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Douzy Airshow : An historical place
Text & Pictures : Luc Dujardin - SBAP
On
Sunday, September 19th an airshow took place in Douzy (LFSJ)
commemorating the centennial of the flight duration record established by Roger
Sommer in August 1909. The Flying Club Douzy is also the name of this pioneer
(French licence No. 29) and manufacturer (182 units built).
A museum of the early years of this airfield and another presentation has been
recently been upgraded thanks to a team from Paris.
The
meeting included top stars such as aircraft from the AJBS (Amicale Jean-Baptiste
Salis) from La Ferte-Alais (SE-5, MS-317, Bücker 131 N3N-3, Beech 18S, T-6,
P-40, Yak-11, Zlin 526, Cap 20), but also former Wings of Lorraine (Klemm 35D,
SV-4). A Gazelle came to make 3 demonstrations during the day, but the foreseen
Mirage F-1 was sadly cancelled at the last minute.
The
meeting began with a demonstration of ULM pendulum. A few days earlier, during a
training flight the pilot had taken “lead in the wing”. Indeed, the wing was
damaged by a bullet coming from the ground. The police is still investigating
this matter. The Reva team has an exceptional demonstration with a single plane
(the LongEze), led by the leader of the team Real Weber. A second aircraft was
unavailable due to a failure wich could not be repaired before the start of the
meeting.
The third plane though was available, but not its pilot whose wife had been the
victim of a traffic accident. In the morning, an improvised formation saw the
longEze with the P-40N and the Yak-11 as wingman. The Zlin 526, was grounded
because of a technical failure but was repaired in the night, allowing Marc
"Leon" Mathis to show a beautiful aerobatic demonstration. Beech T-6 and 18 were
involved in a very explosive demonstration to simulate an air attack. Also to
underline
a demonstration of an F-22 Raptor...a
10 kg remote controlled model !
An historical event took place at the centennial meeting. Indeed, fortuitously, two veteran pilots of the Second World War met on site. The first, Lawrence "Larry" Peacock, 89, was a Vickers Wellington pilot in the RAF based in Italy and has done missions over Germany. After the war he flew the P-40 and it was with great interest and emotion he found himself in the cockpit of the P-40N of the AJBS. The second pilot, Erich Brunotte, 84, was a fighter pilot in the IV / JG 51 Mölders. He flew the Messerschmitt Me 108, Me 109G and K models and Focke Wulf Fw 190D-9, mostly on the eastern front and gained 33 victories, being shot himself once.. He still always wears his watch of Luftwaffe pilot. The two veterans were therefore were aware that the language barrier did not permit them to have long rallies.
The organizers of the event took advantage of slack time between flights to allow the public (informed or not) to approach the aircraft. An initiative highly appreciated!
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| Douzy Airfield hangar | Kiebitz B-450 (ULM type) under construction |
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| ULM demonstrations to start the flying program of the day | |
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| Old glories on the flight line | Public was able to approach the flying machines |
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| Enemies before...friends today ! | The famous original Luftwaffe watch |
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| Lawrence "Larry" Peacock | Erich Brunotte | Much emotions for this old pilot ! |
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| The improvised formation from the Long Eze, the P-40N and the Yak 11, amazing contrast in old and new design... | |
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| Piper PA-19 95HP Super Cub (F-BOMF) | Bücker 131 Jungmann (F-AZTT) |
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| SE5A replica from AJBS | Morane Saulnier MS733 Alcyon (F-AZZO) |
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| Klemm Kl-35 (F-AZTK) piloted by Thierry Klemm, same name but not related to the designer family | |
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| The first flight of the Klemm Kl-35 was held in 1935 | Zlin 526 (D-EAPH) in low level inverted flight |
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| The F-22 Raptor...from Edwards ??? | No, just a remote controlled model, but impressive ! |
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| SA342 Gazelle from the 3RHC (Regiment d'Hélicoptères de combat) based at Etain / Rouvres | |
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| The Gazelle did 3 different demonstrations during the flying program | |
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| Mudry Cap 20 (F-AZOE), this is the second aircraft built | Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3 (F-AZNF) |
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| Beechcraft 18 from the AJBS in hands of Jean-Pierre Lafille | |
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| Air attack for the Beech 18 and the T-6 Harvard of the AJBS | |
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| Philippe Chandelle, the Pitts pilot | Pitts S1-D (F-PRIA) |
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| Curtiss P-40N Warhawk (F-AZKU) | Yakovlev Yak 11 (F-AZNN) |
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| Acroez Long Eze from the "Reva Team" | Unusual aircraft design... |
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| Some more special shoot of this day at Douzy, not far away of Sedan (France) | ||