Happy birthday Mr FOURNIER.

On April 14, Mr. René Fournier celebrated his 100th birthday.

Time flies too quickly and these photos taken on the occasion of the general meeting of the CFI association have not been published. So we are taking this great opportunity to publish some rare images of our meeting with Mr. René Fournier on the occasion of their visit to the Delta Museum in 2019.

Mr. Fournier carries out a check of the LIGHT TEST in the flight deck of the SA.

And now you may follow the visit of CFI members to the Sierra Alpha.

Our happy Fournier aircraft pilots, of course, accompanied René Fournier at the head of the SA and took the opportunity to do a few laps of the tracks in dreams at least.

In an RF plane no need for this "thing" and here our visitor is looking for what could it be used for in a Concorde ?

The answer is quite surprising:

Inserted in a housing provided just above on the roof panel (upper central panel) and turned in the other direction, it is only used to adjust the pilot's seat to the optimal position...

Our thanks to our visitors who gave us the pleasure of leaving us these few words in our guestbook:

Here is the dedication of Monsieur Fournier:

Et de quelques membres du CFI :

A quick presentation of Club Fournier International.

The statutes of the CFI assign it as its main goal "To establish friendly links between enthusiasts of Fournier motorgliders, without limit of nationality".

Made up of pilots who own RF, the Club is open to true enthusiasts of René Fournier's machines, even if they do not yet have one ... Our objectives are also:

- maintain the solidarity of this great international family around René Fournier.

- represent the interests of members to national administrations and EASA.

- help owners access essential spare parts.

- inform the community about technical and regulatory developments concerning them.

- facilitate sales and purchases of devices.

- and, consequently, to allow everyone to maintain the value over time of their machine.

History of CFI:

In November 1989 in Lapalisse (Allier), some pilot friends of Fournier decided to create the CFI Association, the Club Fournier International, under the leadership of Jean Claude Boujon. At that time, the Lapalisse Flying Club was chaired by the dynamic Jean Paul Citerne. The Aeroclub has already organized two friendly meetings on the topic of RF motor gliders. The seed of our Aircraft Owners Club project was in Lapalisse!

After having edited a dozen "Rassemblements Internationaux Fournier" in Lapalisse, the CFI began to wander year after year according to the curiosity and interest it aroused in other Flying clubs throughout France. Having taken part in it many times, our RF pilot friends from other European countries really appreciated the formula. No wonder then that they wanted to produce annual Gatherings in their respective countries. So today, CFI members are very happy to spend the summer flying and visiting France and neighboring countries in a warm and friendly atmosphere. The opening up of Europe has been a great opportunity for our activity.

René Fournier recounts in his memoir "Mon rêve mes combats" published by Sier, that a first attempt to create a Users' Club took place in 1977 when his factory closed. It was a spontaneous and logical reaction from his clients who were opposed to the disappearance of the Fournier brand. But unfortunately, this first launch attempt fizzled out. He therefore enthusiastically approved the launch of the CFI in 1989, a second successful launch this time. René Fournier is Honorary Life President of CFI.

The international side of CFI:

The CFI would not be as interesting without its cousins in other countries ... Thus, in the main countries which have a significant Fournier fleet, there are national CFIs. Thus we have associations CFI Deutschland, CFI Benelux, CFI Italy, CFI United Kingdom, CFI Scandinavia. Each entity has a Chairman who owns an RF. He leads activities in his country (air rally, rally, website, communication, etc.). These leaders are invited annually to the General Assembly in France where the flight schedule for the year is decided, in particular. Each year, each President is asked to surprise the guests who will come to RF to participate in the parties and the flights planned in his country. This has made it possible to develop over time a network of warm and very valuable relations in European time. The CFI has members much further away, in the USA or Japan, South Africa or Brazil, Australia or Poland. We have to admit that we only meet them on exceptional occasions, such as the 50th anniversary of the brand at Gap Tallard in 2010 for example. The distance becomes a big obstacle to visit them in RF… But luckily, the internet appeared with the century and it was very beneficial for our relations with all these distant friends.

For more information, an essential address:

https://club-fournier.org/histoire-des-rf/

We thank them for the CFI presentation text.

And two beautiful images of the wonderful machines made by Monsieur RF.