Rob Haelterman
heman(underscore)148(at)hotmail(dot)com
The decent thing to do when you join an established social environment is to introduce yourself (or be introduced). So for those who are interested, here are some words about myself .
About Me: professionally
I was born "some time" ago in Flanders (Belgium) and, due to a very early exposure to aircraft (of which more below), ended up studying Civil Engineering at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels. At the age of 23 I started my job as an Air Force 2nd Lieutenant at Beauvechain AB, in charge of the Alpha Jet flightline and intervention. One of the perks of that job was the possbility to snatch a backseat once in a while, which only made me more addicted to aviation. At the same time my weekends were spent as a flight instructor at Oostmalle Reserve AB flying gliders for the Air Cadets.

Backseat of an Alpha Jet, Belgian Air Force

My stay at Beauvechain was brief however, as I received my marching orders in 2001 to join the Mathematics Department at the Royal Military Academy, where I have been ever since. Meanwhile promoted to Senior Captain I finished my PhD in May 2009 and am now currently working as an associate professor at the Academy.
Family
On a more personal level, I am very lucky to have a loving wife, Claire, that understands how important modeling is to me and with whom I can spend one of my other favorite passtimes: hiking. This has brought us to many a lovely place, but so far our absolute favorite has been the Polish Tatry, although there are many other destinations that come close.

Rob & Claire with the Waynapichu in the background
Modeling
My first exposure to modeling came through my uncle who flew R/C helicopters. He bought my first kit, an Aérospatiale Dauphin (from Revell I think) for my 5th birthday. We built it together and I still remember choosing the twin engine option over the single engined option. Other kits followed on an irregular basis, until I discovered IPMS/UK at the age of 12. IPMS/USA and IPMS/Belgium followed. During my time at the Academy modeling was put on the back burner, and was only restarted afterwards. While my interest was (and still is) Luftwaffe single engined fighters, I have gradually moved to 1939-1945 Panzers and Beutepanzer in particular.

One of my regular contributions to the modeling community is teaching young kids basic modeling skills at some of the conventions organized by IPMS/Belgium.
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