Aircraft, flying and general aviation - my everlasting loves!

 
 
My first: a glider, followed by many aircraftPilots gear including flight helmetsIt started long ago, longer than I care to remember. The oldest pictures of "aircraft and me" are still in black and white, quite faded now - and from my even earlier hobby stages, not yet up in the air but yes, very enthusiastic at twelve or thirteen years, there are no pictures at all.
 
Maybe that's just as well: I might be tempted to bore you to death with an endless range of aviation pics, meaning as little to you as they would mean much to me! So let's confine ourselves to two pics only, one from the early days when I was learning to fly gliders, somewhere in Australia, way back in 1967. Aye, that's us, from the left to the right it's Brian McLaren - instructor, Jaap Verduijn - student glider pilot, Karin Groen - honorary wingtip runner.
 
The glider was the faithful "Kookaburra" of our club, predecessor of much sleeker aircraft I later flew, from Blanik gliders to a P-51 "Mustang" warbird. The "Kooka" has long gone, just like my flying days. The other pictures, below, belong to "now", showing how it all ended: Brian, Karin and the "Kooka" gone from my life, and me... forever grounded now, crippled behind a computer desk, dreamily reliving the past while "sim-flying" my very own Avro Lancaster bomber in MicroSoft Flightsimulator. Aye, it was a long way down... but hey: it keeps me off the streets, out of most Avro Lancaster flightsimbars, and hopefully also away from many other luringly inviting houses of widely spread but deeply ill repute (grin)!
 
Yet I'm still involved with aircraft. I don't fly them anymore - but they still give me lots of joy! Forty-odd years after I first took to the skies as an eager-eyed student pilot, I'm selling airplanes. I offer aircraft for saleI'm sharing my love. Life is good.
 
Cheers!
 
Jaap Verduijn, The Netherlands.


Here's a few aircraft for sale 'teasers', sort of like a first familiarization flight!
 


Cessna 210 Aircraft has All Logs & AD's Great Airplane
Cessna 210 Aircraft has All Logs & AD's Great Airplane
$50,000.00
$55,000.00
Time Left: 2d 2h 34m
1988 Avid Flyer Model C Aircraft w Rotax 532. 2 ppl. NR
 1988 Avid Flyer Model C Aircraft w Rotax 532. 2 ppl. NR
$8,500.00
$13,500.00
Time Left: 3d 6h 18m
VW Engine and Exaust For Aircraft
 VW Engine and Exaust For Aircraft
$300.00 (0 Bids)
Time Left: 3d 8h 3m
X-air Light Sport Aircraft Xair Airplane NEW LSA PLANE
 X-air Light Sport Aircraft Xair Airplane NEW LSA PLANE
$10,100.00
$20,900.00
Time Left: 3d 22h 7m


Why - I love talking about myself (bashful grin)!


Consolidated B-24 LiberatorTruly, I've been fascinated by aviation longer than I want or dare to think about! I remember my Dad giving me a Revell kit of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber, which took my 12 years old fingers quite some time to decently put together - but once it was, the old Liberator got the place of honor in my boys room. The next was a B-25.

Only a little later my uncle "Ouwe Dirk", a younger brother of my fathers, gave me a big color poster of the Fokker F27 Friendship, the by then not-yet-in-production success number of the late Dutch Fokker aircraft company. Fokker has been gone now for many years already, but quite a lot of the original F27 Friendships are still flying, and so are many of the F-27's (mind the hyphen!) that were license built by Fairchild in the United States.

Ouwe Dirk is still alive, and still interested in aviation. He's 87 now, a retired Delft (NL) University of Technology professor of aerospace engineering, and every now and then I phone him to ask some questions about aeroplanes, aerodynamics, construction, metallurgy or related subjects. The man's a walking encyclopaedia or aviation-related knowledge.

Myself, I never got involved with the design or construction of aircraft - I just confined myself to flying the odd kite. Gliders, single-engined Cessna's and Pipers, and even (only once, and quite illegally because not insured...) a P-51D Mustang, from the control-equipped backseat that the owner had installed just for this purpose. I nearly came in my pants, that day (wide and wicked grin)!

It's a long time ago now. I only fly desktops nowadays, staring at a computer screen where MicroSoft FlightSimulator X unfolds its admittedly amazing capabilities. And at night I dream. Like all of us do, who once were involved with aviation. We can't help it. Nor would we want to.

And finally a gorgeous picture. Just for the record: none of this is mine...


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