Given co-ords are NOT for the cache but the suggested parking for Church Micro 877 - Tilmanstone. Within that cache you can find the co-ords for this cache.
On the 23rd August 1910 another piece of aviation history was recorded when John Bevins MOISANT flew the first passenger across the English Channel in a Bleriot biplane. MOISANT'S passenger was his mechanic Albert FILEUX, and allegedly 'Mademoiselle Fifi', his pet cat. MOISANT was taking part in an air race from Paris to London, which in 1910 could only be achieved in 'hops' over small distances due to engine overheating in the main.
Albert FILEUX and John Bevins MOISANT
Thousands had gathered to watch the daring aviator take off for England. Many were urging him to postpone the attempt in the face of a half gale that was blowing. MOISANT cared nothing for the warnings and even the fact that he had no fast boat to follow in his wake, but only a slow moving tug, did not deter him. He made the record trip in thirty seven minutes, maintaining an average height of between 300 and 400 feet over the English Channel. When he descended his eyes were bloodshot and greatly inflamed as a result of the torrential rain storm into which they encountered on the approach to the English coastline. The aviator had expected to arrive over land at Dover, but was forced by the weather a few miles north and made a heavy landing, which damaged his propeller, in a field near Tilmanstone.
The two man flight from France to England was more astonishing when you know that MOISANT had only learnt to fly an aeroplane a month before the record flight. He had made so few flights and was almost unknown amongst the pilots and following press reporters, his nationality was reported to have been Spanish. It was only on his arrival at Tilmanstone it was revealed he was a young Chicago architect, the son of French-Canadian immigrant parents to the USA.
MOISANT apparently seemed to have taken his monumental feat as though it were a daily occurrence. When he had revived sufficiently, MOISANT laughed and said to an interviewer; "This is my first visit to England". Describing his experiences he said, "This is only my sixth flight in an aeroplane. I did not know the way from Paris to Calais when I started and I do not know the way to London, I shall have to rely on the compass. I would like to land in Hyde park if I can find it".
Unlike Louis BLERIOT, no memorial exists (see our cache GC11VH8 LOUIS THE FIRST) to this amazing achievement. MOISANT was killed just 4 months later on 31st December 1910 in Kenner, Louisiana, USA, whilst preparing for an air race in his Bleriot plane.
Remember.....
Covid-19: If you have no intention of signing the physical logbook in this geopot at this time, please visit when you are prepared to sign it. ALL physical logbooks MUST be signed for a claim to a find to be made.