Aviation

Flying under the Auora Borealis

Flying trough the night with the clouds sweeping by below us and the Northern Lights - Auora Borealis above. What a magical night.

Flying through thunderstorms

Navigating trough and flying over thunderstorms during our departure. The full moon helps us here, navigating by our own eyes instead of relying only on the weather radar.

Thunderstorms from the cockpit

While overflying Athens we were surrounded by active thunderstorms. We could navigate trough them and at the same time I was able to capture the beauty of those thunderstorms at night.

Autoland

While performing an approach with a low visibility we have to performn an auto land. Here the computer will fly and land the airplane. The minimum required visibility for us to perform such a landing is 200m and we have to see the lights at 15m height. Here you see what we see during such an approach. The visibility was a bit better (500m) but as you can see we only see lights, nothing else...

Pilots view

Overflying The Netherlands during our approach to Amsterdam airport Schiphol, runway 27.
A pilots view from 1.5 km altitude.

Just past Bussum, you see the Ankerveensche plassen on the left and the river “de Vecht”.
When we where coming through the clouds we had this magnificent sight. Continuing the turn towards the west, we faced the sun more directly and it became very hazy.

Jet engine at sunset

During sunset the light gets amazing. You can see the reflection of the red beacon light on the engine cowling. I had to time this corretly to see the reflection on the engine. It gives an awesome view.

Approaching Ibiza

Approaching the airport of Ibiza during the early morning. The sun is about to rise as we fly towards the party island.

Amazing skies over France

During our way back to Amsterdam, flying high over France, the sunset was giving some amazing colours in the sky. The whole sky colored purple for about a minute. It was an exeptional sunset from 38.000 ft.

Turining final

We are turning final towards Amsterdam Schiphol Airport during our night arrival. One of the most beautiful times to be taking photo's while flying the Boeing 737-800.

Descent to Tenerife

We have just started our descent towards Tenerife, inbound Ganta. The moon was shining bright, illuminating the few clouds below us. You can see the isaland Tenerife trough the left window with the Vulcano El Teide in the middle of the island.

Cockpit at twilight

While cruising at 37.000 ft the sun was setting behiid us. The last light turns the sky in a wonderful blue colour. This only lasts for a few minutes, before the night really kicks in.

Amazing Sunset

We experienced an amazing sunset while on radar vectors to runway 18R at Amsterdam - Schiphol. The sun just peaked below the clouds and turned the whole sky orange. Did you know our callsign is also "Orange" ?

Approaching the runway

Final approach. Just a few more feet and the main wheels will touch down softly on the runway, bringing us back to home.

Crazy sunrise at Schiphol

Departing Schiphol, Amsterdam in the morning. The pushback is just completed and the engines are running. The sun breaks trhough the cloud layer, giving a spectacular light show.

Welcome at 11 km altitude

Welcome at 11 km altitude or 38.000 feet. A view from the flight deck of a modern airliner somwhere over turkey.

Cloud surfing

Surfing the clouds durning a fantastic night with the bright moon lighting up the few clouds below us during our final descent towards runway 18R in Amsterdam.

Approaching Zanzibar

A view inside the cockpit in the final moments of our flight towards Zanzibar. We are almost landing on the runway. Making minor adjustments to our flight path and speed. A high intensity working environment.