First
formed in May 1953, 2003 saw the Patrouille de France celebrate their
50th anniversary. They marked the occasion by hosting an international
aerobatic team meet and airshow at their home base of Salon de Provence, in the
South of France.
Our SIG was extremely honoured to be
invited by the Patrouille de France Pilots Association, to join in the
anniversary celebrations by putting on a display of our aerobatic team models
in the town hall in Salon de Provence. In conjunction with this, the town hall
also featured an art exhibition by a number of aviation artists, and another
display of models by our very good friends and fellow SIG members, the
"Aerobatic Display Team of Toulouse" model group, based in France.
A number of our SIG members travelled from
the UK, Ireland, Germany, France and Iceland, to meet up in Salon de Provence.
We displayed a total of 179 models on our stand, for four days during the
team's official celebrations and international airshows. Our members also
received the full V.I.P treatment and special passes for both the "private" and
public airshows, where we were able to watch several of the world's top display
teams perform and meet many of the team members too.
We are extremely
grateful to the Patrouille de France and especially Dennis
Meunier of the Patrouille de France Pilot's Association, for
inviting us to take part in such a prestigious event - it was (probably...) a
once-in-a-lifetime trip which we shall never forget !