It is surely an ambition shared by every company and every new start-up. It was certainly the ambition of our enthusiastic pioneers, whose heir I am, and whose spirit of adventure, non-conformism — in the sense of being able to think differently — thirst for knowledge, daring and courage still inspire us.
I speak here from several points of view: first that of the passionate pilot, fascinated by flight; that of the competitor, of course; and that of commitment, at the Air and Space Museum and at the Aéro-Club de France. A commitment to everything that shapes our relationship with flight — its history, its present and the new challenges of our century: adapting aeronautics to climate change, decarbonising, protecting the future, and reconciling the future of aviation with ecology and freedom.
7 minutes: that is the length of one of the 3 flights that take place over a few days, only once every 2 years… What sets aerobatics apart from other top-level sports is that everything comes down to at most 3 flights of 7 minutes, with no extra rounds. In ski racing or motor racing, for instance, you can make up lost ground. You don’t lose everything in 10 seconds. In aerobatic competition, you do…
So you have to be good at the right moment, and devote several timescales to it. Each of them has its own stakes. That means building a team, listening, anticipating and preparing for every eventuality in order to handle the unexpected.
How do you win… 12 years later? How do you choose new paths? There is no excellence without going back through absolute humility and absolute learning, surrounded by the most talented people you can find. Listening also lets us seize new opportunities. And dare!
In everything I have undertaken, my relationship with the team was quite different each time, but listening and anticipation mattered just as much, and there was always a mentor…