CHARLIE-ZULU-FOXTROT -- SYNOPSIS

Charlie Turner is seventeen and his life is a mess. His mom is back in rehab for the third time and his pilot father has flown across country to start a new life with his new girlfriend. His parents’ divorce battle has been going on for over a year.

When Charlie gets expelled from boarding school he is sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Sangatte, France. Charlie doesn’t exactly fit into this rural, conservative small town. He’s tempted to run away and take his chances on the road, but then, Charlie discovers the parts to an old airplane in his uncle’s barn – a vintage 1909 Bleriot XI. The plane captures Charlie’s imagination. Charlie has always been mechanically inclined and he decides to rebuild the plane and to fly it in an upcoming event celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the Louis Bleriot’s over the English Channel.

Complicating his situation is his infatuation with his beautiful French tutor, Adele (aka Eleanor). Adele has decided to change her name and change her life. She is determined to get out of small town Sangatte and has been the perfect student and perfectly behaved young lady in order to get into the right college

Charlie must deal with Olivier, a flight instructor who might get him killed, his job working with his aunt Georgette on her ostrich ranch, and a wealthy French aviation buff, M. Ballard, who will stop at nothing to keep Charlie’s plane grounded so that Ballard is the sole pilot flying in the anniversary event.

Charlie’s cranky middle-aged uncle George take the boy under his wing. George is a is a master mechanic and he and Charlie will work together to rebuild the airplane (it’s call letters C-Z-F is the Charlie-Zulu-Foxtrot of the title) The two form a strong bond with Charlie becoming the son George always wanted and George becoming the strong parental role model Charlie has always needed.

But when George dies suddenly on the eve of the flight and the CZF plane is impounded by the authorities (due to behind the scenes scheming by Mr. Ballard) it looks like Charlie will not achieve his dream. Charlie will have to rally his new-found French friends Adele, Olivier and Georgette in a mad scheme to steal back his plane and fly it in the anniversary event beating Mr. Ballard at his own game. Charlie, who has been the odd man out all his life, will finally find somewhere he belongs.

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CHARLIE ZULU FOXTROT came out of my love of flying and aviation.

In my spare time, I am actively pursuing my pilot’s licence, logging hours in the cockpit toward my certificate. I was living in France in 2009 when I saw an article in the Herald Tribune about the 100-year Anniversay of Louis Bleriot’s flight across the English Channel. I had never heard of this aviation pioneer, France’s Charles Lindberg. When I saw the original plane that he flew at the Arts & Metiers museum in Paris it reminded me of an untraligiht kit plane, the kind of aircraft a mechanically-minded person could build in their garage. It struck me that someone finding and rebuilding a Bleriot XI 100 years after his flight might make the frame of a good story.