Last Flight of Chief Pilot 747 & Cpt TRI TRE Paul van de Ven @ KLM

After an enormous career Chief Pilot 747 & Captain B747 TRI – TRE Paul van de Ven got his last flight due to retirement at KLM. The ‘Majestic B747’ was his beloved aircraft. Together with former 747 pilots Cpt Jan-Joost van Hemel and FO Willem Luijten as his ‘Wingmen’, and KLM Pilot in being daughter Lisa heading for final destination Capetown and back Amsterdam. I operated Paul’s final pushback at homebas Amsterdam Airport on special request. Stand Echo 19 , standard pusback with tail to the tower and giving a ‘Wing Wave’ as all-clear signal as respect to my special […]
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Last Pushback & Flight of Captain Hein Kuipers @ KLM

Captain Hein Kuipers made his last flight due to retirement at KLM. Together with First Officer Geert-Jaap Sisterman and Seconde Officer Joël Prak as his ‘Wingmen’ heading for final destination Paramaribo and back Amsterdam. As surprise ( orchestrated by retired KLM Captain Henk de Vries)  I operated the pushback of KL713 as a push&pull abeam Alpha 16 from stand F4. KL713 got operated with a B777-300ER reg PHBVW. Backflight KL714 was the first flight in the very early morning. Captain Hein landed at 5:02am on runway 27 and after vacating the runway taxying to final stand Echo 19. Flight KL714 […]
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Last Flight of Captain Tim ten Velde @ KLM

Captain Tim made his last flight due to retirement at KLM. As phenomenal 747 pilot Tim ended his career flying the Triple7. All KLM B747 Combi’s and Full Pax got phased out last year. Final destination Curacao and assisted by gooed friend and Captain Christophe Knaepen as ‘Wingman’ and operating as Co pilot this flight. I operated his last pushback at Schiphol Airport at gate Echo22 with pushbacktruck KI-Kilo India. A huge V8-16L machine. Flight KL735 , callsign KL125 , got a runway 09 departure and operated with the B777-300ER reg PH-BVK. Backflight KL736 got a lovely runway 27 landing, […]
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