Joris Van Putten is a Boeing 777 First Officer, former A320 Captain and former Aer Lingus First Officer. Online, many aspiring pilots know him as Just a Flying Dutchman.
“Aviation is an extraordinary career, but aspiration deserves honest information.”
Joris’s career has taken him through different aircraft, airlines, bases, roles and stages of responsibility. He understands the view from both seats: developing as a first officer, accepting the responsibility of command and later making the deliberate move to wide-body operations.
Why this site exists
Aspiring pilots face a fragmented mixture of official regulation, school marketing, social-media opinion and rapidly changing recruitment information. Important facts are often technically available but difficult to place in context.
Just a Flying Dutchman brings those pieces together in a structured career roadmap. Official sources establish the rules; Joris adds the practical questions, trade-offs and professional perspective that a regulator cannot provide.
What independence means
The site will identify commercial relationships and affiliate links. Training providers cannot pay for a favourable position in a comparison or alter editorial conclusions. Where information may change, a review date and an official source are provided.
Areas Joris can help with
- Understanding the professional pilot career as a working life
- Comparing training routes and investigating schools
- Preparing a pilot CV and competency examples
- Approaching interviews and simulator assessments professionally
- Making sense of early airline life and longer-term career choices