Early aviation documentary from the early 80's

Biber · 14 September 2005, 01:24 PM

Does anybody remember seeing an documentary in the early 80's that was essentially an old pilot’s reminiscences of flying during WWI, the inter-war years, WWII, and beyond - Titled something to the effect of “Chabot on flying”? As I remember it was quite humorous and very interesting – he was a real character. One anecdote that I recall was about him as a very old man telling war stories while on a flight and somebody else commented that those early pilots could never fly today’s aircraft. To which he responded something like “I flew the first planes; I can bloody well fly today’s planes!” To make a long story short, arrangements were subsequently made for him to fly (or rather sit in the cockpit and touch the controls) an RAF Vulcan. As I remember it was a multi episode program shown on the discovery chanel (yes in the early days of cable). Anybody know if it is available any where?

Biber

karrart · 14 September 2005, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biber

Does anybody remember seeing an documentary in the early 80's that was essentially an old pilot’s reminiscences of flying during WWI, the inter-war years, WWII, and beyond - Titled something to the effect of “Chabot on flying”? As I remember it was quite humorous and very interesting – he was a real character. One anecdote that I recall was about him as a very old man telling war stories while on a flight and somebody else commented that those early pilots could never fly today’s aircraft. To which he responded something like “I flew the first planes; I can bloody well fly today’s planes!” To make a long story short, arrangements were subsequently made for him to fly (or rather sit in the cockpit and touch the controls) an RAF Vulcan. As I remember it was a multi episode program shown on the discovery chanel (yes in the early days of cable). Anybody know if it is available any where?

Biber

Yep- I remember the show- he was quite a character! I used to have a garbled, not-quite-complete multi-generation-removed copy. Sadly, not only do I not know if this show is available anywhere these days, I think you may be the only other person who remembers it.
He sort of reminded me of the Major on Fawlty Towers.
Robert Karr
karrart.com

Biber · 14 September 2005, 02:27 PM

YES!!!! Do you remember something about him causing a stampede in a cavalry rank because he flew over and his guns went off or something like that?

One of these days I'll get around to enquiring with an aviation collectable/videos/stuff supplier (of course I can't remember the name right now! - I'm too young for alzheimers!) whose catalogue I seem to receive pretty regularly.

Biber

GrandSon · 15 September 2005, 01:42 AM

I have not seen this documentary, but I can put my Internet search expertise to work and this is what I can come up with (I coul'd not find any available copies of this out-of-print video):

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/arc...hp?t-1662.html

http://www.flightbarn.com/store/item...,Aviation.html

Amazon.com: Chabot Solo: History of Aviation [VHS]: Chabot Solo-History of Aviatio: Video

CHABOT SOLO: THE HISTORY OF AVIATION
historical aviation
3 x 60' (16 mm film) Part 1 available in French

These three one hour films, which can be run as one-offs or as a trilogy, tell the story of flight through the twinkling eyes of an octogenarian who started flying in 1918. Charles Chabot flew everything from the cross Channel Bleriot, to the Concorde at age 88. His life was filled with amusing anecdotes and numerous firsts. Incredible archive footage and music from the period complete this classic trilogy of the history of flight. Part 1 goes up to 1918.

Biber · 15 September 2005, 07:17 AM

THAT'S IT!!!!!!!!

I STRONGLY recommend this for anyone interested in early aviation, as there aren't very many first hand accounts on video. He's quite a character too.

Biber