Zach's Exploration Autobiography

This is my autobiography for my exploration inquiry. I am proud of it because I spent a long time on it and worked hard.

Hello, my name is Louis Bleriot  I  was born on the 1st of July, 1872. I was born in Rue de l'Arbre à Poires (now rue Sadi-Carnot) in Cambrai, France.

Saturday, 24th of July, 1909

Today I am planning for tomorrow's flight. I have heard that Hubert Latham did not make it very far across due to engine failure. This made me feel uncertain that I would make it across without disruptions.  I have to plan carefully.  What time of the day should I start?  What will the wind speeds be doing?

Before Hubert Latham had flown, the Daily Mail had put up an offer of five hundred pounds, for whoever made it across first. After Hubert Latham had failed, the Daily Mail increased their offer to one thousand pounds. This meant to me that I could have a good amount of money if I crossed without fail. I have a few competitors that are in the same position as me, but I have the advantage, because I fly tomorrow and they fly later in the month.

Sunday, 25th of July, 1909

I have to wake up at 2am in the morning because the rules for the prize say that you have between sunrise and sunset to complete it, so I have chosen to start at sunrise. I am very nervous, my heart is pounding though I feel excited, because today I intend to fly all the way across the English Channel. There is many things that I need to do to prepare the plane and myself. By the time everything is ready to be taken to the launch site it’s  almost 3.30am, although the launch site is quarter of an hour away we still have to take half an hour because we have to be careful of the plane.  It is 4.ooam and the plane is ready to go so I decide to do a few circles then touch down again. I have somebody on the ground who will notify me about when the sunrises. The plane is flying well and controlling well.  Now it is time to go, I say goodbye to my wife and I start up the engine and I go sprinting down the runway and up into the air all is going well. I have a destroyer below me heading towards Dover. But because I’m going at 45 mi/h

I soon overtake it  I couldn’t see the Destroyer or England. I didn’t know where to go, so I kept going straight but a strong wind was blowing me east. But soon I saw the cliffs of Dover and I was trying to see the landing spot but my friend had already thought of that and was waving the french flag to the right of me that was marking the best spot to land. I did a few circles above him to lose height and I did a pancake landing and then everyone was crowding around me cheering.

Monday,  26 of July, 1909

Today I went to collect my one thousand pounds. When I go outside my hotel  people were cheering and taking pictures of me.This is a really special moment for me. I get into the taxi and lots of people crowded the road as my taxi drives through. We get to the Daily Mail Office and I find out that I completed the flight in 36 minutes and 30 seconds. I was amazed at this time seeing that I had drifted East a lot. The person who came up with the idea of this prize talked to me about how I had been able to build a good aircraft. He asked me about my childhood years and about my life and most importantly my flight, he said this would be put into an article that would tell people about me and my extraordinary flight. Once we had finished our talking business we got to the deal - all I had to do was sign a paper and out I went with the one thousand dollar cheque. Again the streets were busy as I got into the taxi and down to the Harbour where our ship was waiting to take us back to France. It was a thirty minute drive to Dover Harbour. On the way there the taxi driver asked me a lot of questions about what is was like up there and was there a good view because people like him don’t know about that. We had reached the Harbour and my  plane and my family were getting loaded onto the ship. The ride back to France was reminding me about my flight and the crew and passengers aboard the ship were eager to ask me questions even a film crew were aboard asking me lots of the same questions that the taxi driver did. It wasn’t long until we had reached

France and by then it had also reached nightfall. The drive home was a long and tiring drive after a big day.

The  End

Louis Bleriot