Blois - France The Trip Begins!

http://www.ulmblois.com/frame-idx-uk.html

Lawn Cut
Fish Water Changed
Pillows Packed
Aircraft Prep ed
Plans Made - Made Again
GAR Forms Filed
Buy Camera
Say chero to Charlotte
Ring the kids...


Its time to fly to France!

As always I feel a pang of doubt about the 65 miles across water 130 if I want to come back! is the risk worth the reward? Do I stay with the aircraft of jump at the last minute in the event of accident.....I a jumper... I hope not to find out if this method works!

Bleriot - Our Next Experdition! - 100 years since the first Channel Crossing...

One Saturday 25th July 2009, 150 British Microlights will set out to recreate Loius Bleriots flight.

(excerpted from Aviation's Belle Epoque, by Robert WohlCopyright: Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine, April/May 1996)

Late in the summer of 1908, on a racetrack near the French city of Le Mans, Wilbur Wright climbed into his Flyer to show a disbelieving nation that his machine did indeed fly. Wright's long-term goal was the Establishment of Wright-licensed factories in France, but his demonstration flights had another effect altogether: They set the French to creating their own aircraft industry at a giddy pace. ........................................................

Wright's fame in France, however, was destined to be more fleeting than Prade or Wright himself could have imagined, in large part because of critical decisions he made in the aftermath of his triumphant flights in 1908 and 1909. An aviation enthusiast who had traveled to France to see Wright fly, Lord Northcliffe, proprietor of the widely read newspaper the Daily Mail and one of the most powerful men in England, offered a prize of 1,000 pounds ($5,000) for the first flight across the English Channel. Northcliffe tried to interest Wright in the exploit, privately guaranteeing him a $7,500 bonus on top of the public prize and half the net receipts from the exhibition of the Flyer in London. Wright was briefly tempted, but he demurred because of Orville's fear that the Flyer's engine was not reliable enough to make the Channel crossing and his own belief that "exceptional feats" were ill suited to the image of inventor that he was determined to cultivate for himself and his brother.

In the spring of 1909, after satisfying his contractual obligations to train selected Frenchmen and Italians to fly the Wright machine, Wilbur returned to the U.S. and devoted himself primarily to his business affairs. The aviator would increasingly give way to the capitalist, a change that did not sit well with Wright's admirers, not to mention his critics. It also opened a window of opportunity for the French.

With Wright out of the running for the Daily Mail prize, the favorite was Hubert Latham, a wealthy sportsman and man-about-town who had only recently learned to fly. Piloting a graceful Antoinette IV monoplane designed by the rotund engineer Leon Levavasseur, Latham took off on July 19 and was seven miles out to sea when his 50-horsepower water-cooled V-8 engine died. Unable to restart it, Latham glided down and alighted on the water, where a French destroyer escort found him a few minutes later, nonchalantly smoking a cigarette. When he arrived in Calais to a hero's welcome, Latham announced his determination to try again: "The Channel will be conquered. I'm starting over and I will succeed."

The Channel would indeed be conquered, but not by the debonair Latham. His place in history would be usurped by a dour French aviator and aircraft designer in blue coveralls. At daybreak on July 25, 1909, Louis Bleriot succeeded in making the 23-mile crossing to Dover in 37 minutes despite his overheating 25-horsepower Anzani engine. The sight of ships steaming toward port had alerted him to change his heading, which was taking him toward the North Sea.
The French press immediately interpreted Bleriot's exploit as a triumph of the monoplane--a French solution to flight--over Wright's American biplane, which, it was now remembered, had the additional defect of having to be catapulted into the air by means of a cumbersome derrick and rail. In the aftermath of the flight, while Bleriot was being celebrated in London and Paris by huge crowds, orders for his flying machine, the Bleriot XI, which was in large part designed by engineer Raymond Saulnier, began to arrive in droves. (Selling price in the United States was $850 assembled, plus $1,000 for an engine.) It would become one of the most popular aircraft of the pre-war period and would consecrate the reign of the monoplane. Favored by air racers, monoplanes proved speedier than biplanes, provided greater visibility, and were cheaper to maintain. But the monoplane's notorious instability and higher landing speeds produced a lengthy list of aviators who died at its controls. (In 1912, the French army grounded all Bleriots after numerous fatalities caused by inflight wing failure, and England's Royal Flying Corps went so far as to ground all monoplanes.)
The French had further reason to celebrate their aeronautical achievements the following September at the conclusion of the great airshow at Rheims, which attracted 500,000 spectators, many of them dignitaries from France and abroad. Though Glenn Curtiss edged out Bleriot in the 12-mile Gordon Bennett race, Bleriot set a world speed record for a single lap--47.84 mph--and French aviators dominated all other events. Latham in particular dazzled the audience by ascending to an extraordinary 508 feet in his delicate dragonfly-like Antoinette monoplane, winning the altitude prize and leaving spectators with the impression that he was about to disappear in the sky. One awestruck German journalist wrote that it was a "picture more beautiful in its harmonic forms than one can imagine."

Getting his pounds worth......

I have come to know Brain a little more over the last 7 days as a man who has his own mind, holds an innocent view of the world, and comes at the world with binary logic. But the most interesting thing is, he has an open mind, and listerns without interferance from his ego to what others have to say. That is a real skill. I like Brian. I am pleased he chose to fly with us.

Oh, I almost forgot, this is Brian getting his money's worth out of a £1 stool from ASDA. I understand others paid nearly 4 time as much....

Reminder - Decision Making!?

At the end of a busy day flying over 6 hours, the decision to land while coming in "too hot" did not bite too hard...I over shot the end of the runway. A short narrow strip with a strong cross wind, high silage grass at Carlobs and the information to "Land in the middle" meant that I landed half way down....too hot (70mph) and could not stop at the end running 30 meters into the silage grass, I am pleased to say that the over run was smooth.

Day Three - Carlobs - Strathavon

Carlobs - Strathavon
1 hour - 35 miles ;(
Highlights: The whole group is back together at Strathaven, weathed in due to low cloud.

Martin & Andy made it to the target Airfield at Oban becuase they left early. Our group hindered by a great nite in the Ramsey Hotel where the celibrations for most was the end of a day of the villages celibrations with a Scottish music festival's, took in a leasurely Scottish Breakfast and took time to mend some heads! The second wave of folks to leave made it to Strathavon and got stuck listening to "Anecdotes and Stories " making decisions through doubt and uncertainty rather than.... We watched the F1 Grand Prix which ended at 1500hrs, did not make it past Strathavon, minded to keep the team together we stayed, lets hope this is not a "Dornoch" Moment.....time will tell how long we are here for..

I am getting annoyed with the size of the group we flying in, one pushing to race off and reach conclusions quickly, the other half with a slower approach to decisions but with an eye for the whole week and the prise of the western isles! May be the outer Hebrides!

The news is it should be clearing tomorrow.....watch this space...

Tonight we are camping in the hanger!

I am excited! this coming weekend, I am off to compete! My first competition, the first round of the nationals at Over Farm Gloucester.

I have my tent packed, and the trike almost ready, P & M are helping with

dam trimmer issues again! I had Billy Brooks the man himself stumped today...I think its one of those design issues so hopefully the replacement

Parts can be collected from Manton tomorrow!

I posted the news on the HMFC site and have 5 folks coming with me or planing to come I should say...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmd05dB70rU

here is hoping the weather plays ball and its not too dam cold! Must pack the whiskey!