons. In a widespread community, with an influx of tourists every year, hills, 400 feet cliffs, boating as well as the inherently risky work of forestry and farming only a helicopter stands between life and death in many situations. The Para medics are supplied for a few days at a time by the NHS; the pilots and helicopters are dependent on voluntary contributions. And flying a helicopter is as difficult and demanding as flying a passenger jet. "I think flying a helicopter is more demanding than flying a Boeing 737," says a British Airways captain. "And I am not saying that because that may be what you want to hear. The different pieces of machinery on a helicopter have to be in the kind of balance you just do not appreciate until you try it."

I then asked a helicopter pilot who flies back and forward from Aberdeen to the oil rigs and who flew an Air Ambulance in the USA. "On a helicopter you are affected by gusts of wind coming off high waves or swirling round the rigs. Flying an Air Ambulance you may be called anywhere and in any conditions. Of course, you need to be prudent but when you know some poor guy is stuck on the side of a mountain with a couple of broken legs you really do want to push the edge of the envelope."

The Wales Air Ambulance has already flown thousands of missions.