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I was born on the 23th of august in 1973 at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the hospital room had a window view on the "H.F.Verwoerd"
international airport.......since then I'm a great fanatic when it comes to aviation and everything related to that.....how would
that be possible.....?
In 1977 my parents Gerard&Marianne moved back to Holland for several reasons, main thing was the somewhat
unclear future for the country, not knowing what would happen...to secure the future plans for my brother Harm, sister Anne-Marie
and me I guess. My Mother had the biggest problem adapting back in Holland as South Africa is such a very beautifull country.
When I was 4 my father (who was already involved into flying model aircraft) took me to his model flying club where it all
began......never got cured since! I started model flying when I was 14 years old, started building scale models at the age of 20
and got involved into turbine building from 1993 when I was teached how to work with milling machines and a lath at the Anthony
Fokker Aviation college for maintenance engineer. My first jetpowered model was a scale 1/10 Saab Viggen, converted from ducted
fan power to KJ66 homebuilt turbine during the winter of 1997. At
the moment I have 3 models active flying; McDonnall Douglas F15C Eagle, General Dynamics F16 Falcon and a Dassault Rafale C. The
F15 and F16 models are kits from Philip Avonds. , the F15 was however started only as a rough
fuselage body from the older twin ductedfan version. All remaining was scratch built, including all flying surfaces, landing gear
90 degrees twist&turn retracts, wheels and brakes.
From 1996 I started scale competition into the FAI class F4C with many success. Became Dutch National champion several times and
the best of my international rankings are 4th place at the WC2002 at Canada and 2nd place at the EC2001 at Poland.
Workwise I was an aircraft maintenance engineer from 1996 till the end of 2006, fixing aircraft like Jetstream31, Fokker F27/F50,
ATR42 and the Embraer 145 jet. However after some thinking and financial consulting I decided to try to make on old dream come
true to become a pilot myself; started an evening/weekend education for airline pilot in 2003 which I finnished spring 2006. Very
luckily I could switch my toolbox for a pilot suit at the same company I already worked for,
Denim Air. They lease aircraft&crew packages and there I flew the Fokker F50
turboprop aircraft for other company's like KLM Cittyhoper, Wideroe (Norway) and mostly in Nigeria, Africa for Virgin Nigeria and
Arik Air. I'm very greatfull that Denim has given me the opportunety to start flying and now after a lot of traveling abroad it's
time for me to settle down. I was invited by VLM Airlines(which have just
become a daughter of KLM/AirFrance) where I took the chance to start with them. This means based at Rotterdam I will be home every
evening, spending more time with Suzanne and more time to play with my hobby. Although I had a very good time at Denim I'm very
happy now with VLM with their roster and airfields to go. Maybe very soon based at Eindhoven which is very close to home, only
20 mins driving, what more do I want....
Since 2000 living together with my lovely girlfriend Suzanne, she has been asked many times by others how she put up with me with
all these aircraft stuf......well, the first 3 months of our relation I didn't mention anything about my flying disease.......
We got married in the summer of 2009 and she is used by now to all the plane talking and stuff, occasionally she joins me to competition where she coaches
me.
As so often requested, I do not make parts for others or for sale, I want to keep the joy and fun for this hobby and in my humble
opinion this won't be the case when being involved into mass production.......sorry for that! Besides, I have about another
million projects to be started, how can I achieve all that in my short life!
Cheers all,
Gerald