Maxime was born 28 years ago in Paris. He did all his schooling in Fenelon and decided unconvincingly to get a degree in physics at Jussieu, while pursuing his real passion by taking flying lessons at the flying club of Pontoise. He was able to convince his parents of his vocation, and enrolled at the Mermoz Institute to pass his frozen ATPL. He then went to EPAG Flying School where the young Air France’s pilots are trained to pass the practical part of the commercial license and instrument rating.
With the help of his parents, he was able finance himself a Cessna CJ2 type rating, and after a few flights as a free-lance pilot to gain experience, he presented himself at UNIJET in early 2011 with the minimum required flight hours. At the time of selection we did not hesitate: Maxime definitely stood out from the rest.
The selection process of new pilots goes as follows: Two candidates who do not know each other beforehand are put into a flight simulator. One must carry out the role of a pilot while the other candidate acts as a partner, providing the pilot with support. First, we test the pilots’ ability to organize their work despite their lack of experience on the type of aircraft, but also very important, we evaluate how the partner assists the pilot.
In this exercise Maxime’s performance was very convincing. Not only did he perform well as pilot in command, but he also offered great support for his partner despite the fact he was also his competitor. That was Maxime – a person full of passion and generosity, an altruist. He was polite and reserved without being shy. To his friends he had no flaws - except perhaps to be always late for his appointments. However, here at Unijet, we never noticed this, because the excitement to fly was so strong that he would always arrive well before any of his flights. Maxime had 1,500 hours of flying time, including 200 on the Falcon 50.