A word about myself:
I was born in 1956 on the tiny Caribbean Island of Curacao Dutch Antilles, during the golden age of the great propeller planes. This was the time when Douglas DC-7Cs, Lockheed L1049s Super Constellations and Boeing C-97 Stratocruisers ruled the skies. We lived on Curacao until the age of five. My first ever flight onboard a piston airliners, was probably on a KLM Royal Dutch Airline Convair 440, travelling as a baby with my mother, from Trinidad to Hato Airport. At the age of 5 we moved to Holland and made the long trip onboard a huge ocean liner.

As a small boy I was always interested in aviation, drawing WW2 fighters and bomber during my early school days. I managed to complete my technical school as a mechanical engineer. During summer holidays I started working as a ramp baggage loader at Schiphol International Airport. I still remember my first day on the job offloading a KLM DC-8-55 and a Belgium Air Transport Convair 440 in the cold rain! With my summer savings I managed to book my very first transatlantic ticket with ABC GEFAU Travel to New York. In 1974 (at the age of 17) I travelled onboard a Pan American Boeing B707 300 series to JFK International Airport visiting friends in upstate New York.

After school I started working at KLM Engineering department, as a junior mechanic in the D Inspection team. I remember very well the shift work at Schiphol - East hanger working on the DC-10s, DC-8-63s and B747-100. After a short spell in Edmonton, Canada, trying to find work as a mechanic, I found myself back in Holland and applying for a job at Fokker Aircraft industry. I started working as a aerospace engineer in the interior department during the last phase of the Fokker F-28. Soon I was involved with the new Fokker 50 and Fokker 100 twinjet series in the design office. During this period my interest for aviation photography grew stronger.

During the summer of 1982 a friend gave me a new B/W publication called Propliner Magazine. This magazine hit me like a rock, falling from space. This was a very different magazine featuring the classic turbine and piston airliners around the world. A year later I bought the new Osprey series book called 'Sky Truck' and I was hooked on the vintage prop-driven airliners forever. The author Stephen Piercey, infected me with his evocative photo style, combined with his typical English humour. From that point on I knew that I would also follow the trail of the vintage piston airliners around the globe. My first trip (August 1984) to catch old freighters in action was to Honolulu (Hawaii) onboard CP-Air B747 to catch the Hawaiian Pacific ATL-98 Carvairs and DC-4 on camera. That same year I read a disturbing article in a German aviation magazine about the 'last Constellation in service'. For me the sleek, tripletail, Lockheed Constellation is the most exotic airliner that ever existed. The news about the last one operating with Aerochago Airliner between Santo Domingo and San Juan Puerto Rico made me decide to travel to sunny Puerto Rico (August 1985) in search of the last commercially operated Connie in the world. During this trip I flew my first ever passenger DC-3 flight, with Aero Virgin islands between San Juan (Puerto Rico) and St Thomas Virgin Islands.

Like many other photographers I used regular Fuji film and K64 kodachrome slides for my photography, using Pentax and Canon equipment. 3 years ago I started using a HP-850 4-mega pixel digital camera as a back up. This camera introduced me to digital world. Since December 2005 I switched over to the Canon 350D 8-mega-pixel camera, which is now my main camera. I have introduced this website to promote my photography, aviation hobby and world travel, so come aboard and relax!

Michael S.Prophet

March 2006