KLM DVD: “Welcome to the OCC, KLM’s Operations Control Center” from Tim on Vimeo.

The training was followed by a ‘training-on-the-job’ to teach me, within another period of two weeks, how to be able to work as independently as possible. I was taught how to prepare a flight (e.g. collecting the information and checking if it is correct), how to monitor the flights I was handling and how to finish the flight. In the beginning my trainer and I did everything together: I said what I thought I had to do, and if that was correct he let me do my work. As days went by my trainer let me work alone more and more. Of course I still had questions, as every flight is different and might have it’s own difficulties, but asking questions is very encouraged at the KLM. Because we work with aircraft stuffed with over a hundred passengers, we cannot afford to make any mistakes. We’ve learned never to do something if you aren’t sure if it’s the right thing to do.

Basically the work I do is planning how the baggage and cargo should be loaded in the aircraft, and send these instructions to the outstation. They will load the aircraft according to my instructions. I have to make sure the aircraft center of gravity falls within certain limits. And therefore it is important that they follow my instructions carefully.

Now I’m working alone for over three weeks, and I’m pretty satisfied on how it’s going, I even see things going better every day. In the beginning it was really hard when a couple of flights departed within 5 minutes of each other, but handling a situation like that on a daily basis taught me lot, and most of the times I don’t have any difficulties with this anymore. For so far I’m really enjoying this internship.

Image by Inter.nl

Here’s an overview of my results. All grades are on a scale from 1 to 10.

Apart from studying I’ve also been busy with the internship for next school year. A couple of months ago eight students were selected for an internship at the Operations Control Center of the KLM. I was one of them, so I had to do some tests and a job interview. Only four of us will be selected and are going to work there for 5 months. The first test we got was weight and balance, which is used to determine the center of gravity of an aircraft. It’s important to know how these things work, because it will be part of the daily tasks at the OCC.

Last wednesday I had the second test and the job interview. This was an English speaking test and it wasn’t very difficult. I had to read some texts and explain to the tutor what the text was about. It was followed by a 10 minute conversation in English. After this test I had the job interview. I was interviewed by a recruiter and a manager of the OCC. They asked me questions about who I am and what I like to do, as well as more difficult questions: “Can you give an example of a situation that you was working under high pressure?”, I found it hard to remember such a situation, but after a few seconds I got one. At the end of the job interview, they told me that they would call me within two days to tell me if I was selected for the internship.

The recruiter called me today, she had good news, I’m selected. This means that after the summer holiday, I will be working at the KLM again. It’ll start with a course of two weeks to teach me how everything works. Then I will be prepared for working alone, which means I’ll be working for three weeks under supervision of a colleague, before I have to do it on my own. I’m really looking forward to all this, but first I’m going to enjoy my summer holiday.

The fire department at Schiphol is situated at three different locations on the airport. Each location is responsible for its own area. In case of an air crash or bad landing, the fire fighters within that area have to arrive at the scene within three minutes. For problems at the terminal buildings they have more time. When an aircraft crashes and catches fire on the wings and fuselage it takes about three minutes before the fire reaches the inside of the aircraft, like the cabin or cockpit. Saving lives becomes very difficult from that point, and the chance to survive the crash reduces enormously.

The day started with a presentation to introduce us to the daily tasks and responsibilities of the fire brigade. After we finished the theoretical part of the excursion, the visitors were separated into groups and we went outside. As one of the few airports in the world, Schiphol has a unique training facility for the fire fighters. It’s called the Firefly, a remake of a passenger aircraft to simulate an air crash and to practise the extinguishing of the huge fires in such a situation. The fire brigade gave us a short demonstration of the Firefly.

To be honest it wasn’t as spectacular as I expected, of course, the flames were pretty huge, but the fire was extinguished in seconds. I’ve uploaded a video of the demonstration to my YouTube account, so see for yourself here.

If you rent a suite in the aircraft you can enjoy an infrared sauna, a luxurious jacuzzi and you can take a look in the cockpit. The cabin is equipped with a minibar, 3 flat-screen TVs, a Blu-Ray player, free wireless Internet and air conditioning, to make sure you’ll have every comfort you need.

The aircraft is also available for conferences, you can fly from any location in Europe to airport Teuge, where you can park your business jet next to the hotel. A total of 15 to 20 people can be accommodated during a conference.

For more information visit Hotel Suites. Look below for some photos of the Ilyushin 18:

Yesterday we all went to the Operations Control Center of the KLM, which controls all worldwide activities of the KLM. I’ve been watching there for a couple of hours, after which we went to the Hangar. KLM has several hangars at Schiphol-East. We went to Hangar 14, which is -according to the guide- the biggest hangar of Europe. It was amazing to see the technicians working on the aircraft. The hangar is separated in three bays, which all have a different function. The first two bays are set up to do maintenance and checks on the aircraft, for example the C-check and the D-check. During the D-check the aircraft is stripped almost completely, so every single part can be inspected for damage or malfunctioning. It’s such a lot of work to perform this check, that it takes multiple weeks. The third bay is in use for aircraft repaints.

Before going back to college I’ll be going on a skiing trip to France with college. Together with a couple of teachers and students I will travel to Risoul by bus. I’m not sure how long it’ll be driving, but it will be a long, long drive…

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, we’ve been interviewed by a journalist of the internal KLM newspaper. Here’s a translation of the article:

ROC students are attending internship at BTS

For ten weeks they’re standing between the aircraft: Uman, Arjen, Wesley, Shawn and Daniel. Thanks to a cooperation between KLM and the ROC Hoofddorp these Aviation Operations students are working within the team. Therefore they can put their theoretical skills into practice.

During work they are accompanied by sector manager Pieter and supervisor Renz. Pieter: “The main goal of the internship is that the boys can bring the theory into practice. For them it’s great to finally experience the real thing which is described in their books.” The employees of the department are enthusiastic about the trainees. Pieter: “You can see that everybody does his very best to make the boys experience as much as possible.

For instance, they aren’t allowed to drive the highloaders themselfs, but the specialists really like to give them a drive. When that happens you can see their proud faces.” Daniel, one of the five trainees confirms this: “It’s great to (as an addition to the theory) walk between the real aircraft.” Wesley adds: “We’ve had a good introduction course at the KLM, and when I was at the platform, it was even better than I expected.” Arjen: “We have to wake up pretty early, because we start at 7 am, but it’s more than worth it.” They have to go to college for another two years, so they have to stay focused on studying. But the question if they would like to work at the KLM after they finished college is answered: “YES”.

See the original article below (click to enlarge).

I arrived there at 6 am in the morning to conduct with two colleagues of that department. Our first assignment was to tow a Boeing 747 from the gate to the Juliet platform at the other side of the highway. I chose to go into the cockpit with one of my colleagues, while the other operated the push back truck. In the cockpit we followed a number of procedures concerning the power supply of the aircraft. After that, the push back truck gently lifted the enormous jet and asked permission from the air traffic control to begin moving. The push back truck needs confirmation from the ATC because it is entering the taxiway.

It was a fantastic experience to be sitting in the co-pilot’s seat while the aircraft got towed over the taxiways to the Juliet platform. When we arrived at the final location, we switched of the aircraft and got off.

Later that day we towed an Airbus A330 to the Bravo platform which we also towed back to the gate a a while later. My colleagues also had to tow an aircraft to the hangar, but because I’m not allowed to enter that area (Schiphol-East), I went with someone else for a couple of hours. I’ve been sitting in the push back truck while it pushed the aircraft on the taxiway where it started its engines and prepared for take off.

One thing that really attracted my attention was the big difference between Boeing and Airbus aircraft and their cockpits. Airbus is more electronic and based on computers than Boeing. For instance the control column to control the primary flight controls used by Boeing, is replaced by a sidestick in Airbus aircraft.

A Rampsnake is an advanced conveyor to deliver the cargo and baggage anywhere in the belly during bulk loading. It operates fully electronic and reduces handling operations to 2 people. During the training course they explained how the machine works, how we can control it, and they told us about the emergency procedures. Without a Rampsnake the loaders have to push or lift all the baggage to the end of the hold. Now, the Rampsnake does all this work for us.

The second course, concerned the arrival of the aircraft at the gate. A GPU is a Ground Power Unit, which is a vehicle capable of supplying power to aircraft parked on the ground. The aircraft can also use its build in APU (Auxilary Power Unit) but this method uses more fuel and is expensive. We learned how to start the GPU and connect it to the aircraft, while the wheel chocks are placed at the same time. The wheel chocks are used to prevent the aircraft from moving while parked at the gate.

They also taught us the procedures for smaller aircraft, like the Fokker 70, 100 and Embraer 190 which are mostly used by KLM Cityhopper. These aircraft don’t park at the gate, but at the buffer. The passengers are transferred to the terminal by buses. Because there is no VDGS (Visual Docking and Guidance System) the pilots and handling crew communicate by hand signals.

But we didn’t only work. Last week, on Friday, we got interviewed by a journalist of the internal KLM newspaper. A photographer went to the ramp with us, and took some photos of all the trainees during work. After that, the journalist asked us some questions.

At seven o’clock my working day begins, waiting in the canteen until they declare the names of the next team. One team, existing out of 4 or more people, handle an aircraft. I’m working at the D-pier where all kinds of aircraft are situated. This means I’ve already handled Boeing 737′s, Boeing 777′s, Boeing 747′s, and Airbus A330′s. The last three of those, are mainly loaded with containers and pallets, except for the crew baggage and remaining cargo which go in the bulk cargo hold.

The first time I had to go in to the bulk hold of an wide body aircraft, I wasn’t very sure about doing it. It’s located at the rear side of the aircraft, at a height of four meters. I have a bit of a fear of heights, and it makes it even more difficult because you have to walk up a mobile conveyor belt. I decided to try it and although getting out the hold will never be my favorite thing to do, I have no problems with it anymore. It seems that I have overcome my fears.

Airbus A330 with conveyor to bulk hold

All of the containers are loaded by high loaders and main deck loaders, which will gently roll the container into the aircraft, and after that the driver can move them to the left or the right side by a small joystick. The floor of the aircraft is equipped will small wheels, rails and locks, to make easy and safe transport possible. During one day I approximately handle 4 or 5 aircraft, depending on how busy it is.

The activities today were very impressive. At the beginning of the day we walked around at the platform, watching how the crew was handling the plane and its cargo. While travelling by plane it doesn’t look very big, but when I was standing next to the main landing gear of a Boeing 747-400 Combi, I thought: “This is immense!”. KLM uses the combi aircraft to transport both passengers and cargo from and to airports which are not profitable enough to send two different planes. At the moment we were walking around the platform, the crew was unloading the cargo part of the main deck. After they finished we all got onto the main deck loader, which lifted us easily to a height of 6 or 7 metres.

After we checked out the main deck of the aircraft, we went through the passenger cabin to the cockpit. It was impressive to see all those screens and switches, imagining that just two men control such a huge machine. We left the plane by the jetway and walked over the platform to some other aircraft, where our trainer explained about the procedures and systems.

Later at the office of our trainer, which is actually a turnaround coordinator, we got explanations about the computer systems to track the progress during an aircraft turnaround. In these three days of internship, I already learned more than during the two months of the previous internship.

The first one has been delivered last week and will be used for training purposes until it will make its first commercial flight on the 17th of November. The jet (registration PH-EZA) was flown from Brazil via Tenerife to Amsterdam Airport last weekend, where it was welcomed by the Airport Fire Department, KLM cabin crew and pilots, and obviously; the press. The tenth and last regional jet will be delivered in or around march 2010.

The ERJ-190 is equipped with some extra options for the KLM, the holds are equipped with an oxygen installation to make it possible to transport animals. The KLM also chose to implement “Electronic Flight Bags” in the cockpit. This is a portable computer to show important flight information. According to the crew this ERJ-190 doesn’t fly better than the Fokker 100, which was pretty modern for its time.

For photos of the arrival of the ERJ-190, click here.

Here some photos of St.Maarten Airport:

The Boeing 747-200 with 450 seats gets a second life, but this time not at a 10 kilometers altitude. The aircraft was stripped, and has 25 rooms, the plumbing, sanitation and climate control had to be renewed, and also the whole plane got rewired.

Now, after more than 2 years of hard work, the Boeing 747 is ready be towed to it’s final destination. The bookings of the hotel start in December.

For more information about the Jumbo Hotel visit the official website: Jumbo Hostel.

Or, here are some other resources:

• Flightstory
• Techomatic Blog
• Gizmodo

I was wrong..

According to the latest sales statistics, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Qantas and a lot of other airlines seem to be interested in using the Airbus A380 on their routes. This airplane has so much space, that these airlines can set up the plane with all kind of luxury facilities, like showers, sofa lounges, self-service bars for economy class, and private suites. Obviously, the plane will be used on long haul flights, and that’s just were the passengers need facilities like that.

But what about the water for the showers, 1 litre of water weights 1 kilo, so even if the showers are only available for first class passengers, how many extra kilograms will it cost to carry all the water on board?

After all I think, that as long as the airline is able to fill up the A380 with passengers, it might be profitable. Flying with a half-full aircraft isn’t profitable anyway, but especially not with a plane of this size.

Singapore Airlines Economy Class

I’ve seen a lot of photos and videos of this airplane in the last couple of months. It’s amazing, I call it a revolution in flight history, like the Boeing 747 was back in the days. And I’m wondering, what’s the next step for the aviation industry? Even bigger planes, or small, fuel efficient planes?

The first qualification round was amazing and I was very impressed about the skills of the pilots. Flying those tracks requires a lot of knowledge and experience, but flying it with these weather conditions is even more difficult. Unfortunately the second qualification round was cancelled because of the bad weather.

Visit my YouTube channel for more videos

Visit Gilles Vidal´s A380 Cockpit Panorama.

Click here of a photo of the wing strike. And also check the photos of the damage below: