Time Flies
the statistics
Embedded Files
I was fortunate enough to spend most of my military service in the cockpit of an Alouette III as observer/navigator for 299 squadron "Grasshoppers".
I copied all flights from my military logbook to an Excel sheet and kept track of all flights, places, countries, aircraft and airlines.
Now, after 2000+ flights to 200+ places, it's time to take stock.
Stats
Stats
Countries
Countries
Cities
Cities
299 Squadron
299 Squadron
Piper L21B
Army Navigator School
Alouette III -299 Squadron
Navigation flights (43)
Night flights (3)
Formation flights (8)
Photo flights (17)
Calibration / taxi flights (7)
Confined area flights (16)
In the forests around Deelen air base, a section of 100 x 100 is cut away for confined area exercises. During an exercise with commander 299 squadron at the controls, he frequently chops large chunks of branches from the surrounding trees, apparently enjoying it.
A week later I am summoned by commander Light Aircraft Group to confirm what had happened. A month later, commander 299 squadron was diagnosed with S5 (psychological instability) and relieved of his post.
Forced autorotation flights (2)
Autorotation is a situation in which a helicopter's rotor blades turn by the action of air moving up through the rotor rather than by engine power. The manoeuvre is used to land a helicopter safely in the event of an engine failure or tail rotor failure. It is a common emergency procedure.
One autorotation due to engine failure occurred during a night flight over Beneden-Leeuwen. We landed on a football field while a match was being played there.
The second was during military exercises in Bergen-Hohne (Germany) due to icing on the rotor blades.
Ground support flights (50)
Artillerie fire control flights (22)
Celebrity flights (9)
Alouette III A-275 Air base Deelen (1969)
Alouette III A-275 - Air base Gilze (2014)
Europe
Europe
My first flight: sightseeing from Schiphol over flower exhibition Keukenhof, 1953
Vacation Nice
Eindhoven heliport- Brussel (1962)
Drag race between ZAV DAF and Caravelle
Amsterdam - Maastricht (1972)
Acrobatics with my brother Fons
Budel - Budel (1977)
Paragliding ClubMed
Val d'Isère - Val d'Isère (2005)
Touch down Schiphol
unknown runway
Houston - Amsterdam (2012)
De-icing Schiphol
Amsterdam - Sao Paolo (2010)
Visiting family in Galicia
Eindhoven - Porto (2014)
Italy-Tropea Wedding Gilles & Emiliana
Weeze - Lamezia (2018)
Middle East
Middle East
Israel - over Jerusalem
Amman - Amsterdam (2008)
Schiphol seen from Kaag runway
Amsterdam - Dubai (2013)
Far East
Far East
Sunset with anvil clouds over Bay of Bengal
New Delhi - Singapore (2000)
Maldives vacation
Colombo - Male (2002)
Nepal - Photo flight Mount Everest
Kathmandu - Kathmandu (2003)
British Airways B-777
Dhaka - London (2004)
Jet Air B-777
Mumbai - Brussel (2008)
Africa
Africa
Fransschoek - Wedding Fons en Myriam
Nelspruit - Phalabora (2000)
Over Venice
Amsterdam - Cape Town (2003)
Desert storm over Al Jawf - Lybia
Amsterdam - Entebbe (2006)
Dawn over Western Cape
Cape Town - Johannesburg (2010)
Tanzania - crossing Lake Victoria
Mwanza - Bukoba (2013)
North America
North America
Florida - Key Marquesas
Cancun - Miami (2007)
KLM chartered bizz class only B-737
Houston - Amsterdam (2008)
Rocky Mountains
Amsterdam - Los Angeles (2011)
Miami beach - Fisher Island
Miami - Montego Bay (2015)
Guatemala - Vulcano Fuego
Guatemala City - Los Angeles (2015)
Kind message from captain
Amsterdam - Atlanta (2016)
The American dream
Chicago - Houston (2016)
Caribbean
Caribbean
KLM network in the 1930s
Honduras - Tankstop Short-SD3
Tegucigalpa - San Pedro Sula (2006)
Over Turcs & Caicos
Madrid - San Jose de Costa Rica (2008)
Honduras - vacation Roatan
Tegucigalpa - San Pedro Sula (2009)
Nicaragua - ash cloud
Managua-Houston-Newark-Amsterdam (2010)
April 2010. A volcanic eruption in Iceland paralyzes air traffic in Europe. At the check-in counter on Managua airport Copa officials inform us we can fly as far as San Jose but not further. A second option is a last flight to the USA.
My colleague choses to go to San Jose and wait there. I decide to take the Houston flight and on to Newark. We bet on who will get home first.
After three days of waiting in New York, I get a seat on the first flight to Amsterdam. My colleague manages to reach Madrid a day earlier, only to get stuck there.
After two days he finds a flight to Barcelona, where he and three other passengers take a taxi to Amsterdam.
I win.
Congress Sint Martin
Amsterdam - Philipsburg (2013)
Landing Saba
Philipsburg - Saba (2014)
Little Bonaire
Willemstad - Kralendijk (2014)
North Miami beach
Miami - Port of Spain (2015)
South America
South America
Colombia - El Dorado airport
Breakfast at 5am
Bogotá- Pereira (2012)
Venezuela - Angel Falls with Lizbeth's sisters
Puerto Ordaz - Canaima (2006)
Suriname - with Lizbeth en Isabel
Amsterdam - Paramaribo (2013)
Every Friday afternoon in Guayaquil, I can see and hear from my hotel room KL 755 arriving from Quito. Time to pack my suitcase, take a cab to the airport and catch my flight to Amsterdam.
Five times a week, two Martinair DC-10 cargo planes with flowers from Quito make a refueling stop in Guayaquil. At 3200 meter in Quito, they cannot take off with full tanks.
Venezuela - over Puerto Cabello
Amsterdam - Bogotá (2021)
Aircraft
Aircraft
CBI bizzcard / Rotterdam office / passport
KLM houses (294)
Airlines
Airlines
excluding KLM/Air France
B-737 over Florapark, Eindhoven (2016)
Decades
Decades
B 747 - 72K -Best seat in the house
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