Fly-in at Lognes, June 20th & 21st, 2015

On March 16th, 2005, Mr. Patrick Garreau and myself, under the banner of "Rotors du Monde" association, organized a successful event at Toussus-le-Noble Airport to commemorate at that time the 50th anniversary of the Alouette II in presence of Mr. Jean Boulet, Mr. & Mrs. René Mouille as well as other VIPs. As we entered 2015, we could not miss the opportunity to organize another event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the "Belle Dame" – the Alouette II.

Our plan was to have a public event at Lognes-Emerainville Airfield (LFPL), which is located East of Paris on the weekend of June 20th and 21st, 2015, coinciding the last public days of the Paris Air Show.

We had two ideas for the project :

1. Saturday June 20th and Sunday June 21st :

A gathering of Alouette IIs on static display and open to the public.

2. Sunday June 21st :

A fly-by of five Alouette IIs to open the last public day of Paris Air Show. But even if we invested a lot of effort, we would have never got got the approval from the committee in charge of the 51st Salon International de l’Air et de l’Espace organization so we had to cancel that project, which was, by-the-way, not really supported by our representatives

Nevertheless, we believed that there was an opportunity to gather a significant number of aircraft. But even if this fly-in looked attractive after several requests to the fuel supplier at Lognes-Emerainville Airfield (Automat 100LL & JET.A1) they declined to sponsor our project. We envisioned having 15 Alouette IIs on display with each aircraft receiving 500 litres of fuel, for a total of 7,500 litres from the fuel sponsor. Other fuel providers also declined the sponsorship opportunity because of limited budgets.

Vincent Furon, Rotors du Monde.

(English translation by Pierre Gillard and Kenneth Swartz).

F-AYCG (Robert Chapel – Stéphane Buy – Thomas Dannet) - Montpellier.
F-GZJF (Bertrand Pisler – Vincent Furon – John Robert) - Jura.

F-GPEP (Vincent Furon – Patrick Garreau), Helidan – Toussus-le-Noble.
F-AZYB (Pascal Petitgenet), Hélitechnique - Signy-Signets.
F-AZYQ (Pascal Petitgenet), Hélitechnique - Signy-Signets.
F-GDHL (Pascal Petitgenet), Ameridair - Signy-Signets (aircraft based at Pontoise).
F-GVAS (Bruno Picot) – La Ferté Gaucher.
N297CJ (Steve Atherton – Nigel Feetham) – United Kingdom.

To be noticed : The attendance of Mr. Laurent Michallat of the CELAG and the cut dynamic components of the Alouette II (MGB+engine+blades).

12:30 - 15:30 :

Arrival of Sécurité Civile's F-ZBPX EC145 coming from the "Dragon 75" Paris base.
Arrival of Gendarmerie Nationale's F-MJBI EC145 from the Section Aérienne that is based at Vélizy-Villacoublay.

11:00 - 13:00 : Reception of crews and guests.
13:00 - 16:00 : Cocktail, lunch, and discussions with our guests.
16:00 - 19:00 : Meeting with the public.
19:30 - 21:00 : Barbecue party with crews and our guests.

11:00 – 15:00 : Reception and discussion with the public.
15:00 – 18:00 : Departure of the helicopters to their bases.

A lot of interesting meetings have taken place during the event like, for instance, that with Mr André Weiss, a fellow retired civil pilot, who started to fly on Alouette IIs as early as 1957 !

Organizers would like to especially thank :

Stéphane Buy "Bichon", Rotor Club de Lognes President, who gave us a priceless continuous help during the preparation of the event and allowed us to meet Mr. Jacques Callies, Director of "Aviation & Pilote" magazine. This last gentleman immediately offered to welcome us in his facilities that are located close to the Lognes Airfield runways, in fact a privileged location with a 50 Sqm terrace-roof that gives view to the south-east corner of the airfield and allowed us to organize our reception activities for our guests.
Jacques Callies and all his redaction team, who have kindly received us during these two days.
Aigle-Azur, its General and Commecial Directions, Mrs. Christine Lavictoire (Directrice des Achats), Mrs. Nathalie Pereira and her team of the Marketing Service.
ALHWS (Alouette Hélicoptères Worldwide Services), represented by Mrs. Isabelle Parra (Directrice Commerciale) and Mr. Henri Ghirardini (Directeur Général Adjoint).
Philippe Platek of Aéroports de Paris (délégué opérationnel), who has considerably helped us during the whole preparation phase of the event.
Jacques Escaffre, Fédération Française de Giraviation President.
Laurent Michallat of Centre d’Etude & de Loisirs Aéronautique de Grenoble (CELAG).
Daniel Liron, aviation journalist (an Alouette II specialist among other subjects).
Thierry Perez, Lognes Airfield Commander, and all his ATC controller team, who was supplemented by French Air Force controllers for the occasion, due to the Paris Air Show and the ZRT setting up.
Pierre Gillard, webmaster of "Alouette & Lama" for his kind support and contacts.
Alexis Hübsch of "Class’Croûte" company.
Le Capitaine Frédéric Mazzia of Police de l'Air & des Frontières.
Préfecture de Seine-et-Marne Services.

To the Alouette II operators, who attended despite the lack of support, including the main fuel supplier, that resulted in a reduced number of participants. Thanks then to :

Eric & Gina Parthuisot – Helidan – (F-GPEP).
Pascal Petitgenet – Hélitechnique - who came with his two Alouettes: MSN 1003 (F-AZYQ) and the "Marine" (F-AZYB).
Bruno Picot (F-GVAS).
François Minard - Ameridair (F-GDHL).
Robert Chapel (F-AYCG), after a long navigation from Montpellier
Bertrand Pisler (F-GZJF), my Swiss friend, who came in company of John Robert.
Steven Atherton & Nigel Feetham (U.K) (N297CJ).

Thanks to Paris Sécurité Civile "Dragon 75" base Commander and F-ZBPX EC145 crew.

Thanks to the Section Aérienne de Gendarmerie of Vélizy-Villacoublay Commander and F-MJBI EC145 crew.

A special thank to our spotter friends :

Michael Maü and his spouse(Germany),
Alan Norris (U.K.),
John Robert,
Frédéric Ruffin,
Jean-Claude Fortuny,
Alexandro Fallone,
Their best pictures are displayed here.

These two days were fantastic and a lot of interesting meetings have taken place ... But this was the objective, no !