Steven ten Bruggenkate is working to achieve two ambitions - to earn captain status and regain the Dutch clay pigeon shooting championship title. The JetNetherlands first officer and three times national shooting champion became interested in aviation as a child. "Our neighbour owned several small aircraft," he explains, "and we were often invited to fly with him from Holland's Lelystad airport."

He adds: "My ambition is to become a captain as soon as possible and maybe fly a larger aircraft such as the Falcon." Ten Bruggenkate's father is a member of the shooting club in The Hague. "As a child I always used to join him at the shooting range. Because of the big recoil, I had to wait until I was a bit older before I could handle the shotgun. I was allowed to shoot my first clay pigeons at 13 and that was the moment I became hooked on this fantastic sport."

He says: "Private aviation is a demanding career but JetNetherlands supports me as much as possible to find the free time to train and enter competitions. However work comes first and it is the nature of the business that many flights come in at the very last moment. This makes it very difficult to find the time for training and the shooting competitions. Because of this, I am unfortunately no longer a member of the Dutch national shooting team but I am still trying to compete as an amateur competitor in the professional shooting world."

At the age of 14 he was introduced to the Dutch National shooting coach Nella Heemskerk and started training with her at the shooting range in Amsterdam. A year later he entered the Dutch National team as a junior. In that same year, aged 15, he became the Dutch National Champion for the first time.

"It was a great time," ten Bruggenkate recalls. "I shot in a great many international competitions including world cups, world championships and European championships. I achieved my highest ranking in the top 10 of Europe."

Ten Bruggenkate, who speaks Dutch, English and German, became a junior first officer at JetNetherlands approaching five years ago after he successfully completed training at Martinair Flight Academy. "I started on the C525 and after about two years I made the step up to the Citation XLS. The work experience has been fantastic. I have been to the most remote airfields you can think of and I really like the combination of flying and providing customer service."

In June 2006 he became senior first officer on the C560 XLS and has logged more than 1,200 with 245 hours as pilot in command.