Some history about our school... B.V. Nationale Luchtvaartschool, established in 1927 as the country's first pilot training school is the oldest flight school in Europe. Initially NLS only catered for the training of private pilots. As early as 1931 however NLS was to play a major role in the so-called "State Training for Airline Pilots" (Rijksopleiding voor verkeersvliegers). Amsterdam Nautical College (Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart) took care of the theoretical training, while all practical flight training was done by NLS at its new establishment at Schiphol Airport. Instruction was mainly given on the Koolhoven FK 46 biplane, nicknamed "The Cow" (Het Koebeest). A model of this classic trainer is on display in a show case at NLS. World War II put an abrupt end to all NLS activities. After the war all airline pilot training was granted by the Government to the newly founded State Aviation School at Eelde. NLS continued on its own with private pilot training and grading of candidate Airforce pilots. In 1954 the Royal Netherlands Aeronautical Society (Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging voor Luchtvaart) took over NLS and ran it mainly as a training institute for private pilots. As from 1968 NLS has been a part of Schreiner Aviation Group. Established at Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven it reverted to commercial pilot training, however, with a small training section for private pilot training. As the quality of the training offered improved steadily, and consequently the school flourished, the premises at Rotterdam became too small for NLS. Furthermore the airport could not cope with NLS's growing training needs. This is why in 1978 NLS moved to its present location at Maastricht Aachen Airport at Beek. From this moment all training of private pilots was discontinued in order to expand the ab initio training of commercial pilots. Important contracts were signed with the Algerian Government (some 120 pilots), Omani Air Service, the Governments of Ivory Coast and Tanzania as well as several oil companies from Libya and Indonesia. The scope of NLS activities was widened by the introduction of various instructors- dispatchers- and support courses. Since a world wide pilot shortage presented itself in the course of 1985 more and more Dutch nationals opted for NLS Airline Pilot Training. The final acknowledgement of the already well established NLS quality came on 11th of September 1987, during the festivities on the occasion of its 60th anniversary: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced their intention to recruit directly from NLS graduates from that day onward. In 1988 KLM granted the conversion course from Ab Initio to the airline to NLS by means of a F-27 training and type rating. Later, in 1992, KLM changed this into a, by NLS developed, Introduction course to Jet transport aircraft on the B737 full flight simulator. Nowadays NLS operates from three locations (Maastricht (NL), Amsterdam (NL) and Evora (P) and has grown to be Netherland's largest training institute and as a part of CAE Aviation Training, one the largest non airline affiliated providers of airline training worldwide. For further information check www.nls.nl