Goals
The CFI’s statutes assign it as main goal
to establish friendly links between enthusiasts of the Fournier gliders, without limit of nationality.
Composed on the basis of RF owners, the Club is open to real enthusiasts of René Fournier machines, even if they do not have one yet..
Our goals are also :
- to maintain the solidarity of this great international family around René Fournier.
- to represent the interests of the members with national administrations and EASA.
- to help the owners to access the necessary spare parts.
- to inform the community about technical and regulatory developments concerning them.
- to facilitate sales and purchases of planes.
Consequently :
- to allow everyone to maintain the value over time of his machine.
The history of the CFI
One fine day in November 1989 in Lapalisse (Allier, France), some of Fournier’s pilot friends decided to create the CFI Association, the Club Fournier International, under the leadership of Jean Claude Boujon. At that time, the Aeroclub Lapalisse is chaired by the dynamic Jean Paul Citerne. This Flying Club has already organized two friendly meetings on the theme of RF motorgliders. The seed of our Aircraft Owners Club project was in Lapalisse!
After organizing a dozen of “Fournier International meetings” at Lapalisse, the CFI started wandering year after year according to the curiosity and interest it aroused with other Aeroclubs throughout France.
For having taken part many times, RF pilot friends from other European countries appreciated the formula. No wonder then that they wanted to produce annual meeting in their respective countries. So today, CFI members are very happy to spend the summer flying and visiting their country and neighboring countries in a warm and friendly atmosphere. The opening of Europe has been a great opportunity for our activity.
René Fournier recounts in his memoirs “Mon rêve mes combats”, that a first attempt to create a Users Club took place in 1977, when his plant was closed. It was a spontaneous and logical reaction of his customers who were opposed to the disappearance of the Fournier brand. But unfortunately, this first attempt to launch failed. It is with enthusiasm that he approved the launch of the CFI in 1989, which was successful this time. René Fournier is Honorary President of the CFI for life.
Internationalization
The CFI would not be as interesting without its cousins from other countries … Thus, in the main countries that have a significant fleet of Fournier, there are national CFIs. So we have as associations:
- CFI Deutschland,
- CFI Benelux,
- CFI Italia,
- CFI United Kingdom,
- CFI Scandinavia,
- CFI Switzerland.
Each entity has a President who owns an RF. He leads activities in his country (air meeting, rally, website, communication …). These leaders are invited annually to the General Assembly in France where the calendar of flights of the year is decided.
Each year, each President is asked to surprise the guests who will come in RF to participate in the festivities and flights planned in his country. This has allowed to develop over time a fabric of warm relations.
The CFI also has far more distant members:
- USA
- Japan,
- South-africa,
- Brasil,
- Australia,
- Poland.
For which, we must admit that we meet them only on exceptional occasions, as for the 50th anniversary of the mark at Gap Tallard in 2010. The distance becomes a big obstacle to visit them in RF … But luckily , internet appeared with the century and this was very beneficial for our relations with all these distant friends.