At the age of 16 he started flying gliders and soon discovered his passion for aviation which led him a few years later to aerobatics.
In 2002- following his passion also in his career – he became an commercial airline pilot for Lufthansa. Starting on a Boeing 737 performing short-range flights all over Europe, he is now for almost 10 years operating long-haul flights all around the globe on wide-body Airbus jets.
“Travelling by plane has become very safe, automation in our cockpits took over many years ago. Being an airline pilot these days can be described rather as a „system operator“ than flying the plane with stick and rudder. You still have to have these basic flying skills, but you very rarely get to use use them, especially as a long-haul pilot. Due to my passion to stick-and-rudder flying, I fly smaller planes during my time off work that have no autopilot.”
Over the years, Tim has participated in a lot of competitions and airshows at home and abroad. He also was member 4-ship aerobatic team for 2 seasons. However, he took a few years break from aerobatics in order to see into various other areas of aviation:
„Oldtimers like the Junkers Ju52, many years of flying skydivers and helicopters, cropdusting, but especially bush flying in Alaska and flying old military jets are the highlights and my most important and impressive experiences.
Therefore, after extensive insights into almost every branch of aviation, I can definitely say that competition aerobatics is the biggest challenge for a pilot.
The precision and tasks that you strive to perform in every flight, being it training, competition or show, can’t be found in any other kind of flying. The three-dimensional movement in the air in combination with the g-forces – that’s just the best!
My plane of choice is a XA42, built in Germany. It’s an incredible machine and my personal goal is to improve my skills together with this airplane to achieve top results in national and international competitions.”
Furthermore he says: “In my opinion every pilot should be able to fly an airplane upside down. It broadens your horizon and makes you become a better pilot. A lot of commercial airline pilots today unfortunately don’t experience the feeling of really „fly“ a plane very often and in my opinion this is not the best development.”
Since the beginning of 2017 FORTIS is the proud companion on Tim`s wrist keeping him always on time. When we got in touch with each other Tim talked very passionated about his aviation experiences and his love for FORTIS – especially the Flieger Professional Chronograph.
But why FORTIS?
„I always had a love for Aviation Chronographs, but I felt my limited budget better invested in flying lessons than in a watch. Nevertheless, the name FORTIS has definitely influenced me, through their support of the MIR missions and other things in aviaion they supported while I was a young boy and new to aviation- and it ever since got stuck in my mind.
Today I am very happy that my Flieger Professional Chronograph is accompanying me wherever I fly!“
„To me there is only one real pilot watch manufacturer: FORTIS.“
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