GARRIC POTEZ
Well, the Potez you are talking about is a POTEZ 63-11, it is being built in Texas by John GARRIC who is well known for his superbs yak 3 (based on yak11) …
It has been few years now he’s been working on the Potez and the project is superb .
John has been helped a lot by the french “Musée de l’air”
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Well i must confess i know well F AZUR as this is my toy for more than 12 years !
The story is a great one for me, at that time i was just out of the Air force and had no job, well from time to time i was working on a DC8 62 for Cargo Lion, flying from Gatwick, Dubai, Alma ata, Jobourg, nairobi ..always very keen to look around each time i had the opportunity in search for aviation wrecks with great history ! I heard via Xavier Meal that the RAF was selling her chippies but didn’t have really some money for that and no fixed job, so in fact i had to lie to my banker (a cute young french girl) and told her i found a job and that she had to send a fax to Phillips auction, a fax saying i had enough money on my account to be able to bid on the 30th may…
(two weeks before i had an interview and a simulator evaluation with charter airline Corsair but had no answer til then !)
The cute banker did what I said and there i was on the 30th may 1996 with my friend Didier Chable (with who i shared more than a month holidays in Chad retrieving AD4 Skyraiders in 1989)and my other friend Xavier Meal.
The second Chippie to be auctionned was WK562, one that had a very good evaluation made by didier at the Newton airbase where they could be inspected (++ was next to her picture), i bid on that toy and got it not without great excitment !
At the end of that auction i met Tony Bianchi who offered me to take care of her and bring her to Booker where she stayed few months…I hired Xavier meal’s cellphone (less comon in these days..) and decided to phone to Corsair people to know if they had any news concerning my 2 weeks old interview , after hesitating the lady said “for you, for you it is ……………it is ok !!! you got the job sir !” “well i’m glad because i just bought a nice toy i said”
Then in june i did my simulator training on 747 at Burgess Hill with Quadrant systems, Tony Bianchi and Tim Orchard told me all i had to know about the chippie and during three months i flew her usually at the end of the day after my simulators …
12 years later i just know i will keep her with me as long as i can, the chippie is the best ratio pleasure/cost you can get, Baptiste SALIS overhauled her engine a year ago (superb job, and i trust his job from the first second), and my friend Gerry Marchadier also from La Ferté Alais is great help whenever i need to understand her systems etc …he’s “THE GUY” at La Ferté Alais !
Then in 1996 i saw that Tony had a Yak 11 in the corner of his hangar, he was offering me to buy it…i was just telling him that i was the wrong guy for that kind of amount…but was amazed by that aircraft since 1980’s….desire is the key, i got a first yak11 project 3 years later that i sold due to main parts missing and got a superb and complete one 2 years ago in hungary, work began and i already have engine+ prop almost ready !
To finish with WK562, the day i went to french DGAC , i asked for a nice registration that would mean something, as i asked AZUR she replied “yes it is available” , it was also now 4 months with my new south african girlfriend katrin who will become my wife and we both decided to nickname the chippie “krazykat” (i knew she would never ask to sell a plane that wears her name ah ah …..), nickname that will reappear soon .
2 years ago i did my 777 rating for my new company Air France (AF comes for all frogs) we had to do patterns at Chateauroux, well, i took off with my chippie at 06h00, flew over hibernating french coutryside, parked her next to the 777, jumped in, did 45 minutes with the empty 777 300, drank a bier and got back to nantes, waht a day !
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