French Pilot Crosses Atlantic To See AirVenture 2010

By Deborah Grigsby

With sun-bleached hair and sparkling blue eyes, the smile on his face is almost as wide as the blade span on his homebuilt helicopter. He's funny. He's cryptic--in a Willy Wonka kinda way.

Helicopter Belonging To Matthier De Quillacq

And he's from France.

He's 47-year-old Matthieu De Quillacq and with nothing more than a dream in his heart and the clothes on his back, he fired up his vibrant yellow CH-7 Kompress Charlie helicopter one morning in the tiny mountain town of Barcelonnette, France, and flew to America. To Oshkosh to be exact.

De Quillacq started his adventure on Sunday, July 11th and landed on or about the 19th.  He's not exactly sure. "All the days, they are not so clear to me," said the soft-spoken Frenchman with a sheepish, but cavalier grin. "I forget." However, according to EAA volunteers and other curiosity seekers on Whittman Field, Matthieu and his "machine" were indeed on site almost a full week before AirVenture commenced.

 Matthier De Quillacq

By the time the show started on Monday, July 26th, he was already known as simply "Matt," was sporting an EAA volunteer shirt, and looking for the Garmin exhibit. De Quillacq's machine, the CH-7 Kompress helicopter, also known as "Charlie," is named after the eldest of the three Italian Barbero brothers who De Quillacq credits with the development of his aircraft.

"It's name is in honor of the man who give to me (sic) my dream to fly," he said. "He is the one who made it possible for me to be free." The machine is a light carbon helicopter powered by a turbo charged Rotax 914 engine.  In it's standard configuration, it has two tandem seats, but De Quillacq said he removed the second seat and fashioned an additional fiberglass fuel tank himself that not only adds an additional 44 gallons of long-range fuel capacity, but also makes a really nifty seat back.

The Kompress Charlie has a cruise speed of approximately 100 mph and a range of 900 miles as De Quillacq has his model configured.  The standard fuel configuration has a range closer to 300 miles, according to the companies Web site. De Quillacq's journey began in his driveway in France, where he says he no longer has a car, preferring to travel "par l'hélicoptère seulement" (by the helicopter only). Landing first in Berck, in the northern potion of his home country, he topped off the fuel tanks in preparation to cross the English Channel. He successfully landed in Lashenden, England, crossing the first "big swimming pool."

By July 12th, he made his way to Wick Airport in extreme northeast Scotland. From Scotland, via the Faroe Islands, De Quillacq traveled to Iceland, and to Greenland. He tried to cross the Greenland ice cap, but bitter weather conditions turned him back to Kulusuk, a small settlement in Greenland where he camped until conditions improved. When asked if he was concerned about navigating across such harsh terrain De Quillacq simply smiled and said, "If I need to land, I land on the iceberg below." By the 15th of July, he was able to follow the coast of Greenland, arriving in Holstein Sisimut, the country's second largest city. On July 16th, he flew over the Davis Straits and landed at Kangiqsujuaq Airport, somewhere near an Inuit village in Canada. He then made his way across Canada and arrived in Michigan at the Sault Sainte Marie airport, and eventually on Whittman Field.

While most who hear De Quillacq's story agree he is a man of great fortitude, the well-mannered and well-tanned aviator will insist he is not.
"I am only a man who wishes to move freely about the world," he said in that cool European kinda tone we all sorta dig. "I have everything I need. I have the machine, I have the ability to make it fly, the ability to repair it. I need (sic) for nothing." Sounds simple enough, yes?

 
Matthier De Quillacq

De Quillacq says it is, with the exception of international paperwork. "It is so complicated and complex," he said. "The papers are different from once place to another; the rules are different and it is not so encouraging. How can a man move about?"

Any pilot who has flown internationally can only imagine what frustration await him on his return trip as De Quillacq will return to France via Canada and then west through Russia. Yeah, he's still waiting on the green light from the Federal Aviation Authority of Russia.

But in all, De Quillacq has enjoyed his visit to Oshkosh…almost as much as Oshkosh has enjoyed him. "So many good people I have crossed (paths with)," he says. And true to form, they've loaded him down with more than a dozen tee-shirts, key chains, pens and mugs. So much that he has had to leave many things behind. "I have no room for these," he said. "However, the one mug I will leave in Audrey's Place with my friend.  And I told him that I will come again to drink from it." Although Oshkosh is not his first trip to the United States, De Quillacq says intends to return next year.
Will he return in his helicopter? "Most likely."

A spaceship?

"Perhaps."

FMI: http://www.prismz.com/helio/