Our aircraft (12)

While paying a visit to our friends and former colleagues Diana and Tim in Canada, we made our first trip in a seaplane. Circling over the Hudson River is a spectacular experience. Very appropriately the carrier's name was 1000 Island Airways. The Hudson near Belleville is dotted with smaller and larger islands. We had the honour of being flown by the carrier's CEO who also happened to be the only employee.

Oct. 5, 2000, De Haviland B, 1000 Island Airways, 
circular flight  Gananoque (Can), 41/451,749 miles

During my last years with KLM I was involved in the set up and implementation of cargo security procedures. To that end I was a member of the BLACKS group. BLACKS was (is?) the acronym for British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France, Cargolux, KLM and Swissair. There we tried to agree to common security measures for the main European cargo carriers thus setting a standard for Western Europe. Later, this group was also suspected of fixing certain cargo pricing elements. I can safely deny this because there was no truth in that accusation. Anyway, the flights to Frankfurt and London had to do with this BLACKS group.

May 19, 2003, Airbus A321-100, LH, SPL/FRA, 228/465,775 miles
Photo ex Digitaltrends

July 9, 2003, Boeing 737-900, KL, SPL/LHR, 230/466,233 miles
Photo ex airline-pics

The flight to Catania, Sicily, was a holiday flight. I remember that there was a considerable delay on the way back. So we had ample time to test the airport facilities for passengers there (none) and the comfort of the chairs in the departure hall (none). But Taormina was nice!

Sept. 6, 2003, Boeing 757-300, HV, SPL/CTA, 1,140/468,871 miles
Photo ex zap16.com

With a pilot in the family I was able to add a Piper to my list of aircraft types. On the outbound trip we went to the island of Texel. We passed the Schiphol tower and flew overhead our house in Castricum. On the way back we flew via the city of Zwolle.

April 27, 2012, Piper Cadet PA28, Vliegclub Lelystad, Lelystad/Texel, 90/473,982
In the background good old PH-BUK at its final destination

CTA = Catania, Sicily
FRA = Frankfurt
HV = Transavia
KL = KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
LH = Lufthansa
LHR = London Heathrow
SPL = Schiphol Amsterdam airport

For the time being this is the last post in this series. I am 26,000 miles short of reaching the 500,000 miles mark. Whenever I reach it, I'll let you know. In the meantime I hope you have enjoyed the 12 posts on this subject. Thank you for reading them.

Our aircraft (11)

I have this urge to record all kinds of information. Whether this is a useful habit remains to be seen but sometimes it comes in handy. In this post, and the previous ones with the same title, I make use of a list keeping track of all the aircraft types my wife and I ever flew in. Hence the plural title of these posts: our aircraft. During my professional life I also recorded the number of miles we/I flew. The first nine posts in this series are in Dutch but I am sure you'll understand the pictures. I am now coming close to the end of this series. This one and the next and that's it.


In 1995 I was still very much involved in attracting customers to KLM's Cargo Service Center. And keeping them of course. If my memory serves me right, I went to Minneapolis on my way to a Canadian manufacturer of aircraft engines in Winnipeg. (I should have kept track of the purpose of my trips as well!)

June 6, 1995, McDonnell Douglas MD11, KL, SPL/MSP, 4,155/406,515 miles
Photo ex fascination-aviation

Those were not holiday trips. The next day after the meeting I left Winnipeg for Montreal and then onwards to Amsterdam making this a trip of approx. 48 hours in total.

June 7, 1995, Airbus A320, AC, YWG/YUL, 1,120/408,029 miles
Photo ex thestar

The marketing guys of McDonnell Douglas operate just like those working for car manufacturers. They start out with a small (and cheapish?) aircraft such as the DC9-10 (length 32 metres, approx. 90 passengers). And over the years the models are growing and growing until you end up with the MD-90 below (length 46 metres, approx. 150 passengers).

Sept. 8, 1995, McDonnell Douglas MD-90, AA, CHI/YUL, 737/416,298 miles
Photo ex markabbottphotos

The last product developed by no longer existing Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker, is the F70. It is capable of carrying some 80 passengers and KLM Cityhopper is the main operator of this type.

Feb. 22, 1997, Fokker F70, KLC, SPL/HAM, 236/430,898 miles
Photo ex KLM

CHI = Chicago
HAM = Hamburg
MSP = Minneapolis
SPL = Schiphol
YUL = Montreal
YWG = Winnipeg


The captions mention the date of my/our first flight with that particular aircraft type, the aircraft type, the airline prefix, the route and the distance and the total number of miles u/i this flight. Unless otherwise mentioned, the picture shows an aircraft of the carrier with which we/I travelled.
To be continued.

Onze vliegtuigen (8)

Misschien goed om nog eens te zeggen dat met 'onze vliegtuigen' alle vliegtuigtypes worden bedoeld waarin mijn betere wederhelft en/of ik ooit gevlogen hebben. U moet 'onze' dan ook niet in letterlijke zin als een bezittelijk voornaamwoord beschouwen. Wel is het zo dat veruit de meeste reizen z.g. dienstreizen waren en dan was het, zeker in het begin, geen gewoonte dat de dames meegingen.

21-1-1979, DC9-15, KL319 SPL/GVA, 424/212.940 mijl
Foto ex www.dutch-aviation.nl by Ger Buskermolen

10-11-1980, Airbus A300, LH084 FRA/SPL, 228/254.224 mijl
Foto ex www.widebodyaircraft.nl

13-8-1987. Airbus A310, KL??? SPL/LHR, 230/292.343 mijl
Foto ex forum.scramble.nl

De oplettende lezer zal gezien hebben dat ik in de 7 jaren tussen 1980 en 1987 nog niet eens 40.000 mijl heb gevlogen. Dat is niet veel maar een enthousiaste dienstreiziger was ik nooit. In die periode ben ik van Vrachtmarketing op het Amstelveense hoofdkantoor, verhuisd naar de Vrachtafdeling op Schiphol-Centrum (1982). Daar eerst naar Planning & projectontwikeling, toen hoofd Bedrijfsbureau van de Vrachtafhandeling, daarna wnd. hoofd Vrachtafhandeling en vervolgens hoofd Speciaal vervoer, later ook nog Cargo Service Center en Blue Crown. Met name die laatste functie veranderde nogal eens van naam en plaats in de organisatie maar was wel een van de mooiste jobs die ik gehad heb. Een fraaie mengeling van operationeel en commercieel met een mooie ploeg mensen! 
Rest nog te melden dat ik op terugreis van New York naar Schiphol op 12-7-1978 in een toestel van Finnair de 200.000 mijl ben gepasseerd. Bijna precies 10 jaar later op 27-7-1988, op weg van Atlanta naar Schiphol, werd de 300.000 mijl vol gemaakt. (In Atlanta zat een grote klant van ons: Ampex, producent van tape voor tv-stations. "Ja, start de ampex maar!")

13-4-1989, Fokker F50, HN381 SPL/BRU, 98/316.486 mijl
Foto ex nl.wikipedia.org

BRU = Brussel
FRA = Frankfurt
GVA = Geneva
HN = NLM later KLM Cityhopper
LHR = London Heathrow
SPL = Schiphol


De teksten onder de foto's geven resp. de datum van mijn/onze eerste vlucht met dat vliegtuigtype, het vliegtuigtype, het vluchtnummer, de herkomst/ bestemming, de afstand in mijlen tussen die twee en het totaal aantal mijlen dat ik t/m die vlucht heb afgelegd. 

In principe toont de foto een machine van de maatschappij waarmee ik die eerste vlucht heb gemaakt.


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