In Place of Praise
On 12/01/2012, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
The end of 2011 is in fact the end of an epoch in the history of Hungarian air traffic control. I do not want to qualify this epoch, future generations might do that in the fullness of time. The fact remains, an important generation of controllers have retired. I call them the “beat-generation”. About 40 people have, willingly or reluctantly, chosen for retirement in 2011 mainly to avoid the consequences of the altered pension rules kicking in this year.
They were lucky in this also, like in so many things during the past 40 years. Our generation will miss out on any favorable terms of retirement, exactly because of the huge numbers in the “beat-generation” causing the strain on the State retirement fund to grow exponentially. This is why the age limit for retirement is being raised, a fact that affects our generation especially hard since the age limit is climbing in front of our very noses.
The “beat-generation” was lucky also in arriving at the airport at just the right time. With low traffic, they did not take long to learn the tricks of the trade. I have heard from them many times that they became air traffic controllers more or less by accident, they were working at the airport where they heard that aircraft could not only be flown but also controlled… Of course as time passed by, they grew with the traffic. They had another ace up their sleeves. In those decades, controllers were still a team, they knew how to stand together and protect their interests. This was the case when we came home from the ATC course in Riga after almost three years. They knew that our knowledge was superior to theirs (not only because of Riga) and they responded by simply closing ranks. At the courses held on home base they were present as instructors and they did their best to make us hate this business and to discourage us from trying to be more clever than they were.
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Another Good Day at Budapest Ferihegy Airport
On 17/10/2011, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
October the second, 2011. This was an interesting day in the history of Ferihegy Airport. We were privileged to witness the first visit by Airbus’ “jumbo”, the A380.
The expectations? Beyond belief. We were expecting her already during the summer months but she failed to put in an appearance. Probably this only increased the expectations to an even higher level. When about a month ago I heard that she was definitely coming I quickly checked my calendar… I was going to be on day shift! The icing on the cake? I was going to be the tower deputy supervisor (DSV) that day! Knowing this made the preparations all that more special. Whichever way we look at it, this was going to be a special day. Not only because of the actual coming of this giant but also because I could be part of the huge interplay necessary for the reception of such an aircraft. It occurred to me in passing that it was such a pity that real cooperation at the airport only ever happened these days on such special occasions while the rest of the time people are busy tearing each other up… but I am diverging.
The morning of this special day we looked at each other in the parking lot with wondering eyes. Everyone was dressed in their Sunday best. This was done in part on the request of management but I guess we would have worn a shirt anyway in recognition of the day’s significance. It was amusing to ponder that our management had asked for proper dress in order to maintain our company’s “image”… Does it have an image? This fact has somehow failed to reach us, at least in the form of a blue shirt with the result that we were now sporting shirts in every conceivable shade of blue. But never mind… head for the tower.
We had received all relevant documents and instructions the week before and we were preparing for the big day accordingly. We checked everything from the official approvals to the applicable procedures and armed with knowledge my little lady boss and yours truly went to Terminal 2 for a final briefing. I was surprised (yes surprised however unusual this may sound these days…) to see how many people attended the briefing. A lot of strangers were sitting around the big table, I saw almost no familiar faces. But we knew the main coordinator (he also knew us). He started by explaining the 380’s reception plan. It was strange seeing him start the coordination with us and I could see on the faces of the others that for them, we were the “unknown aliens”… Anyway, in the end everyone had a final rundown of their tasks and we were ready to return to the tower.
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A quiet summer. Summer quiet??
On 13/10/2011, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
This summer passed at Budapest Ferihegy Airport almost without any noteworthy events. So much so that the bureaucrats were really in trouble figuring out what to do. In the end they managed to make a “serious” incident from a non-event. They are still mulling over this incident and it has even become one of the feature items in this fall’s refresher training. Here is what happened.
It was at the beginning of the summer that the airport was getting ready for a routine taxiway closure announced by NOTAM. Maintenance was going to work on the taxiway, pumping water from the adjacent drainage canal. This was reason enough to close taxiway A4, one of the busiest. This routine operation should not have been a problem had a small error not entered the picture, setting in motion the domino principle where a series of small errors created a bigger one. I still believe however that if we never had anything more serious than this, we should be grateful… Anyway, the Airport Supervisor (who goes by the abbreviation DAM) was still checking Runway 31R when the NOTAM-announced closure time of the taxiway arrived.
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No place like home…
On 08/07/2011, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
I am happy to report that I have just survived my first encounter with Liszt Ferihegy’s latest pride, the Skycourt. It was not easy to organize but I managed. Here is the story.
With my better half we were preparing for an early Summer break in Jordan, a country we consider almost as a second home, what with our love for that completely different world and nice people. I can only recommend this wonderful country to everyone, a visit will give a unique experience to all (I would be more than happy to provide the telephone number of our favorite taxi driver to anyone interested).
Skycourt Ferihegy...
The only problem is that you must get there somehow and this is only possible these days via the Skycourt. Like my friend Steve before us, we too had to suffer through this. This was so in spite of me being one of the privileged individuals who are allowed to park their car in the official lot leaving the vehicle there for the duration of our holiday. On such occasions my company gives me a temporary parking permit and a no-name magnetic card which opens the barriers through which the car has to pass. Well, it was this magnetic card that caught the attention of the alert security agent just before our entering into the famous Skycourt. How did I come by it; it is not even valid anymore; how dare I take it out of the country???? I stood there incredulous for there was nothing else I could do in the face of his misguided questioning.
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BUD Welcomes the EU Presidency
On 20/05/2011, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
If, based on my earlier writings, my esteemed readers have come to the conclusion that I am a grumpy old man, I am afraid I will have to largely agree with them. But believe me I would love to talk also about the nice things in the life of Ferihegy Tower, except that there are far fewer nice things than those that make one mad. So, I will now write about a good thing, then another thing that might be good and, to be true to form, about something strange.
As you probably know, since 1 January 2011 Hungary is fulfilling the rotating role of EU Presidency, a honor bestowed for six months. This circumstance meant lots of delegations, state aircraft and other VIPs coming and going during the six month period. Already last fall the doomsayers were crowing about how everything at the airport will sink into chaos, how it will be impossible to get to the airport, whether as a passenger or someone working there. Things however have turned out to be very different. Even we were surprised how efficiently the VIP movements were being handled both inside and outside the airport. I am not sure who came up with the excellent idea of moving most of the meetings to Godollo, a town just a few miles outside of Budapest. This meant that most delegations leaving the airport headed towards the M0 ring-road instead of towards downtown Budapest driving to Godollo on M0 which, on that stretch anyway, has plenty of capacity to handle such things. With this arrangement the increased diplomatic activity went almost unnoticed and Budapest was able to carry on with its already hectic life that was not made even more hectic by the road closures usually accompanying the movement of VIPs.
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Winter season survived at Ferihegy
On 11/05/2011, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
It would appear that we have survived the 2011 winter season without major hiccups. Events arose only when a bored office-bug decided to fabricate an elephant from a flea… Luckily either they were not bored enough or there was a lack of fleas but the number of overblown events were also thankfully low.
What was completely unique in my 28 year career (my goodness, 28 years?) is the fact that we had not a single day of freezing rain, this great enemy of controllers and pilots alike. Freezing rain makes the snow clearing brigade shiver also, making their work totally useless. When freezing rain strikes, they can spread all kinds of miracle substances on the runways and taxiways but the effects are short lived and within 10 minutes or so they can start all over again. But luckily we did not have any of this during the past winter season.
What we did have was a meeting of the group leaders, we practically started the year with that. Two noteworthy items were on the agenda: one concerned the reduction of paperwork the other an effort to achieve more uniformity in our work. In respect of the former we got the usual promises from our bosses who stated that the “project” was shaping up nicely… A bit more patience and it will be the end of paper journals, daily reports and paper incident reports (of which there are at least three kinds), everything will be done electronically. After two months I took the liberty to enquire: how was the project progressing? Because we always get briefed about everything except the important things, I mean the things important for us… And I think this is where the problems are, in Hungarocontrol ATC has been relegated to the peripheries. The office bugs who know nothing of the trade are working (?) so hard, they have practically overshadowed the real stuff. Even in higher management the number of real professionals has dropped to almost zero and the few Indians still holding out seem to have some difficulty in remembering where Ferihegy Tower is… But we do have scores of projects… As expected the reply to my question was, please have a bit more patience, the project is advancing but there are still a few administrative obstacles to be eliminated.
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Budapest-Ferihegy SkyCourt, viewed from the tower
On 03/05/2011, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
Our esteemed readers had the occasion to read my friend, Steve’s account of SkyCourt, Budapest Ferihegy Airport’s new pride. Now I would also like to add a few words about this wonder, as seen from the control tower.
Of course I need to go back a bit further in time since this story started much earlier than just yesterday. We need to go back all the way to the 80’s when Terminal 2 was completed. The modern building was the subject of appreciative comments from everyone; even Western airlines gave voice to their satisfaction that was especially significant since they had seen many modern terminals before. These remarks did give rise to some confusion when our less than perfect command of the English language made it difficult to understand what the pilots wanted, using words not contained in the ICAO phraseology books. On several occasions eight of us were bending over the speaker trying to figure out what the pilot was saying until we finally realized that there was nothing wrong with the plane, he was just saying nice things about the new terminal. Such events were anything if not powerful incentives for us to improve our language skills…
So, everyone liked the new Terminal 2 and we slid smoothly into the period known colloquially as the “change of gangsters at the top”… more commonly referred to as the change of political system. Governments swinging from right to left and then right again came and went, only we remained constant at the Air Traffic and Airport Administration (LRI)… As if nothing was going on in the world, the political change passed by, leaving Ferihegy unaffected for a while. We heard of plans to enlarge Terminal 2 but that was all. Then all of a sudden this enlargement became extremely urgent and Terminal 2B was completed in the midst of extensive scandals.
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From tragicomedy to tragedy
On 10/09/2010, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
Earlier on I called the history of the Ferihegy control tower a tragicomedy. By the first half of 2010 it seems we have been left with tragedy only. There were so many sad and somber events that even a guy with an essentially optimistic outlook like me is left wondering… Why have we deserved all this? Are we such a hopeless people that natural disasters are not enough for us, we manage to add our own to it, lest anyone feel good and happy.
The first half of the year brought two new cases of colleagues flying west into the sunset, never to return. In the spring, Gyorgyi Kardos joined the ranks of heavenly met forecasters and more recently Miki Hamori left us suddenly, after having enjoyed only three short years of retirement. I knew Miki well, we worked a lot in the same shift. He was one of those rare controllers who returned to the tower from approach control and carried shift Charlie on his back for at least 15 years. I consider him a bit my forerunner. He too was mostly not listened to by our managers when in fact they should have listened. He was so full of professionalism paired with modesty that he should really be an example for the younger generation. It was impossible to get bored when he was around. He was full of stories and his metaphors were without equal. Not all his similes were for the faint hearted but they were all spot on and from him even the rougher metaphors were somehow acceptable and never offensive. Consider this: you are lacking like grunts in the Bear brand cheese. For aircraft descending unusually slowly, he had this: he was descending like a pebble in thick shit. Sorry for the rough example but it is hard to find another metaphor that would be more fitting. His wife was also an aerodrome controller and they retired at almost the same time. Sue, our heart goes out to you!
It is probably inappropriate to call a funeral nice but Miki’s funeral was both nice and perfectly fitting for a man who had dedicated his life to aviation. Light aircraft with Miki’s ashes and close relatives on board took off from Dunakeszi Airport near Budapest and they flew to Ferihegy where the ashes were dispersed over the grassy area alongside runway 31L together with the flower seeds people were asked to bring to the fare-well ceremony instead of flowers. It was hoped the seeds would take and bloom, bringing back memories of better and nicer times past. The airport supervisors formed a cross on one of the taxiways with their vehicles while this was going on, a gesture of note and nice sensitivity.
The area where Miki's ashes now rest
I will not qualify the rest of the happenings. I trust the reader to do that for us.
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Who shall be boss?
On 29/07/2010, in Tower chronicles, by lajos
The story started back in 2009, on 20 April to be exact. As you will see the dates are important, this is why I am trying to remember them exactly. It was on this date that I completed the usual yearly proficiency test and I was so pleased with my 92 % result it never entered my mind that it would some day prove inadequate. In any case, it is only normal that a tower supervisor should achieve at least 90 %, so I was satisfied with myself. You must know about this proficiency test that a simple ground-pounder has 50 questions to answer while a supervisor gets 60… One thing was sure, I could continue to work as SV. (Supervisor or SV in Budapest is the deputy boss of a given shift. DSV or Duty Supervisor is the boss of the shift – Ed.)
A while later on a quiet, December day shift an old student of mine (who is now the boss of the training section but to keep his ATC license he works a certain number of hours in the tower) turned to me and said:
- Lajos, the time has come, here is your chance to become DSV!
- What gives? – I asked emerging from the Supervisor station.
- TC is retiring next year and the bidding is open for his position. Are you interested? – my ex-student asked loud enough for the others to also start listening.
- Rex Lajos, what will become of us without you? Who will they send to torture us? – came the chorus of the colleagues.
- I have no clue. This is the first time I have heard of this. I will think about it. – I replied and returned to the SV station to finish whatever I had been doing in the first place.
But the bug had been planted in my ear. I was thinking, this would be the same group I originally became an SV in… the group where they had that great sphere of companionship, the group that was on good terms even with the colleagues from approach control. True, only two people remained from the original crew but I knew also the young people, if nothing else I met them during their training period.
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