Road to the Left Seat: The BOM Exam

After having sat in the right seat for nearly 9 years, it’s time for the next step in my career. I look forward to taking you along on this new adventure of mine and to share my unfiltered story with you once again. Welcome to my ‘Road to the Left Seat’!

I’m writing this blog as if I’m now suddenly becoming a Captain, but this entire process actually started the moment I took part in the KLM selection process. That’s because KLM isn’t just looking to hire Second or First Officers, they are looking for future Captains and it’s up to you to show the recruiters you have that potential.

Besides building experience on my own over the past few years, KLM has also created the so-called Pilot Career Development program. The idea behind this program is to take a closer look at the EASA Pilot Core Competencies. These competencies are used as a reference for airline interviews, flight training and for your journey to the left seat.

Every year, me and a few other First Officers came together for a full day to discuss one particular competency. From open discussions to specific exercises, these sessions helped us better understand what was expected of us and gave us additional tools to continue developing ourselves.

The BOM exam

Passing the BOM exam is a basic requirement if you want to achieve your fourth stripe at KLM so let’s take a look at what this all means.

BOM may stand for Basic Operating Manual, but in reality the exam covers all of our handbooks, meaning thousands of pages to get through. Fortunately, I wasn’t alone in this process. Together with a bunch of colleagues going through the same process, we spent hours and hours discussing various subjects and scenarios for weeks on end. Whenever someone would post that they had passed in the group chat, it really felt like we had all succeeded. Now, back to the exam.

The set-up is quite simple: two examiners with their laptops on one side of the table, you and your iPad on the other. The goal is for you to prove that you have sufficient knowledge and know where to find information quickly, but more importantly, you have to show you’re able to apply this knowledge to a multitude of scenarios. You basically have to play Captain for the day and take all the decisions while backing them up with what’s in the books. And if it’s not in the books, then it’s up to you to come up with a plan.

The average exam consists of roughly 50 questions and takes somewhere between 4 and 6 hours to complete. First some quick-fire questions and then a complete scenario. Think of it as a normal flight from A to B, except nothing is normal and everything goes wrong. From drunk passengers and technical issues to running out of fuel, it’s up to you to figure out what you’re going to do. I suppose that’s enough information to realize that this exam is not a formality whatsoever and you have to thoroughly prepare for it.

I started preparing for my exam somewhere in August 2025 with my exam scheduled on November 6th later that year.

Let’s get to the point now: I didn’t pass my first exam. I felt well-prepared, confident in who I was and how I operated and received nothing but positive feedback from colleagues in the weeks leading up to the exam.

Having given it lots of thought, it was a combination of exam stress and wanting to show too much knowledge. In doing so, I lost the power that was supposed to underline my decision-making. Perhaps there was also some miscommunication, but I did feel like the exam didn’t represent who I was, how others know me and how well I had prepared for it. It did break my confidence quite a bit and that wasn’t a nice feeling to take with me into the holidays.

Now what

After failing your exam you have two options: spend an afternoon with an examiner to discuss the exam or go flying with an examiner for a few days. I chose the latter since that way I could show an examiner how I operated and had the chance to discuss various topics en-route anyway. Win-win!

Obviously, I was scheduled to fly with an examiner during the snowstorm in January, with hundreds of cancelled flights, and you can guess who had to play Captain in those two days. It felt like a fire drill, but honestly, these were the two most valuable days of my career so far in terms of self-development. But more importantly, these two days gave me back the confidence I had lost before. Together with this feeling and some great advice from the examiner, I felt ready again.

Second time’s a charm

On January 12th I suited up again, and with my iPad and homemade brownies, I drove off to Schiphol for my second attempt. And now you’re probably all wondering why I brought along brownies to an exam.

Tradition says that on the day before the exam you shouldn’t be studying anymore because, if that’s what you need to do, you’re too late. So, what should you do during this day then? Doing nothing will only give you stress, meaning that baking a cake is a fun way to distract yourself. You then bring the cake with you to the exam for you and the examiners to enjoy during this long day. But since I’m Belgian I had to do something with chocolate and I made the heaviest brownies ever produced by man. No regrets.

The atmosphere was nice, I was able to defend my decisions in a structured way and whenever the examiners tried to push me into a corner I was able to find a solution. Everything went smoothly and I really felt like I was celebrating my preparation rather than taking an exam.

After having spent 4 hours with the examiners, we went through all the questions they wanted to ask me and they had seen enough. I was sent out for a coffee as they discussed the outcome of my exam, but it didn’t take long for them to call me back in.

I’m grateful for many people who have supported me throughout this journey, but the one person who deserves the most credit is Ellen, my fiancée. She made sure I had a cosy place to study, that there was food on the table and she managed to not freak out as I talked about fuel scenarios for the 1000th time. Ellen saw all the ups and all the downs of this journey and I couldn’t have done it without her.

And with the exam now in my pocket, it was just a matter of enjoying my last few months on the 737 before embracing the next step in my career!

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Thank you for reading this new chapter of my Road to the Left Seat! Should you have any questions whatsoever, don’t hesitate to get in touch via my Instagram: @bobthebelgian