In 2006 I had the immense good fortune to travel to Europe with my friend William "Bill" Satterberg. Bill is an accomplished European traveler and had many contacts in Luxembourg and in the aviation community through his work and friendship with Cargolux Airlines. During our travels we visited the Mosel River wineries including the legendary J.J. Prum. Also memorable was a visit to Bad Durkheim Winery in the Pfaltz Region where Bill had forged a friendship with the owners of the Kurt Darting winery. Here we sampled legendary late harvest riesling wines, which had been among my favorite dessert wines for many years.
The highlight of our journey was attendance at the Paris Air Show. Here was a world class display of the biggest and best of aviation - both military and commercial, with entrants from all over the world, including an eerily prescient display of fighter aircraft from the Peoples Republic of China.
I was drawn to the display by Dassault Aviation which featured their Mirage Fighter Jet, and purchased a cap which featured a prominent figure "2" signifying, in my mind, the GIB (guy in back), "Pilote Officiel" and a chance to imagine flight in one of the world's most capable fighter jets!
This hat quickly became my favorite and I have worn it nearly daily ever since, including on many of my flights into the Northern most regions of wild Alaska as featured in this blog.
This hat was looking a bit worn after 15 years so I went on French eBay and found a brand new replacement, offered by Christian, a fellow pilot and photographer by trade, with whom I share the same birth year - 1945 and experience in taildragger aircraft - he has flown a Super Cub, and he has flown to Senegal in Africa! We have enjoyed a spirited correspondence, and I have received and enjoyed wearing this new hat. I hope some day to meet Christian and I plan to continue correspondence with my brother pilot. He is deeply involved in a project called "Reves de Gosse" (Children's Dreams) which offers an opportunity for physically or mentally handicapped children throughout France to experience the wonder of flight in small aircraft. The internet link to this exciting and worthy volunteer enterprise is: https://revesdegosse.fr
Enclosed a few pictures of "Pilote Officiel".
No comments:
Post a Comment