CHIPMEET 98 was the first edition of our International Gathering of DHC-1
Chipmunks and Formation Clinic. It was held from August 21st, 1998 to the
24th on the airfield of Lons le Saulnier (LFGL). Bad weather over France during
the firts days prevented a couple of planes from reaching Lons, but despite that,
six Chipmunks finally made it, Swiss registered HB-TUM making it for the international
flavor of the event. The other foreign element of the gathering was Robert Miller, a British
CFI, currently instructing with JEFTS, with a total of 15 000 hours on his logbook, among
which 4000 were flown on Chipmunks. As a matter of fact, were arrange for Robert to pass the
15 000 hour mark flying a Chipmunk… During those few days, Robert became our « guru », as he
provided many tips about flying the DHC-1 and also maintening it. A group of the Aéro-Club de Lons
had taken all arrangements re. logistic, thanks to Bernard Charbonnel, heart of Les Faucheurs de Marguerites
(The Daisy Mowers… after the name of a famous french TV serie about the french pioneers of aviation), the vintage planes section of the aéro-club. They provided for simple but excellent food, and organised on the saturday a warm and friendly party in their little cosy club-house. After everybody had sampled the local food, cheese and wine, they was much talking, until late next morning… some members of the aéro-club even discovering they could speak quite good english although they had never learnt that langage at school !On the flying side of the gathering, during the first days, we had to fly in-between rainshowers, but finally the weather cleared, allowing those who had not yet departed to fly on the last day a four-ship formation, lead by Robert… of cause.