Time Flies

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

Countries

Cities

299 Squadron

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.

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.

Europe

Middle East

Far East

Africa

North America

Caribbean

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.

South America

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.

Aircraft

Airlines

Decades