If airplanes could tell stories I think they would be legendary; just imagine all the places they have been while flying millions of miles to take people to and from where they need or want to go both safely and efficiently!
This week I am inspired by this to share a personal story with you based on a chance event that passed by my desk. MPS has acquired the cockpit of a plane I flew many times during my earlier career. This random coincidence personally proves to me that life truly is a continuous circle.
As you may or may not know, one reason for the high quality and fidelity of an MPS simulator is that contrary to most other simulator manufacturers, we start our simulators from a retired airplane. This way we ensure all items including seats, instruments and anything that helps a pilot during training are in the correct position. No better way to guarantee this than using the actual airplane, right?
Our suppliers source according to our needs and provide us documentation of the airplane, its parts and its history. Most recently, we were alerted by one of our suppliers that the cockpit for our next simulator was from a Dutch company (a first for them). They are based in the Netherlands, as is MPS, and for us to have the good fortune of getting a “local” airplane is already a nice surprise. However, this time the coincidence went even further. As it turned out, this specific airplane was purchased by Transavia airlines which is the airline I started my commercial career with and where I worked for 16 years. I flew this airplane many times! What an awesome way this is to come back into contact with it.
After a long life at the airline, we will certainly be happy to see this airplane come into our factory in the near future to make sure it serves its next purpose: training the pilots of the future.
