Quite an era: Hubert Auriol by Gérard Feldzer
News item of 15 January 2021. Last updated on 20 January 2021: some information may have changed. Latest news
When Patrick Fourticq, who was in charge of air logistics on the Paris Dakar, got to know Hubert Auriol and Henri Pescarolo, he suggested they put together a microlight team for the microlight cups and records. We had thus become the 4 musketeers of the barely born sport of microlighting. 2 aviation professionals, Patrick and I, who were Boeing 747 pilots at the time, and 2 professional car and motorbike drivers, Hubert and Henri.
With no instrument other than a ping-pong ball in a transparent tube to show speed, Hubert felt really at ease with this minimum of information: an extraordinary intuition that anticipated the twists and turns of this new kind of aviation made of tubes and fabric!
In the early 80s, microlight engines failed on average every fifty hours, so needless to say we were forbidden to fly over towns, forests or water. Yet we were the first to cross the Channel in our little Sirocco-type microlights with their 22 hp engines… Unfortunately, the return to France turned out to be acrobatic: we were caught out by thunderstorms and quite violent winds, so that we found ourselves flying in tight formation behind Patrick, who was trying to find a gap!
From left to right: Patrick Fourticq, Henri Pescarolo, Hubert Auriol and Gérard Feldzer. ©G.Feldzer
4 microlights in formation, in the rain… it was not really a situation with a future. As much as we aeroplane pilots wanted to bring this nightmare to an end, our overland rally drivers like Hubert never admitted defeat… It all ended with a landing in a field… of mud!
After sheltering from the rain under the wings of our Siroccos, with night approaching, Hubert decided to take off again, because we were 10 minutes’ flying from Calais. Having reached the runway, we could not taxi without help for fear of tipping over in the violent winds…
During the microlight tour of France, this cheerful team brought a breath of professionalism to the whole fledgling microlight movement. A happy meeting between pilots who fly and drivers who drive. The fame of Hubert Auriol and Henri Pescarolo helped us find sponsors who put their trust in us, and also to make this sport known, one that was like those wonderful flying madmen in their funny machines.
