Chauvenism at 100th aniversery of Chanel flight

Makhpiyaluta · 26 July 2009, 11:43 AM

Last saturday 25th of July was the 100th anniversary of the 1909 Chanel Flight by Louis Bleriot. Ofcourse this called for a celebration. We knew the French would reanact the flight by crossing an original Bleriot flown by Edmund Sallis.
Ofcourse our Foundation aslo wanted to make the flight with our Bleriot replica as would Mikael Carlson from Sweden and an pilot from Luxemburg.
Well in the early morning arround 8.30 hour the French took of from Bleriot Plage with two Bleriots at that moment the winds were not to strong about ten knots but the weather forcast learnt us that the winds would go up in the following hours to about twenty knots and altough we were scheduled to fly at 18.00 hours we asked the orginisers to give us all clearence to take of but this was rejected. We were only allowed to take of at 18.00 hours. Wel you can guess what happend the winds got stronger by the hour and we had to stay on the ground. So finaly at 18.00 hours we all brought our Bleriots to the take of field but there was no way to take of at that time without the chance to crash. So then we asked the orginisation if it would be possible to take of at 20.00 hours because the weatherforcast gave us a good opportunity because the wind would be going down at that time but again they refused.
The one who was most disapointed was Ernie from Sesamestreet who was to undergo his first Chanel flight. Here are some photos and a link to an Newspaper item with Mikael Carlsons vision on the whole situation.

Attempt to recreate Louis Bleriot's Channel crossing grounded - Telegraph

One of the French Bleriots heading for Dover.

Assemblage of our Bleriot.

Mikael Carlson test running the Gnome.

Bringing our Bleriot to the field Ernie already in the cockpit.

Makhpiyaluta · 26 July 2009, 11:57 AM

Luxemburg Bleriot.

Carlsons Bleriot.

Our real pilot Henk.

And a verry disappointed Ernie we can only hope that Bert can comforte him abit.

Wel at least we were all there and tried to make the best of the situation and we did have a marvelous time. It was warm and there was beer

Willem

Jim Bruton · 26 July 2009, 08:37 PM

Ed and I were at Hangar 1 yesterday, thinking of you and your team Willem. I am sorry that your Bleriot was not given clearance to fly during a safe window.

Will you make another attempt in the near future?

Jim

Dogtail2 · 27 July 2009, 12:51 AM

None of this surprises me. The French did not even invite The Queen, to the 65th D-Day commemoration in Normandy in June. She is the only Allied head of state who was actually around at the time!

Froggy · 27 July 2009, 01:07 AM

Bonjour à tous

I do not see how you can accuse France of chauvinism just by avoiding an accident because of the strong wind and I find it quite normal that it is a French team that has the honor to start-don't forget that we celebrated the anniversary of 100 years of the first crossing of the channel by Louis Bleriot.secondo I can not see what the 65 th anniversary of DDay has to do in this story?

Cordialement
Bruno

crankcase · 27 July 2009, 01:31 AM

Sorry to hear about the guys who were "grounded"... very disappointing, indeed; but there is really no need to escalate this into a national-political issue!
marc

Makhpiyaluta · 27 July 2009, 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Froggy

Bonjour à tous

I do not see how you can accuse France of chauvinism just by avoiding an accident because of the strong wind and I find it quite normal that it is a French team that has the honor to start-don't forget that we celebrated the anniversary of 100 years of the first crossing of the channel by Louis Bleriot.secondo I can not see what the 65 th anniversary of DDay has to do in this story?

Cordialement
Bruno

Bruno,

It's the orginisation wich was keeping us on the ground I'm glad that Edmond Salis made it and yes it's natural that the French started first. My congratulations to him he did a fine job. But we were in contact with the English side and there were enough opportunities to start if they would have been a little more flexible and adjusted the program wich was no problem with the English. But the French orginisation just kept to the program while everybody knows you can't just say ok we fly a Bleriot on that and that hour it doesn't work that way. To us it seemed they didn't wanted foreiners in there party if that was so they could of told us before then we didn't have to get in to the trouble of arranging things months before the date. It's got nothing to do with politics we are just very disapointed in the way the orginisation kept us grounded. There could have flown five Bleriots over the Chanel or La Manche as you cal it.
The rest of the French people who assited us and the audiance were great!!!

Willem

28 July 2009, 03:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Makhpiyaluta

And a verry disappointed Ernie we can only hope that Bert can comforte him abit.

Wel at least we were all there and tried to make the best of the situation and we did have a marvelous time. It was warm and there was beer

Willem

Aha,...I see that someone has a young child or grandchild. This is nearly a nice touch as Henk's very fine period pilot outfit.

Very well done,...A+ for Panache despite the grounding.

Makhpiyaluta · 28 July 2009, 10:28 AM

Thanks for your kind words Joe and yes my daughter is pregnant so I'm going to be a grandfather soon. I thought it would be nice to give a real Channel Crossing pilot Ernie. Well at least he was there.
We wil trie again in another 100 years.

Willem

bristol scout · 28 July 2009, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crankcase

Sorry to hear about the guys who were "grounded"... very disappointing, indeed; but there is really no need to escalate this into a national-political issue!
marc

Why would someone being critical of French intransigence and voicing that here be considered, by anyone as 'escalating this into a national-political issue'???? Are we all that thin skinned around here??
Dave.