VCR Open Day 2017 – sharing our flying enthusiam

Motivated volunteers

The open day at our flying club is always a nice chance to share our enthusiasm, chat with other pilots and simply enjoy a sunny day with fuel fumes and planes all around.
When you are then coaxed into organising it it quickly turns into a mixture of nightmare, fun, sore feet and organised chaos – in short: a multitasking challenge!

At the beginning it all seems easy: just get yourself a team of motivated volunteers, book the planes for the day and start pestering instructors to support during the day. Then consider the programand evaluate experiences from before. Surely we can do a bit more? Add some new things? As new attractions went for a bouncing castle to entertain the kids and give parents some “free” time, a lottery to provide for the charity of Stichting Hoogvliegers and a saté evening managed by one of our club members to let the day end with good food and club “gezelligheid”. But also the usual activities as a fly by from the club’s Victor Romeo formation, an aerobatics display and a parachute jumb should not be missed. Do you notice already? The to do list gets longer.

Picking up our main prize and having a fun day out shopping

We certainly tried to lighten the burden and outsourced tasks whereever possible. On a day like this you really do not want to deal with setting up bouncing castles! This can simply be done by the company delivering it. And what do I know about permissions for formation flying or parachute jumps? Nothing – so we kindly asked the groups to organize it themselves and just keep us posted if they could go ahead. You are missing something in this list? You are right! Permission for aerobatics was unfortunately refused so our dear friend Hans stayed grounded and just watched his colleagues in the skies. We hope that the geese around the flying field appreciate this decision for their safety.

Thanks to all sponsors who supported our idea

Organizing a lottery is fun….but involves quite some time. After some chasing, we were absolutely thrilled to have found 17 sponsors! Flying lessons, simulator and virtual reality training, pilot magazines, Garmin courses – the offers or prizes are overwhelming. And last not least we went for a fun day out and shopped, shopped and shopped till we dropped.

Then there is the “little issue” of marketing to consider! Thankfully also here we got great support and only needed to deliver the input. However, it is one thing to consider a program, but another one to make it final with all parties involved and last minute changes which somehow always happen.

And last not least there are the participants to consider: we planned with 15 – and ended with 21. A slight change in plan as suddenly there were not enough instructors, not enough plane time booked, additional material needed, classes to be organized in Dutch and English… and and and….Thankfully the cooperation with the Rotterdam Havendienst as well as Flight Information Service was superb. We provided a rough day planning a week in advance which was communciated to all parties who might be influenced, including our route planning, call signs of planes, timing and overview of general activities. Great to know that somebody things along and watches out for all our safety!

Before hitting the skies participants get a theory briefing in the VCR class room

And finally the big day has arrived. Needless to say: the first check is opening the curtains! After 5 days of storm and heavy rains we cannot believe that we are really greated by sunshine! “Couldn’t be better”, I think when heading down towards Rotterdam….where a low hanging bank of clouds awaits me. How is this possible with only 50km of distance? Well, stay positive, get going and keep trusting the weather gods. At least one problem was already solved during the drive: one of the instructors fell ill over night – but Rob earns early browny points by agreeing to jump in last minute at 6.45 in the morning! Rob, remind me to buy you a drink next time – you really saved a big part of my day!!
Just after 8 o’clock the first people arrive: it is fun to great them, settle nerves and reveal the plans for the day.

Happy flying students all around

Everybody receives a print out of their day’s schedule, including the routes to fly, timing, plane and name of instructor. A cup of coffee does the rest and soon I see little curious and expectant groups all around, waiting for the fun to start. While the students receive their theory briefing, it is time to file the flightplans and hand over schedules to the instructors. All planes are filled up and checked by Bjorn and Dennis – our watchfull eyes on the platform today. Irene is busy to set up a book table where she will answer all curious questions about theory pilot training later. Kajsa is getting here equiment ready to be the paparazzo of the day capturing all excitements, Lex and Gwyneth are already busy in the kitchen to prepare their famous saté for the nearly 50 people who have registered for dinner and Maike helps the Hoogvliegers to set up their plane and information stand. But hang on, isn’t there something missing? Where is the bouncing castle? As is turns out chasing the delivery company will only be the first out of many more calls I will have to do during the day. I am sure eventually Amsterdam Flight Information people were groaning when my number turned up on their displays, ready to announce the next time delay and asking for a change in flight planning.

Have you bought your lottery ticket yet?

I will spare you further details and make it short from here: we had a great day! The weather turned out perfectly after all, we recruited some new students with whom we can share our enthusiasm in the future and help them becoming pilots themselves, we had a fun afternoon with the formation display and the parachute jumps. It was great to see happy children on the bouncing castle and colouring in pictures while parents enjoyed a relaxing coffee and a chat on the terrace. It made me laugh to watch Mansur selling of our lottery tickets with amazing success – and I was thrilled to hand over nearly 2.000 € to the Stichting Hoogvliegers in the evening. This will allow them to give 20 kids their adventure of a lifetime: being a pilot themselves and experiencing the thrill of flying! And last not least: it was great to collapse on a chair myself, having a lovely fresh supper and watching club members and visitors chatting away and simply having a good time at Vliegclub Rotterdam.
Am I going to do it again? Well….ask me again in a few days time when my feet and back stopped hurting, my voice is back and my (phone) batteries are re-charged 🙂