Jane's Story
This is the personal recollection of Jane Forsyth Colou's meeting with Norman.
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Like most Irish ex-pats around the world, I was, one monday morning (22nd March 2010) flicking through the pages of the 'Irish Times' online newspaper, when I came across an interesting article about a certain Norman Surplus from Northern Ireland who was attempting an around the world record tour in an autogyro! Being a bit curious and also possibly terribly bored in my office, I thought what better way to travel around the world than with this chap Norman?
Without further hesitation I joined his Facebook page and it wasn't long before I was in touch with his support team in Ireland!
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Within a couple of days the emails were flying back and forth between Ireland and France, after getting a run down on Norman's flight schedule I knew that this man, whom I had never met before, was now depending on me to organise his arrival in Chartres, the ball was in my court!!!
Wednesday and Thursday of that week were spent on the phone, calling around hotels, looking for the cheapest and the nearest, speaking with journalists from local newspapers and talking with chaps from the local aerodrome. By Friday everyone was quite aware of Norman's imminent arrival in his yellow flying machine, all that was left for me to do was to hope that Norman arrived safely and that all went according to plan!
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The Hotel, 'The Campanile', was booked for one night (the 26th March) and they were aware that he could arrive very late at night but assured me that he could get into his room and have a hot dinner on arrival. The emails coming from Ireland on Friday were telling me that Norman could be late due to weather conditions. The support team gave me Norman's mobile number and wished me luck! I rang the aerodrome to let them know he was running late, they replied that he could land whenever he wanted but that from 19:00hrs the aerdrome would be empty! I then used a bit of female charm and explained to them that Norman would need help on arrival and due to bad weather forecasted he would need an open hangar to shelter his flying machine...they said they would wait for him!
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Norman arrived in or around 19:00hrs and the chaps at the aerodrome helped him tuck up the Gyro for the night and brought him and his fuel bag to Carrefour (the local supermarket). This was probably the beginning of a long series of 'bag in boot' filling episodes at filling stations. They then took Norman to his hotel, which was within walking distance of the aerodrome, I think at this stage I rang Norman to see if everything was OK. I still remember that lovely Northern Irish twang at the other end of the phone. I wished Norman a good night and arranged to pick him up the next day at his hotel around 09:00hrs.
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Saturday the 27th of March was slightly windy, sunny with intermittent drizzly showers. I headed for Chartres with my son, Alexandre Colou, and on the way I phoned Norman to see if he needed anything from the shops. He replied 'no thankyou'...but I stopped at a boulangerie (bakers) anyway and bought him a chicken sandwich, chocolate eclair and a bottle of water...I decided not to buy him the smelly cheese and red wine!
Got to the hotel just before 9am and Norman was standing outside with his bags and a big smile! We shook hands and I helped him put his bags in the boot of my car.
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On arrival at the aerodrome Norman got straight to work and started organising himself for the next leg of this fantastic adventure. The next 3 hours were 3 hours of pure concentration. The first journalist arrived shortly after and spent about half an hour interviewing Norman, this journalist had done his homework, he had read up about autogyro's and knew exactly what questions to ask...I served as the translator while my son filmed and photographed most of what was going on. A second journalist arrived and we did a repeat of what had already been said. This journalist then helped Norman lift the heavy fuel bag into the back seat of the Gyro and I remember strapping it in and wishing it was me in this back seat and not the fuel bag!
Throughout the morning there were various visits from other pilots of all sorts, being small twin engined pilots to big commercial flight pilots. All were amazed by this wee man, full of courage and strength with his yellow flying machine. I knew at this stage that I had become part of an amazing story that would certainly go down in history!
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The time had come to open the hangar doors and push G-YROX out into the daylight. We pushed her to the pump and filled up the main onboard fuel tank. As the nozzle on the pump was too big for the opening on the tank, Norman had in his bag a special funnel, this made life so much easier! I was really surprized, Norman had thought of everything. Norman went and paid for his fuel, had a last 'pipi' and said his goodbyes to everyone at Chartres aerodrome. They all wished him the best of luck and promised that they would follow him on Facebook.
Unfortunately it started to rain heavily, a Spring shower, and I found myself with Norman and Alex pushing the Gyro back into the hangar! Never mind, it did mean I got to spend a few more minutes with Norman. Shower over and back out onto the runway; last few photos and a huge hug from Norman and he was off...but but but...all zipped up and almost in place I could see him looking for something! Tapping his pockets and feeling up and down his arms and legs? Very strange!! "Where are the keys" I heard him say! Ooops, everything had to be unzipped and unbuttoned, but soon enough the keys were located. It could have been worse, they could have been in a bag neatly packed away under Norman's seat!
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Keys in, contact, engine lit, propellor humming and Norman taxied down the runway (at approximately 12:30hrs). Giving one of those famous waves, smiling and happy to be taking off on the next leg of this adventure. I watched him in the sky until he was just a little dot on the horizon and I then went back to my little old life feeling so happy that I had met this man from Larne in his yellow flying machine!
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