Bleriot centenary flights

This link was just e-mailed to me.

http://aerodrome.se/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19:the-channel-crossing&catid=1:news&Itemid=11

Mikael’s account on what happened
An interesting read..!

-E

So having two Bleriots arrive in the morning ….

“Bleriot celebrations without Bleriots” Honestly……

..arrived before the gates opened. Unknown to anybody who would have liked to have caught them. Therefore we might as well have gone to a museum to see some static Bleriots.

A very odd day to be a visitor to the event. The ATC and organising chaps at the school didn’t seem to have much of a clue what was going on during the day, and even forgot about the time difference between the UK and the mainland Europe. :confused:

The day helped to top up the tan though. 😮

Some pics here:

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13668

tetchy ‘weight shift crowd’s’ responses

:rolleyes:

All areas of flying have their idiots, those who are incapable of doing things properly, and those who cant be bothered to or dont even know how to check NOTAMS, but I guess that it’s the “Accident in the rear view mirror” syndrome that features here.

I was at Dover all day on Saturday, both at the school landing strip and down at the harbour and most of the RA(T) infringements I saw, funnily enough, were microlights……There was even a German aircraft which did an unannounced beat up of the airstrip, without clearance or R/T contact. Oh, guess what? – a microlight! Of course, there was the obligatory Cessna flying through the air display area, but to cap that, he turned round and came back for a second look…….

Not surprising really is it, to have 300+ microlights, an air race, 2 air displays and the combined Red Arrows & Patrouille de France teams all converging on one piece of sky with the supposed ‘protection’ of a RA(T) and a few infringements occur.

I must say that the days proceedings and lack of airmanship displayed by a lot of pilots, both microlight and fixed wing, made me feel quite embarrassed to be part of the UK GA scene..

Tetchy indeed……:diablo:

I am not techy but if you look at the statistics for accidents and “incidents” you will see that British microlights both fixed wing and weightshift are as safe as other small aircraft or helicopter.
I don’t think you do anyone any favours by maligning one type of aircraft or pilot.

Saturdays Flex wing was safely seven seconds in front of the Red Arrows at the same height

I quite agree…..and be prepared for the tetchy ‘weight shift crowd’s’ responses.

I am not techy but if you look at the statistics for accidents and “incidents” you will see that British microlights both fixed wing and weightshift are as safe as other small aircraft or helicopter.
I don’t think you do anyone any favours by maligning one type of aircraft or pilot.

Sorry to hear about that Trevor, glad it ended well though, just goes to show what a skilled pilot you are.

Cheers, Huw

Crickey! Must have been a bit hairy. At least you got the jet back on the ground OK. Thanks for letting us know the details.

Sorry YR, didn’t realise it was you.

Pleased you walked away and that the Pup (not Bulldog) will live to fly again.

Moggy

Yes, I was flying the Pup 150 when we had an engine failure downwind at Lydd. The airfield is surrounded by lakes, drainage channels and banks, interspersed with small fields, so I had to try and choose a spot to give me the best chance of not ending up in one, which meant a curving approach right down to about 10 feet above the ground.

For obvious reasons I’m not going in to any more detail. Everyone will have to wait for the accident report. It’s been a traumatic couple of days and I still feel pretty low. At least while plummeting earthwards I heroically turned away from the nearby nuclear power station!

Oh, you mean the Bleriots that crossed the channel on the anniversary and were there until the late afternoon?

You know Saturday would have been a better day for you really….

I was also there on saturday on the seafront as there were more air displays on the seafront during saturday…

I enjoyed seeing the Stearman and Lancaster perform over the harbour perticularly, the close succession flyby from the Reds and the Patroule France was great too. Although there was significantly less happening on the day I visited the military school due to high winds, which is completely understandable, I enjoyed seeign what was there. The Stearman was expertly flown in another great display in difficult winds, the landings took some skill! Then there was seeing Mikael’s Bleriot up close followed by one of the best Spitfire displays I’ve seen this year by Cliff Spink in TD248. To round the day off Mike Newman performed flawlessly in the Fox glider!

Cheers, Huw

One microlight got an excellent view of the Reds and Patrouille Flypast

If Mikael hadn’t made it across early on sunday morning, and well done to him for doing so, there would not have been a Bleriot around on sunday and indeed I would not have seen one all weekend! The two that were supposed to be at the military school were dismantled and left by road…

Oh, you mean the Bleriots that crossed the channel on the anniversary and were there until the late afternoon?

You know Saturday would have been a better day for you really….

YakRider: Were you in the Bulldog/Pup which put down in a cornfield, as indicated in a post on another forum?

The reason the air racers were ‘late’ was the result of a Eurostar ultralight being the first off. The pilot didn’t want to fly at full throttle because of his Rotax engine SOPs, so his declared race speed was only 86.6 mph after the practice octagon in the morning.

He took off at exactly 3pm French local time. The number two aircraft in the race, an AA-1, took off nearly 20 minutes later, and we were sitting on the runway burning fuel all this time. The fastest aircraft in the race – a Baron – took off at +37:28. His race speed was 240.09 mph. There were 24 aircraft in the race.

We saw the Stearman heading towards us and wondered what was going on. There was a huge amount of turbulence from the terrain and other aircraft, so an interesting couple of minutes flying until we could get clear of Dover.

You can see the two official GPS units we carry for the race data sitting on top of the instrument panel in the pics.

The overall organisation seems to have been fairly chaotic. The air race had been planned for months and the timings worked out. The original route was over Blériot Plage at Calais, with the agreement of the mayor. Then other officials got involved and said no, so a new last-minute route was planned via Cap Griz Nez.

On the Saturday morning it was not clear whether there could be a race at all because of the French microlights, so we had to practice for a closed five-point course at Abbeville. It was during practice that we were told the would be a race, with a route modified yet again.

The final route flown was Abbeville – BNE VOR (Boulogne)- Dover, coasting out to the east of Cap Griz Nez. It was only the huge amount of behind-the-scenes work by the RAeC race team and our French hosts at Abbeville that enabled this to happen.

Yesterday afternoon, I flew back from Cannes and crossed Le Manche via Abbeville to Shorham. London Info and Shorham were both rather busy with foriegn registered microlights.

I just realised, our crossing time was almost exactly the same as Monsuier Bleriot’s.

Even though we had a much longer crossing distance, the Bonanza is a quick aircraft. Almost wish it was mine. Another interesting 100th aniversary entry for the logbook.

camlobe

I was watching the Stearman displaying on the Saturday and half way through the air racers began to arrive over the site… Looked a bit dodgy to me as the Stearman had to head off low and quick as about 15 other aircraft flew over coming the other way…. (but I am not an aviator so could just be a skewed non-experts view!)

The Lancaster flyby was amazing – never seen PA474 in the air that close.

Watched the Red Arrows and the French team fly over Dover Castle… and that was literally it – thought after all the effort to get there in formation one of them would have displayed along the sea front…

Glad to hear Mikael made it over this morning!

So having two Bleriots arrive in the morning is not good enough? One of them containing probably as many original bits as Michael Carlson’s (and I mean no disrespect to him but all of the woodwork is new) and one flown on an original 80hp Le Rhone. Edmond Salis flew the aeroplane his father had flown across the channel for the 60th anniversary in 1969 and by his grandfather for the 50th in 1959. No mean feat, three generations on three significant anniversaries in the same aeroplane. He deserves some credit.

“Bleriot celebrations without Bleriots” Honestly……

If Mikael hadn’t made it across early on sunday morning, and well done to him for doing so, there would not have been a Bleriot around on sunday and indeed I would not have seen one all weekend! The two that were supposed to be at the military school were dismantled and left by road…

One microlight has already come down with one slight and one serious injury.

Be prepared for a weekend of incidents and airspace busts

Moggy

I quite agree…..and be prepared for the tetchy ‘weight shift crowd’s’ responses.

I attended the Headcorn Proms yesterday evening, some superb flying on show, well done to all:cool:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1202165/THE-WIDER-VIEW-100-years-Bleriot-flew-Channel-identical-plane-repeats-feat.html

The crossing of the 3 Bleriot XIs has been cancelled due to bad weather conditions on the continent. Just announced as I sat down on the hotel balcony ready to see them arriving. Also earlyer the BBMF Spitfire had to canx due to bursting the tailwheel.

Sort of stuffed the weekend, Bleriot celebrations without Bleriots… The weather looks worse for tomorrow so can’t even see them giving it a second go.

Cheers, Huw

So having two Bleriots arrive in the morning is not good enough? One of them containing probably as many original bits as Michael Carlson’s (and I mean no disrespect to him but all of the woodwork is new) and one flown on an original 80hp Le Rhone. Edmond Salis flew the aeroplane his father had flown across the channel for the 60th anniversary in 1969 and by his grandfather for the 50th in 1959. No mean feat, three generations on three significant anniversaries in the same aeroplane. He deserves some credit.

“Bleriot celebrations without Bleriots” Honestly……