Well as you guys may know our son was born with three heart defects. He got operated at 4 months old. Last november he had to undergo a 2nd surgery. I won't go into all the details, and there's more to it than just this, but all in all this is no "piece of cake" for a young boy, and to be honest, not for the parents either. Although he's doing great now, there is also always an amount of uncertainty and worries about the future
So, through the hospital, we were enlisted for a "surprise day", to give our son, and us, a "dream" day out, in Dutch it's called "Opkikker dag" and I won't try to translate because it won't make sense.
There is a foundation (is that the right word?) that organizes these days (all with voluntary workers and without government support), you can find the website here:
www.opkikker.nl any support is welcome
!
Anyway two great ladies came over to have a talk with Mark about what his passions and hobbies are. Two things surfaced right away: airplanes, flying and becoming a pilot, and in 2nd place, Star Wars.......(yes, I'm guilty of some influence I guess, SW cockpit
)
Anyway, they organized a brilliant day for us. We didn't know what would happen. I'll try to summarize in a very short list:
- Mark picked up from school by a police officer (he was a bit shocked the first moments
) Drove off in police van with sirens and flashlights and the entire school waving
- drove to Schiphol airport and were welcomed by 2 great guys, one from KLM, the other from Air Traffic Control Netherlands.
- drove to Air Traffic Control Netherlands and got a tour and explanation of everything about Air Traffic control in the real control room !
- visited a hangar where 2 747's were parked for maintenance. Climbed aboard one of them and got a tour, Mark was allowed to sit in the cockpit. Also visited a 777 (these are even longer than the 747's)
- were awaited by 2 firemen of the airport and Mark (and we) got to ride in one of the GIANT crash-tenders ! Drove to the "exercise plane" (along the runways) and Mark was allowed to "extinguish" the plane (no real flames this time of course).
- got a demonstration of the guy who scares of the birds from the runways. (While taxiing pilots waved back at us
)
- lunched in the airport traffic tower. The lunchroom with the most beautiful view in Holland !
- visited the airport traffic tower control room !!!! Mark was sitting at the guy's chair who cleared the planes for take-off and everything was explained how it worked. Incredibly impressive to be there, and great people !
- Mark got to go up in a de-icing vehicle that is used by KLM to de-ice the planes in wintertime. This time he was allowed to operate the water canon on a real 747 wing !
- after that we drove to what seamed a normal commercial building, but inside there was a row of 6 or 7 simulators !
We had one hour in a 737 sim, guided by two Transavia pilots
When we returned home, we were welcomed at the clubhouse of our marching band by the drumband playing. We had a nice meal there, and during the meal several Star Wars figures appeared ! 2 Stormtroopers and 2 other bad "guys" from the Empire walked around. Mark was pretty scared in the beginning but soon was around them and taking pictures with them
All in all, an AMAZING day, and all people voluntary gave their time and effort to give Mark and us this very special day that we will never forget...
I'll post some pics when I get them....
By the way, if anyone is interested in doing a flightsim themselves:
http://www.flyanairliner.com (this is not the same company we were though).
For €550,- you get a one hour 1 person flight !