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Famous people who fly

69 Posts

01-Nov-18 10:15

airways wrote:

Jacques Brel flew a Learjet

Before that he owned a Gardan GY80-180 (F-BNQM) and a Wassmer 4/21-250 (F-BPTG, still flying) in France, co-owned a Beech Baron in Switzerland, and owned a twin Bonanza called Jojo (F-ODBU) in Polynesia which he used to move books and medicine for free between the islands. The last 10 years of his life he dedicated to flying, sailing, and avoiding photographers. Reportedly he gave a plane to fellow IR student in Geneva who couldn’t afford to finish the course.

Reading about Jessica Cox is pretty impressive.

EGHO-LFQF-KCLW, United Kingdom

23-Jun-20 14:27

No idea if he’s mentioned earlier in the thread; I didn’t know that TV presenter Michel Drucker (he’s very famous in France and probably completely unknown outside) is a keen pilot, and owns a DA 62:

Interesting that for insurance reasons he must fly with a safety pilot every time.

For a “historic” TV moment he was a part of, look at 1:15 on this clip for a pretty frank exchange between Whitney Houston and French legend Serge Gainsbourg

Last Edited by denopa at 23 Jun 15:29

EGTF, LFTF

23-Jun-20 21:20

It will never get in my head how you can have a house (at least one), a family (I hope not more than one), an airplane (maybe several) and a job all at the same time. Of course you can have all that stuff without ever using it (the family might disagree) but the airplanes we are talking about are not of the 5 hours per year type. And a day is still only 24 hours.

EDQH, Germany

23-Jun-20 22:52

What ever happened to Carol Vordermans round the world trip? She delayed it last year but I don’t know if that was an easy way of saying she was cancelling?

24-Jun-20 06:06

Maybe just too much publicity involving women doing what is basically, hey, flying a plane, like this one, and thus directly implying that women can’t fly a plane, and this “fact” has to be disproven.

Administrator

Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

12-Jul-20 13:03

With over 2 million subscribers, I consider him famous.

LFOU, France

06-Nov-22 07:16

I learned that Gary Numan was a serious aviation nut !

From wikipedia:

Numan joined the Air Training Corps as a teenager, when he wanted to be either a pilot or a pop star. In 1978, he started learning to fly at Blackbushe Airport, but the success of his music career in 1979 meant that obtaining his pilot’s licence was delayed until 17 December 1980. The following day; 18 December 1980, Numan bought his first aeroplane for £12,000; a Cessna 182. On 1 July 1981, Numan founded Numanair, a small charter flight company operating from Blackbushe, and acquired a Cessna 210 Centurion (registered G-OILS) and a Piper Navajo (registered G-NMAN). He also indulged his passion for motor racing in 1981 by sponsoring Mike Mackonochie who drove a Van Diemen RF81 in Numanair livery in the Formula Ford 1600 class.

In November and December 1981, Numan successfully flew around the world in his Piper Navajo with co-pilot Bob Thompson on their second attempt. The first attempt, in the Cessna 210 Centurion, had ended in India with Numan and Thompson being arrested on suspicion of smuggling and spying. This aircraft was written off on 29 January 1982 when it ran out of fuel near Southampton and made a forced landing while Numan was flying on it as a passenger.

In 1984, Numan bought a Harvard T-6 trainer aircraft registered G-AZSC and had the aircraft painted to resemble a Japanese Zero fighter. He also gained a display pilot’s licence and flew the machine on the UK air display circuit. He and friend Norman Lees, who also owned a Harvard, formed the Radial Pair, performing synchronised aerobatics from the 1992 air display season. Later they teamed up with other Harvard owners to fly up to five aircraft as the Harvard Formation Team with Numan choreographing their aerobatic routines.[citation needed]

Numan held licences for piston and turbine helicopters and had a fixed wing multi engined rating. He was an aerobatic flying instructor and was appointed by the Civil Aviation Authority as an air display pilot evaluator. Then in 2005, after several of his friends and colleagues were killed in unrelated flying accidents, he gave up flying. In an interview in 2009 he said “I loved going to air shows, you’d bond really tightly with your team mates – it’s an extreme thing to be doing, and you trust your life to them. And then it ended. I’d turn up and not know anyone. It got depressing. I’d sit down in the pilot’s tent and there’d be all these people I’d not recognise. You’d look forward to someone turning up to have a chat with them, and they’d be dead.”

Numanair continued operating but after 31 years, with Numan and his family emigrating to the US, it was dissolved on 18 June 2013.“

So “Cars” really should have been “Planes” 😄

[formatting fixed]

EBST, Belgium

08-Nov-22 11:13

I ‘Think’ I’ve heard a couple of personalities on the radio while VFR flying:

In Socal years ago, I heard a pilot who was a dead ringer for Arnie. And he was going to San Luis Obispo…

Also long ago, leaving Atlanta, the controller’s voice rang all kinds of bells in my mind, until an airline pilot chimed in: “Is this Buzz?”. A delay followed, and then he said: “Err no, he’s much older than me”. (Buzz would have been way past retirement age).

Probably just wishful thinking of course.

EGBW / KPRC, United Kingdom

12-Nov-22 12:37

I seem to recall the Dutch King has a CPL/ATPL and has been known to fly for KLM?
(Definitely when the crowned prince before taking over the throne)

11-Feb-23 13:51

From here

Administrator

Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

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