On Oct. 28 and 29, our royal DC-3 Dakota, the PH-PBA, made the final round-trip flights of the 2023 season. Now comes the traditional hibernation. From November through March, the Dakota does not fly because the probability of bad weather conditions is higher on average then than in the other 7 months of the year.…
Saturday, Sept. 23, DDA Classic Airlines at Lelystad Airport welcomed over 150 Friends to Aviodrome. Through a nice gesture by Aviodrome, admission to the Museum was free for DDA Friends that day. Our royal PBA came to Lelystad for the occasion and the planned sightseeing flight attracted much interest from the museum audience. Program In…
Sept. 21 was finally here: the winning class of the Veterans Day Kids Contest 2023 got to take a sightseeing flight in the historic DC-3 Dakota. Group 6B of the Good Shepherd was lucky with the weather. The view from the plane was stunning. In two rounds, the children flew from Schiphol Airport a circuit…
August 19 and 20, our DC-3 Dakota was a guest at Ostend Airport for sightseeing flights over Eernegem, Veldegem, Oostkamp, Bruges, Zeebrugge and Blankenberge. There were also longer routes. One via Aalter, Eeklo, Maldegem, Moerkerke, and Knokke to Zeebrugge and Blankenberge. The other route went via Drongen, Ghent, Terneuzen, Breskens and Zeebrugge back to Ostend.…
Sail Den Helder, from June 29 to July 2, is a large-scale maritime event featuring 40 majestic Tall Ships and 180 vessels of the Sailing Heritage. And what could be better than seeing all the extraordinary ships from the air. Over the weekend, our DC-3 Dakota made several flights “north” to visit this spectacular event…
DDA Classic Airlines congratulates Stephan and welcomes him as a new first officer! (3rd from left). After several hours in the DC-3 simulator, it was time for the real test in the Dakota. June 29, Stephan was “put through the wringer” by two of our instructors, passed the exam and received his DC-3 type rating.…
From June 3 through June 7, our royal DC-3 Dakota, designated Dakota C-47, flew sightseeing flights over the invasion beaches of Normandy. The princess took off from Carpiquet Airport, flew over Sainte Mère-Eglise, Pointe du Hoc, the invasion beaches and turned around over the Merville Battery. Very special because our Dakota, with the current registration…
May 1, Airport Weeze, just across the border from Nijmegen, celebrated its 20th anniversary. Our Royal DC-3 Dakota provided six sightseeing flights at the festivities. It is a special experience to hear our Eastern neighbors speak fondly of “die Rosienenbomber. This has its origin in the dropping of boxes of currants, among other things, immediately…
April 8 was finally here again. The first DC-3 Dakota round-trip flight of the 2023 season. Eighteen eager passengers flew along. Their 30-minute sightseeing flight went from Schiphol East past Keukenhof and the surrounding colorful flower fields. With radiant weather, the view from the Dakota was phenomenal and provided fantastic photos. The above photo of…
The Dutch Dakota Association (DDA) was founded 41 years ago on March 10, 1982, after an idea by Anne Cor Groeneveld and Gerrit van Gelder. Both pilots at Transavia wanted to build support for bringing a DC-3 Dakota to the Netherlands. After a long search for a suitable DC-3, more than 30 aircraft were inspected,…
