French Connection Airshow

Same author (in French only)

Aux Éditions France Empire La Petite Piste, récit. 1968 Ciel d’Affaires, récit. 1980

Paris – Pékin – Paris, la grande envolée, récit. 1988

Val de France Éditions (L’Atelier de l’Archer) L’Abécédaire de l’aviation, 1999 Les Métiers de l’aviation, 1999

Éditions Publibook

Les Corbeaux volent le bec en avant, roman 2002 La Vengeance du ciel, roman 2008

French connection airshow, témoignage 2012 L’Aéro-club d’Aubigny, témoignage 2013

Les Éditions de l’Officine

L’Afrique sous mes ailes, récit 2004

François Dabin Translation French/English by Laurent Pointeau

Review by Fred Robbins

French Connection Airshow

Montaine Mallet and Daniel Héligoin, the sky enchanters

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Gloomy Sunday

That last weekend of May 2000 looked promising from an aeronautical point of view. That day, as is often the case at that time of the year, the sun had decided to honor Sologne with its presence and flood the plains with sooth-ing beams. Throughout that sunny day, a lot of private pilots flocked to the flying club in order to take a short flight over the area, treating themselves to a few minutes of the pleasure that only comes from being in command of a flying machine.

That Sunday morning, upon entering the hangar whose

doors were just slightly ajar, I found Charles, the president of our association, bustling about lifting the hood of a Robin after he had just completed a recommended me-chanical check. He looked very upset and I barely had a chance to say hello to him before he suddenly delivered the sad news.

Montaine and Daniel were killed the day before during

a training session in Florida. They collided in mid-air. Once again, fate struck a blow to the aeronautical world

and to general aviation. I was literally taken aback as if I lost a part of my body. I stood silent for a moment. Every time I receive news like that, it hits me full shot, and this time was no different. Images started unfolding and bus-tling around in my head. It was hard for me to make sense of this avalanche of flashbacks and, without thinking, I instinctively answered:

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— We must cancel the show…!

* * *

Montaine Mallet and Daniel Héligoin, a legendary aer-obatic couple, gloriously departed from us in mid-air, bowing out in flight, as they were living out their passion together, side by side in tight formation.

These minstrels of the sky were of a dying breed. They

were undisputed masters of two ship formation aerobatics in light aircraft for more than two decades and their fame spread throughout the Americas, particularly in the US, where they were familiar with all of the airports that held a big airshow every year.

Each of their shows was a genuine aerial ballet, where

they glided with classical music and poetry, exciting the crowds. All of the spectators held their breath during their shows and gave them a huge standing ovation behind the guardrail as they taxied their planes back to the ramp, waving to the crowd.

They would open the canopies of their aircraft and

come down from the wing, mingling with the audience who greeted them with wild applause.

Both had big smiles that were as dazzling as their lumi-

nous white uniforms, where the only other colors displayed were the embroidered badges of their sponsors. They did not in any way regret the known or potential risks that they had taken during their shows, which made it uniquely flawless and well-liked by the spectators.

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They were artists who specialized in aerial dance and were the only experts of this delicate discipline. The plane was their trapeze, the sky their arena.

They were known and respected by every demonstra-

tion pilot who flew in the US, where it is quite difficult to make a name for yourself without really proving yourself first. Montaine and Daniel were among their "own kind" now that they had proven that two young individuals who came all the way from France could also delight crowds of thrill-seekers with the boldness and precision of their ae-rial demonstration.

Surprisingly, the pair had never practiced their art in

France and only a few Europeans who had the opportunity to cross paths with them in the US actually knew them. Some had witnessed their performance during prestigious air shows, like Oshkosh. But, in every French flying club, their fame was beginning to spread and many pilots would meet them at the Salon du Bourget where they normally went every other year at the stand run by Auguste Mudry who showcased there his inventions and plans, such as the CAP10B and its various successors.

The French Connection Airshow was the only team of

European acrobats to perform on the American air show circuit and to be recognized as such. It was at the show in Le Bourget, on June 3, 1973, that Daniel presented one of the first F-BOXP registered CAP10B’s, a few days before leaving for the US, where a new adventure awaited him. It was during this show that the Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashed in Goussainville, a few miles north of the runway, right in front of Jacques Noetinger, the air show announcer.

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D & M did not yet have this mind-blowing formation flight that would later spin off their glory as the indisput-able and undisputed masters of aerial ballet. On that day, Daniel had taken off alone, carefully improvising a pro-gram in order to divert the crowd’s attention from the tragedy that had just unfolded in the airfield traffic pattern because, even in the aeronautical world, the show must go on…

Finally, to the delight of airshow experts and enthusi-

asts, the pair had agreed to perform in France, for the first time in Europe, during a show organized by the flying club of Aubigny sur Nère. Montaine was a native of this small town located north of the Cher county ("depart-ment"), at the crossroads of Berry and Sologne, where I had the pleasure of teaching her to fly her very first air-field traffic pattern. It was in memory of that day when she began her aviation career in command of the Jodel D112, seated next to me, her 26 year old instructor. We had the honor of welcoming Montaine and Daniel to our modest aeronautical platform whose runways stretch out right in the middle of forest and heather fields.

This event, created specifically for the last year of the

millennium, was based on the extraordinary presence of this one of a kind prestigious formation. It was very diffi-cult to choose a date. Sunday, June 25, 2000 had been chosen because it was the only available time slot in the busy schedule of our expatriate acrobats who took part in almost thirty air shows annually in both North and South Americas.

After the sad news of their death, I no longer felt moti-

vated to run this show that had been set up exclusively for their visit. I apologized to all the other expected partici-

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pants who understood the decision made by the flying club’s executive committee.

I knew Montaine and her family very well, even more

so than I knew Daniel. I started to really get to know him while writing this book and I intend to retrace their ex-traordinary aeronautical progress, which has not always been easy in the challenging field of light aircraft in the US, where they had earned the respect of the all-time greats of aviation.

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Montaine Mallet

Saturday, September 9th 1967, it’s a little more than 4pm, the Jodel D112 registered F-BMIT, is parked in front of the fence that separates the public area from the Aubigny sur Nère flying club apron. Both chocks are in front of the main wheels before starting up the engine, as on this aircraft there is no parking brake available.

Seated in the right seat, as a young instructor, I begin

the procedure of starting the engine by hand. The D112 does not have any starter and a seasoned pilot must hand prop the engine, as per a special procedure to avoid any risks.

On my side, for her first flight, the young 19 year old

girl is very impressed by this ritual, which seems to be from another age, and surprised to be seated as pilot of an aircraft. I feel her stressed despite my effort to try to make her relaxed.

Following my advice, she minds both brake pedals so

the tires won’t push hard against the blocks. The right seat, where I am installed, is not equipped with such features, useful only for this delicate phase which precedes any flight and the use of which can prove tricky with the risk of seeing the tail lift up in any unsuitable action and not controlled action on individual brake pedals for each wheel. The Jodel D112 is a flying school aircraft, rustic, without any accessories not essential for flight, which de-

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mands special attention from the instructor about the stu-dent’s action, missing some commands on board…

Here we are, at the final point, the most critical point of

the procedure, starting the engine: — Brakes on, stick all the way back, ignition on 1! The main call made, the assistant pulls the propeller, in

a strong and sure manner, promptly leaving the area of the disk made by the rotation of the propeller. At the very be-ginning, the engine leaves some smoke from the exhaust pipe, then I throttle up the engine to become smoother. My student seems to feel better, now that the 65 hp of the Continental engine lets us hear its smooth humming noise in the background, isolated from outside.

The oil temperature is in its green zone, a smile appears

on my passenger’s face, I throttle up, the adventure, her adventure, can start with the first rotation of the wheels on board this small school aircraft.

* * *

The past week, Montaine Mallet, it’s she who is seated on the Jodel’s left side, with her parents, had been in the flying school to get all necessary information to learn fly-ing. It’s her mother who talks. The young girl, tiny and shy, behind her smile, is listening, giving from time to time her advice, and avoiding interrupting her mother when talking.

The idea had been in her mind for a while. A few years

before, her father had answered the flying school associa-tion’s request to help financially for the reconstruction of an old military hangar which was given by the state. The situation was cleared, the association would offer many

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possibilities, giving back money in the form of flight time. Following the maiden flight given by André Vieugué, president of the association at that time, Montaine with her relatives, Mister Mallet decided to keep the flying hours for his daughter waiting the final decision… that’s how, after a period of time, they came to request information in order to finalize the project.

I quickly saw in Montaine’s behavior the real passion

for flying, despite her discretion. Like any other candidate who comes to gather inquir-

ies, flying on board an aircraft seems to be unreal and difficult for one to see himself in the future, imagining himself in command of such a machine.

She read all the books of Saint Exupéry, and she was

very amazed by all these written stories which start with aviation. She was impressed by the true stories and the adventure of the Aéropostale airline, from Toulouse to Santiago, Chili, making the tracks by personal one of the kind feat, with Guillaumet in the Andes, well described by Antoine de Saint Exupéry, in "Wind, Sand and Stars".

And Montaine, naïvely matched flying with adventures.

She was far from thinking about writing a fantastic page of aviation history, living fabulous dreams a few decades later in the US. That her name will bring some dreams for other little girls who want to live modern adventures.

* * *

Montaine was born April 25th, 1948 in Aubigny sur Nère, historical city, with Scottish past, situated at the crossroads of Berry and Sologne regions. She was born into a storekeeper family that was established for many generations. She is the second of three children.

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When she was at the flying school, she was starting her

studies at the Polytechnique school for girls and tried to follow the ETSA curriculum (special school in aeronautic studies) to prepare an engineer title in aeronautical con-struction.

This perspective and her several books about aviation

encouraged her to learn how to fly an aircraft to be closer to this area she had chosen to know better for her future career.

She would be able to practice what she had learned at

school and would not listen to other’s conclusions about her job. Later, she would be able to judge, herself, the re-sults of her research, her technological choices about aircraft’s elements she would have studied.

One time she almost thought about attempting a test pi-

lot career, but small problems with her eyesight would become big obstacles for this project and ruined the hope for this perspective.

* * *

Practically each weekend, she comes back home to Aubigny and goes to the airfield to seriously continue her training with instructors, René Lefèvre and me.

She regularly flew the Jodel D112 that she had a hard

time controlling, with its tail wheel and fast reactions on commands. We would fly the Rallye MS 880, more toler-ant with the imprecise student’s mistakes with the stick.

It’s only on April, 20th, 1968, a few days before her

birthday, I would leave her alone in command of the Ral-lye F-BPHH after 37 minutes of sufficiently convincing

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dual pattern work. Her log book shows little more than 17 hours. It’s not a great performance, it’s even little more than the average which is situated around 10 to 12 hours…

It’s satisfying that she taxies back to the apron, satisfied

with herself. She is able to control an airplane, I never had any doubt about it. She will confirm then her aptitude to fly, becoming an expert in aerobatics, alone, and in forma-tion, which is another specialty…

As always, this traffic pattern, alone on board, sets the

student’s self-confidence free and becomes a factor of significant progress.

In June of the same year, after the mandatory theoreti-

cal exam, she took with success her basic certificate, another milestone in the formation process.

Her progression went even faster. After the primary

certificate, we go on with some flights in the previous two-seater which was hard to land. No way to stay on something that could be considered as a failure, now she can easily fly with it.

Continuing our training with the official program, she

gets more accustomed with the maneuverability and learns cross-country flying. In November, she obtains her private pilot license. She is now an airplane pilot, able to travel, with or without passengers, all over the country and even abroad.

She is a little disappointed not to find what she had

dreamt of. In 1970, aviation in a flying club is not the same as what Mermoz or Saint Exupéry were doing above the African desert, or the Andes in the 1920 or 30’s. Real-

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ity has replaced part of the dream. The dream does not exist anymore.

She continues with all sorts of machines from the air

club. In June she flies alone on board a Gardan GY80 with a 160 hp engine and retractable gear, which gives her an-other qualification on her license. A new step is made.

In 1970 she is allowed to participate in the Aeronautical

Tour de France, exclusively made for young pilots under the age of 21 years for boys and 25 for girls, after regional selections. For the circumstances, the club gave her a Rob-in DR315, brand new, registered F-BRZB, we just got. It’s the best equipped machine available, with good perform-ance, for this competition.

* * *

Finally the final exams are finished, she ends her edu-cation with success at the Polytechnique school for girls. Because of Auguste Mudry’s efficiency in his aerobatic airplane construction project, she obtains an internship for ESTA (Engineering school) which allows her to continue studies and develop new skills needed to fit her initial goal.

Her career path goes on like she had planned with a

first job as an engineer in aeronautical construction, in 1972, at the Avions Mudry and Co. engineering office, at Beynes, west of Paris, at the same time as Jean-Marie Klinka, also a private pilot, with whom she finished her studies.

Auguste Mudry initially thought of hiring only one en-

gineer from ESTA, but he interviewed 2 candidates, leaving himself the option to decide which candidate suit-ed him best… After the job interview and the results, it

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was actually hard for him to make a choice, so he decided to hire both of them. Maybe he felt Montaine would not work forever on her drawing board making calculations…

To honour the "gentleman’s agreement" they had with

Auguste, at their arrival at Beynes, Montaine and Jean-Marie joined, once in a while in the hangar where aircraft are parked next to the grass strip, and started learning aer-obatics. It allowed them to know the goal of their future studies, being concerned directly with the specifications of aerobatic airplanes. They would be more aware, practicing aerobatics themselves, of the sense of their modifications brought to the machine and its evolution.

Auguste prepared all, and their instructor would natu-

rally be Daniel Héligoin, who had just left the French Air Force. He was newly employed and would also become a test pilot for the company. He loved aerobatics, he made it his specialty and was an aerobatic instructor and great ed-ucator.

Step by step, the reality joins the dream, and the aero-

nautical engineer that Montaine is will become a full time aerobatic pilot, with burgeoning talent, and by necessity, a business woman eventually, but this is another story…