Picture Archive

747-300 cockpit during upgrade
747-300 Flight Engineer Station
747-300 engine pylons during modification
747-400 (PH-BFK) cockpit during C-check
747-400 (PH-BFK) cockpit during C-check
747-400 (PH-BFK) central pedestal during C-check
747-400 (PH-BFK) overhead panel
747-400 (PH-BFK) overhead panel

I also got hold of a single photo with interesting details, provided by René Koch. This photo was taken (by the cpt.) in 1999 on flight KL888 HKG-AMS. The flight diverted to BKK due to LE flap problems.

On the primary EICAS display you see the flap position indication. On each side there are 3 boxes with some of them coloured yellow. This means that the LE flap group is retracted but disagree with the flap lever position.

On the secondary EICAS display you see the fuel dump display. Note the little arrow pointing from the center to main tank 2. This arrow means that the scavenge pump is active. It pumps the remaining fuel of the center tank into main 2 when the fuel content is less than 900kg in the center tank.

The other photos show the actual fuel dump vapour trail, not a common sight!

Special Historical Document

This photo was taken in my first full-size cockpit simulator, back in 1977 when I was 10 years old. This is the cockpit of our space vehicle. You can see the captain's station, with me as captain. Left of this position there is a much larger panel for the flight engineer (a modern vehicle like this does not need a first officer), see below.

At the bottom-left you can see the carbon-zinc fuel cell which powers most systems. The control yoke is quite clearly distinghuishable. The main panel contains various primary flight displays, many of which are equipped with advanced glass/metal indicators powered by the fuel cell. The main power switch can be found below the yoke.

Centrally mounted on the panel is a horizontal situation indicator.

The panel to the far right contains the gear lever and some auxiliary controls. At the top-right you can see the flight management computer; it is clear that even deep space vehicles benefit from optimal flight economics.

The 1977 Flight Engineer's panel, here manned by my brother

The Next Generation gets a head start. Here's Carolina in 2004, getting exposed to a Boeing 747-400 MCDU unit while not even one year old. We wonder what she will fly when she is ten!

This is my current (2005) home computer junk yard. The fastest computer (1.7 GHz) drives the second screen from the left and is mostly switched off, due to lack of work for it (I don't run any graphically intensive program, and certainly not any of the Microsoft simulators!). The next fastest machine is my trusty Pentium II/400 on which I am doing 99% of my work. The third monitor from the left is the console of the Linux gateway on the far right (a whopping PII/233) with its predecessor just retired (486/66). The LCD screen shows PS1 in full glory, driven by a P/133 power house. As you can see, I don't do cockpit building. I mostly run a network operations center.

A newspaper article (in Dutch) about my further career as captain
and the same page translated by Babelfish (don't laugh!).