The King is a passionate aviator. Today, he received his pilot's license – exactly 40 years ago. On July 2, 1985, King Willem-Alexander received his Private Pilot's License, Second Class. (

1) On his first solo flight, he had a special passenger on board: his father, Prince Claus (

2). He continued his pilot training and obtained, among other things, the Military Pilot's License in 1994 and the ATPL for civil aviation in 2001. As the Prince of Orange, he flew for a time in Kenya, volunteering for AMREF and the Kenya Wildlife Service (

3). To keep track of his flying hours, the King continues to be a guest pilot with KLM (

4 & 5). He also occasionally flies as a co-pilot on the Dutch government aircraft, such as last month to Prague in connection with the state visit to the Czech Republic (

6).