MALEV Ceases Operations
On 03/02/2012, in Airline corner, by steve
After 66 years of almost continuous operations, MALEV Hungarian Airlines stopped all flights as of 0600 this morning.
It is always a sad day when an airline stops operations, just like when any well known, big company closes its doors. There can be no doubt that most of us are reading the news of MALEV’s demise with tears in our eyes. We feel with those whose job has suddenly gone up in thin air. But!
It is important to ensure now that in these critical times emotions are not allowed to dominate and perhaps even more important to avoid the political mud slinging, so popular in Hungary these days. What has befallen Malev is in part indeed due to incorrect political decisions but it is much more important to recognize that MALEV, like many other European airlines, has failed to implement the necessary structural changes, that its efficiency was way below what is possible these days and that these were the reasons why they were not able to find a buyer for the company.
MALEV may have been an object of national pride, but in the meantime nobody bothered with the much more important task of implementing the changes required to make it a more efficient operation. Nobody had the courage to rationalize the number of people working there and to take honest account of what kind of airline would be able to operate profitably from Budapest. Why did they have to refuse a recent Spanish offer that would have converted Malev into a low cost carrier? Just one of the many screw-ups…
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Decennium of HungaroControl – Anniversary in the spirit of development
On 01/02/2012, in Anniversaries, by steve
HungaroControl celebrated the tenth anniversary of its establishment by handing over professional awards and holding a large-scale reception. The Hungarian Air Navigation Services appreciated the work of Anne Kathrine Jensen the CEO of Entry Point North, Qatar Airways and Thales Air Systems.
Hungarian Air Navigation Services became an independent company 10 years ago. During the preceding three decades, it was the Air Traffic and Airport Authority that performed the organisation and control of Hungary’s air transport as well as the operation of Budapest International Airport. In order to divide these two functions, HungaroControl and Budapest Airport were established in January 2002, and in this way, aviation in Hungary also involved three participants. During the past ten years, HungaroControl Pte. Ltd. Co. became a top-ranking service provider of international air traffic control, and one of the most successful state-owned companies in Hungary.
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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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Island hopping with Travel Service
On 18/11/2011, in The lighter side, by heading370
Summer months are of crucial importance for all airlines but they are even more so for those in the charter business. Airliner World was happy to accept the invitation of one of those charter companies, Travel Service Hungary – an affiliate of its owner Travel Service A.S. – to check how their operations are conducted from their Budapest base.
The Czech company was founded in 1997 and became one of the fastest growing Central European charter operators. In 2008 the company transported 2.8 million passengers using a fleet of 18 aircraft. The company has 2 Boeing B737-500, 12 B737-800 (of which OK-TVJ and OK-TVK were delivered brand new), 2 Airbus A320 and two B737-800 on wet lease. They have been present in Hungary since 2001 and operate about 32 medium and long haul flights a week from Hungary while employing 21 full time pilots at that base.
On a beautiful Sunday morning in July at Budapest-Ferihegy (ICAO:LHBP, IATA: BUD) Terminal 2B I met one of the airline’s young captains Peter Buliczka and his crew getting ready for an interesting trip. The flight’s first stop will be at Heraklion, Nikos Kazantzakis airport (ICAO: LGIR, IATA: HER) Crete then we will fly on to Rhodes (Rodos) Diagoras (ICAO: LGRP IATA: RHO) before heading back to Budapest. Some time ago the airline would have operated two separate flights to these two destinations, but because of the falling demand this summer travel agencies struggled to fill these flights every week.
Captain Buliczka introduced me to the entire crew: the captain will be assisted by First Officer Attila Lanc in the cockpit, while in the cabin the usual crew of four will be supplemented by two young trainee flight assistant colleagues under the supervision of Purser Zoltan Koltai.
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Landing Gear Problems – Seen from the Tower
On 02/11/2011, in Life around runways, by steve
Next to the engines, the most complicated single system on retractable-gear aircraft is arguably the landing gear. Not only is it required to sustain huge static and dynamic loads, it must also be able to fold sufficiently to be tucked away in a compartment that would make anyone claustrophobic. Luckily, the landing gear is also one of the most reliable parts of an aircraft. This is as it should be since, as the saying goes, you can land an aircraft without its gear down… but only once.
Last Tuesday, the pilots of a LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 767 rose to the occasion and landed their 767 in Warsaw with the gear up following discovery of a hydraulic system failure that prevented the gear from being extended. After its long flight from Newark, the plane came to rest on its belly but still on the runway with nobody hurt. A bit of luck and great airmanship were in perfect harmony here.
The 767 has short “legs” meaning that the travel of the struts on landing is relatively short and so the damping is correspondingly hard. If you have flown in a 767, you will probably have noticed that it is rare indeed that she arrives back on terra firma in a landing that you would call a “greaser” in old air force parlance. But what the passengers experienced on this landing in Warsaw was the mother of all “hard landings”.
Of course an aircraft coming in to land without gears is something that makes hearts race not only on board but also in the air traffic control units handling the flight. Of them all, perhaps the tower is the most concerned. After all, they will witness in real time and with their own eyes how the landing turns out in the end.
I have memories of two such incidents from many years ago, both involving TU-134s operated by Malev Hungarian Airlines.
The first incident concerned uncertainty about the nose wheel being properly locked in its lowered position. At first it all looked like a normal approach until the pilot radioed the tower as they were descending on the ILS glide-slope that there was a problem with the landing gear and that they wanted to perform a missed approach and go into the holding to investigate. As they whistled over the runway climbing back into the sky, the landing gear appeared to be down but there was no way to ascertain that it was also locked in place. This was one of the older model TU-134s with the glass nose and we all thought of the navigator whose seat is down there in the nose… if the nose wheel folds when it touches down, his seat would be hot… literally.
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A fat lady visiting Ferihegy Airport
On 24/10/2011, in Picture stories, by steve
It is not so rare any more that one comes face to face with an Antonov An-124 but she remains an impressive bird nevertheless. Here is a series of pictures kindly shared by our contributor Lajos: An-124 arriving.
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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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Re-visiting the Airport Hotel Budapest
On 25/07/2011, in On the go..., by steve
Although it is high-Summer in Europe and most people are enjoying their well deserved holidays, there are others who work hard to make sure that those holidays become the wonderful event everyone was hoping for. Our visit to Budapest this time around was only 5 days and it combined business with a little relaxation. It also gave me a chance to re-visit the Airport Hotel Budapest which we had recommended to our readers in the past. My previous stays at the hotel were mainly in the business season and I was looking forward to seeing how they were coping with the mad holiday rush.
We arrived pretty late on a Friday evening but the ladies at the reception were crisp and friendly in spite of the late hour. Not that I expected anything less! Everything was also squeaky clean as if this was early morning rather than the evening after what must have been a busy day. You may wonder why I mention cleanliness but take the trouble and go to any of the hotel reservation sites and read the customer comments. Complaints about the LACK of cleanliness abound. Obviously, many a house around the world tries to save on the cleaning bill. But this is not something Airport Hotel Budapest is doing and they deserve to be noted for this.
The reception where you are always greeted with a smile.
Five days means five breakfasts and I am always looking forward to breakfasts in Budapest. The breakfast menu tends to offer also fare that I remember from our childhood and which is not available even for gold in the rest of the world. Airport Hotel Budapest offers a complimentary US style breakfast and it has everything any guest could ever want. They also include my childhood favorites!
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Bright sunshine from historic Ferihegy
On 30/05/2011, in Flashback, by steve
I guess young people to-day are enjoying their days working at Budapest Ferihegy Airport as we did when we were young and felt that the whole world was ours. There was bright sunshine in those narrow corridors even on rainy days, making even the government-issue gray office doors look somehow inviting.
Of course the sphere came not from the building but the people working there, the people who often did not feel the need to take a holiday because they liked their work so much! We were an enthusiastic lot that is for sure.
It is difficult to pick any one person to write about and not worry that I hurt the others, after all, they all had a story to tell that would deserve a place on Roger-Wilco. Come to think of it though, there are a few who were so well liked and so completely part of the scenery that writing about them would feel natural to everyone else.
The story of Istvan Toth (nickname in Hungarian Totyi) will no doubt bring back memories for most of us old-timers and perhaps give some guidance to those belonging to the younger generation.
Totyi, in the middle up front, circa 1972
Totyi was hired by Malev on 17 December 1969 and he started work in the department that provided the air traffic control service in Hungary. Yes, back then the national airline was running ATC… When the Air Traffic and Airport Administration (LRI) was set up in 1973, he continued there and finally retired on 1 February 2008 from HungaroControl, the ANSP that was formed from the ATS parts of LRI in 2002.
He has spent 40 years and 155 days in aviation and I think that he was one of the best known people at Ferihegy Airport. You know, the kind of guy who, if seen standing next to the pope, would have visitors asking: who is that guy next to Totyi?
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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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Spreading my wings
On 15/04/2011, in The lighter side, by gabesz77
Airport Blagnac (LFBO), Toulouse, France. A historic place. This is where the first Concorde took off on 2 March 1969 commanded by Andre Turcat. The biggest passenger plane, the Airbus A380 flew for the first time also from here on 27 April 2005. These days, Blagnac is Airbus’ main base, all new-born aircraft built in Toulouse take to the air for the first time from here.
This time, there is an A320 rolling on taxiway Sierra. On board is a very enthusiastic little troop whose hard work over the previous six days is about to bear fruit. In the left seat is our Technical Captain, in the right seat your’s truly! I am being honored by being part of a “delivery flight”, the taking home of a freshly produced Wingair airplane.
For most of the team the story started already on Wednesday. The technical acceptance (requiring 8-10 hours of work per day) and delivery test flight as well as the official certification of the aircraft have been completed. I joined the others only on Monday, arriving late in the evening from London on an EasyJet flight. I dropped my gear at the hotel, went to our favorite restaurant to grab a bite and afterwards took a nostalgic walk around the inner city. I sought out the places I discovered and came to like a year earlier when we were there for the type conversion course. Toulouse is a livable town. It is characterized by little streets, nice red brick buildings, special micro-climate, the nearness of the River Garonne, a navigable network of channels and extremely friendly people.
Around nine this morning we are going out to the aircraft plant. The Delivery Center is housed in a dedicated group of buildings about the size of Terminal 2 at Budapest Ferihegy airport. At the reception a three dimensional computer generated graphic shows the facility on a big TV screen, complete with the aircraft waiting to be handed over. There are 3 round satellite buildings around the main concourse enabling the simultaneous hand-over of 11 aircraft. Of the A320 alone 470 units are produced per year which means that on average 1.3 aircraft will be in hand-over every day.
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Budapest’s SkyCourt – will the security check point hold up?
On 06/04/2011, in On the go..., by steve
Budapest Ferihegy Airport has recently opened an impressive passenger hall between Terminal 2A and 2B. It is something truly attractive with an inner space that seems to be even bigger than it actually is… and it is huge by any measure. The architects have really excelled with this steel and glass building which embraces you with light whether it is day or night. You can eat and shop or just sit around while you wait for your flight.
A cute idea picked right from Las Vegas casinos… when you enter the SkyCourt after security control, you must walk through the booze store to reach the rest of the facility. The stores are not particularly impressive though, they are the usual collection of brand names selling stuff at exorbitant prices. But this is not the biggest problem of SkyCourt.
Its biggest problem is the security check point.
I do not know what the experts had in mind when they allocated the ridiculously cramped area for the security lanes… may be they wanted to maximize the commercial space and cut the rest just a little too small. This will be a killer when traffic picks up. Last night there were only about 20 of us and with two lanes operating, we stood in line for almost 5 minutes!
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What is in a name?
On 30/03/2011, in Perspectives, by pbn
Liszt Ferenc...
It is not often that Hungarians manage to get into the news though they have been improving lately. Their antics in the European Parliament and at home recently have resulted in a lot of raised eyebrows and few friends. Now the parliament in Budapest as well as the city fathers have embarked with unusual zeal on a campaign to rename squares and streets with even Elvis Presley likely to get a small park named after him. What exactly is driving this zeal is not really clear but one thing is sure: it has now reached Budapest’s airport which has been called Ferihegy since it opened in the early 50’s.
From now on Ferihegy is (or should be) called Liszt Ferenc International Airport. Do you know who Liszt Ferenc was? I have asked a few people among my contacts and none of them have ever heard of him. If they had to guess, they said he was probably some kind of Hungarian aviation pioneer…
In fact Liszt Ferenc was a 19th century Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso who, by the way, did not speak a word of Hungarian. This did not prevent him from becoming the most technically advanced pianist of his time. He is certainly a more prominent figure in Hungarian history than Mayerffy Ferenc who was the owner of vineyards in the area where the airport now stands.
It is an understatement to say that the name change was not received with cheers in the country. Most people were simply asking the question: why? What the hell was wrong with Ferihegy?
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Night run – impressions from a charter flight
On 12/01/2011, in The lighter side, by gabesz77
It is 8.30 in the evening but the briefing room is not empty. We are getting ready for a long trip. Destination: Palma de Mallorca, the capital city of the Balearic Islands. We are the opening flight of the season for Ecotours, the Polish travel agency. We discuss the weather… convection thunderstorm cells have risen all over Europe but they are collapsing as night sweeps over the continent and will not pose any danger. As we board the crew bus that will take us to the airport, it is raining hard already.
The inbound flight, aircraft Papa-Alpha, arrives on schedule. A few funny remarks are exchanged with the incoming crew as they leave for their well earned rest and the passengers are starting to board already. The tour organizer must have known something, we have a full house. 180 guests are expected on board. I type our route into the flight management system: two thousand two hundred and nineteen kilometres… a long leg by any measure. A bit of confusion arises with the seating in the passenger cabin but the girls master the situation in no time at all and we can close the doors.
We push back and start the engines. As soon as possible we signal with a thumbs up to the ramp engineer that everything is OK. Why should he be soaking out there longer than necessary? I release the brakes and we taxi on the tarmac that is more a collection of repaired potholes than concrete. There are pools of water everywhere… In a little while we reach the taxiway where the pavement conditions are much better. Almost as an afterthought the tower issues our clearance:
“Wingair2010 wind zero-one-zero degrees six knots, line-up runway two-niner, cleared for take-off.”
I set the throttles to Flex and read aloud: “Manual flex fifty-six, SRS, autothrust blue.”
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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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Relative secrets
On 22/07/2010, in Flashback, by steve
I have an old book here, entitled “On the highways of the sky”. Published in the 60’s in Hungary and translated from the original East-German edition, it did reflect the spirit of the times but for me at age 13 or 14 it was the most wonderful book ever. It talked about all the fascinating things that were already pulling me towards a career in aviation.
There was a sentence in the book, advising air travelers to pack their cameras in the checked baggage. Of course… making photos from aircraft, even passenger aircraft, must have been anathema to the regimes in Eastern Europe back then. I remembered this sentence every time we flew and as a kid often wondered what the always polite and nice Malev cabin crew would have done had I kept my camera with me. On a flight with Aeroflot with a cabin crew perfectly capable of upsetting the balance of the aircraft had they congregated at the aft galley, I did not even wonder any more…
Several years later my dream came true and I started working at Ferihegy airport. Like all such places, Ferihegy too had its share of old stories and as the new boy in town, I was an avid listener whenever the old hands started to reminisce.
One story had a particular relevance to my earlier experience with the camera…
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New series on Roger-Wilco
On 16/06/2010, in Just to let you know..., by steve
Over the past several months you could enjoy a series of articles about the life of Budapest-Ferihegy tower, as seen through the eyes and I may add, heart of an air traffic controller who has been working there from the very beginning. “The tower with a soul”, as the series was called, was huge hit with lots of readers for each installment.
Having traced the events of the past, Roger-Wilco will be bringing you stories from the present by the same author, our contributor Lajos, who has decided to chronicle the towers life in real time. His stories, well what did you expect, will once again go deeper than the practice of air traffic control, revealing the humans occupying the lofty heights of the tower with all their qualities and failings.
Stay tuned!
The tower with a soul… 15.
On 21/05/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Exciting times and more progress
The first decade after the change of the political system in Hungary brought home the realization that Hungarians had a peculiar interpretation of democracy. Instead of making use of opportunities, they immediately started abusing them. They interpreted freedom as being a license to do anything with laws being just a necessary evil which one did not have to observe but rather find cracks to avoid them. Slowly but surely the country slipped into a chaotic state and Ferihegy airport was no different.
Each of the specialized services gained a lot of independence and they started to issue their own rules and procedures, most of which were of course in contradiction with what the others were doing. This was the reason why the tower also had to start negotiations with the other services and to develop common positions and provisions. Obviously, this was far too much work for a single tower boss and so the Aerodrome Control Centre was established under the leadership of SP. This unit incorporated the tower division, the met observer division and the engineering division. The tower division had its own boss in the person of GC. So it was SP and GC who started the negotiations at the end of 2000 with the other services, including the ramp and the airport coordination service.
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The tower with a soul… 14.
On 11/05/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Finally, real progress
For this chapter I had to solicit a bit of outside help. It looked like I too remembered old memories better than recent ones. Misi Kurucz was kind enough to help me by sketching the most important events in the life of the tower that came to pass during his tenure as tower chief. My heartfelt gratitude goes to him for this.
Misi was appointed tower chief in 1997. He took the room once occupied by professor SGY and set out alone (!) to fight an uphill battle. It was clear even then that getting all the red-tape done would not be an easy task. He could count on the tower shift supervisors but in turn he had to wrestle with his management to force a bit of progress. That his efforts were not in vain is amply demonstrated by the tower cabin as it is now. A lot of things had to be changed and modernized so that we may work in a more up-to-date environment. The renovations brought months of noise and dirt so our life was not easy either. But we survived and so did the aircraft we handled during this difficult period and work in the new cabin was much more pleasant. For example, the consoles were lowered so we had a much better view of the field. We got new, flat panel monitors on which we could follow traffic much better. When the image processing of the ground control radar was digitized, all movements on the airport became easily visible. For example, at the tower control position both runways were shown simultaneously on two separate images.
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The tower with a soul… 13
On 06/05/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Ten years on the job
The old approach unit...
Ten years on the job! I can say that the first ten years passed quickly but on occasion time seemed to be crawling. Under the previous protocols, someone with a 10 year old license would have already made it to approach control. I read somewhere not so long ago that hires in the “beat generation” in the 60s and 70s became tower controllers almost off the street and approach controllers after a mere five years. This was considered normal back then. Work in the old tower coupled to low traffic did not demand a lot of professional skill. In that system it was logical to have the beginners start in the tower and then get promoted to approach control.
Things changed with the new tower, after all, the area of the airport increased threefold with all that this entailed. Traffic had to be organized across many more taxiways and operating two runways also required more concentration and experience. This was also the reason why it looked like a good idea for the approach controllers to come out to the tower one by one for a stint of a few months. As I mentioned before, this idyllic state of affairs did not last long and the old practice of promoting tower controllers with the most experience to become approach controllers with no reverse flow of any kind continued. Unfortunately the tower complement did not get new hires either so our numbers shrunk while those of the approach unit swelled. This meant of course that after a time we could no longer be “promoted” as the approach control unit had more than enough controllers and with no reverse flow, the average age of the tower controllers started to climb inexorably. We were getting old… This had the consequence that soon controllers in the tower were no longer just bright young titans, we too matured into ripe stingrays with muddy eyes. The relationship between the two units also changed. We, tower people no longer took the abuse lying down that was regularly meted out by the approach controllers and through many confrontations we forced them to accept our unit as their equal.
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The tower with a soul… 12
On 27/04/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
From shared lunches to more restrictions
As the years passed and we approached the tenth anniversary of being on the job, contact with other colleagues of my age group tapered off. Some of them went to other shifts or even other control units and this did not help of course. But on the few occasions we met, talk was no longer about girls or the pub but our respective aptitude in using Pampers properly. In other words, each of us was busy building a family and this left little time for anything else. Folks in the same shift tended to stick together though and common programs only strengthened this unity. For example (and this was back in the times before the political changes took place) we were members of a so called “brigade”. Sometimes we attended the May Day parade together but the common outings and excursions were the most memorable. One of the most successful trips was to Ocseny. Eight of us crammed into two small Polski Fiat’s, no mean feat! An old friend, VK welcomed us at the Ocseny airport where after we took turns to fly in a small plane above the Gemenc forest. After
each of us consuming a huge portion of “marhaporkolt” (beef prepared in a not quite goulash mode) and some excellent wine from the Szekszard region, it was even more difficult to get into the little cars… but we made it home safely.
On another occasion we were helping at the building site of one of our colleagues. Back then people built their own houses with help from friends. We got immersed in shifting bricks so much that we clean forgot that the group, in its totality, was due for night shift. In the end we reported two hours late and inserted the plugs of our headsets to the loud and forceful cursing of the day crew finally released to go home.
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A tower with a soul…11
On 12/04/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Small planes, small airports
The change of political system in Hungary was the main driver behind the presence of an increasing number of small aircraft, more and more people chose this way to visit the country. Since there was only one international airport, Ferihegy in Budapest, every plane had to land there to complete the immigration and customs formalities before being allowed to fly to their actual destination. The Air Traffic and Airport Administration (LRI), recognizing the possibilities, soon established air traffic services at the small Balaton Kiliti airport near Siofok, the capital of the Balaton Lake district. We started receiving planes there from the fall of 1989. At first our traffic consisted only of the foreign planes flying over from Budapest and the few planes in Hungarian ownership. This meant just a few planes a day and we were seriously bored most of the time. We spent the hours from opening to closing of the airport in a small wooden barrack and the only excitement was provided by the police helicopters which came to visit occasionally.
Scarce traffic or not, this new life around small aircraft had a charm and novelty for us. Working at the big Ferihegy airport we talked to the pilots only via the radio, at Balaton Kiliti we got to meet them in person. A whole new world opened for us and I for one liked this direct contact very much. I might say it was a much better feeling being able to go out to the plane and do a bit of hell-raising if the pilot did something silly. At Ferihegy this was impossible, everything happened in a much more regimented manner.
Balaton Kility from the air with Lake Balaton in the background
Yes I liked this rural life and was among the first who applied also for the 1990 season. By May of that year, LRI had a kind of terminal built at Kiliti for an exorbitant price. Since they never bothered to consult us, this new building turned out to be of doubtful value. The tower cab on the top was a hothouse in the summer and by midday everyone had to escape or risk a heat stroke. We soon gave up experimenting with that thing and simply stayed downstairs, working from what was meant to be the reserve radio room. It had a terrace and we talked to the planes from there. The building also housed our living quarters, so for four days at a stretch we usually did not set foot in the outside world. This was both good and bad. Tired by evening, we usually stayed put when in fact a bit of night swimming in the lake would have been a good thing.
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The tower with a soul… 9
On 18/03/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Parties then and now
As I said earlier, the tower was standing in the middle of the prairie. This was both an advantage and a disadvantage. Very little of the dirt and mud throwing that went on in the main building actually reached the tower. At the same time most decisions were made without our involvement, we had practically no chance to influence our own fate. You will also remember that the tower had no appointed boss and some of the division heads just used their positions to climb higher and avoid ever having to come back to the tower. But there were other colleagues also who worked hard to attain prominence via ways other than their professional performance. They were focusing on a party career…
They had two great ways of avoiding work, the Communist Youth Federation (KISZ) and the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSZMP). Both
organizations had their offices in the main building and they held their meetings during working hours, mainly at times of highest traffic… Members used the services of Sanyika (you remember him? Sanyika with the Barkas body…) to ride to the main building and they attended the meetings as long as it took for the busiest traffic to subside. Then they returned, exhausted and worked without much enthusiasm until it was time to go home. The saying “errors will only be made by those actually working” had its origins in this strange setup. Since those party members always managed to abstain from heavy work, it was us who were left to fill in for them that made the smaller and bigger mistakes that are unavoidable even at the best of times. Guess who were eventually designated as poor controllers in the eyes of top management?
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The tower with a soul… 7
On 22/02/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
The great escape and some unintended consequences
With the future of the tower work no longer being really promising, a lot of the younger guys “escaped”, some of them going all the way to Canada! When three of them left within weeks of each other, we had no other choice but to reorganize the shifts so that each still had the required complement of bodies. I had to move to another shift, the first such move which was followed by no fewer than ten shift changes in the following 25 years.
I spent three years in the original shift when the orders came to move. This meant saying good-bye to my friend Geza with whom we weathered the difficulties of the first few years. It also meant starting in a new group composed of people I had never met before. But I tried to look at the bright side of things: new group, new people, new customs, things that can actually make such a change exciting in everyday practice. And excitement there was aplenty. I saw the sour faces of the others who were also forced to change shifts and this made me even more determined not to make the same mistake. In the end I found myself settling in quite well into what was then Shift B. I was glad to see that there were also humans in that group and even while the days passed with a bit less merriment than before, it wasn’t so bad at all.
As it turned out, my settling in was even more successful than I realized… I met my future wife in Shift B. She was a Flight Data Assistant in the Approach Control Unit. I will not dwell too long on this part of the story, let me juts say that I experienced first-hand the wisdom of the saying: don’t ever hunt domestic rabbits. The only joyful outcome of that particular exercise is my daughter who is now 22 and with whom we continue to have a very close father-daughter relationship.
Everyone and no one in charge
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The tower with a soul… 6
On 15/02/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
A ship without a skipper
The first two-three years in the life of the new tower passed in the fever of newness and building experience. For us newbie’s everything was new by definition but even the older colleagues had to get used to the numerous new taxiways and the methods of using two runways. But everyone was enthusiastic about their work. Even the approach controllers who were attached to us for a few months at a stretch seemed to enjoy themselves. They discovered in short order that there was work to be done even in the tower and aerodrome controllers did more than just sit around the place. Slowly, very slowly a vision for a possible future started to take shape in which we saw ourselves as approach controllers coming out to the tower for regular rotations as a matter of course… What a nice dream this was!
When SG left, the dream went with him. As a young guy I had no idea why he opted to go back and once again work as a simple approach controller. I assumed the tasks and problems to be solved were simply too much for him and his health was also less than perfect, more then enough reasons for not wanting to stay as the tower boss.
His departure was a watershed event and it marked the start of the darkest period in the history of the tower. We were cast adrift, without leadership and things took a direction that was anything but European. There was nobody left to represent our interests unless you count the few division chiefs stationed in the main building who did occasionally show their faces in the tower to enquire how things were. But there was no point in telling them about our problems. By the time they negotiated the 6 kilometer distance back to their offices, they had forgotten everything we said. Once back behind their desks, they were immediately issued some kind of top priority matter to solve and so our petty problems always ended up falling by the wayside.
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The tower with a soul… 5
On 10/02/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Flying over the cuckoo’s nest
A really cute novelty was the cuckoo act. This was the art of working during the night shift while being in deep sleep at the same time. I did not have much of a need to spend whole nights wide awake before coming to ATC… I mean, even in the military when doing duty in a guard tower I was able to nap a little (my gosh, I have just divulged a military secret).
The system worked like this. At around 11 p.m., most of the people on duty would depart for the rest areas with only two persons, the cuckoos, staying in the tower cab. In those days almost all traffic was gone before 11 p.m., so two controllers were more than enough to keep their eye on things until 0600 in the morning. The two guys were designated cuckoo one and cuckoo two. Number one was expected to be awake and available at an instant’s notice while number two was the back-up. In theory. In practice things sometimes worked out very differently, as we will see later.
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The tower with a soul… 4
On 29/01/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Wrestling with the “furniture”
The huge control panel for the various ground lights, like the taxiway lighting, was next to the ground controller’s console. The control
panel was teeming with various switches used to turn various sections of taxiway lights on and off. The panel was variously nicknamed Christmas tree and railway shunting-yard. The multitude of small LED’s presented an impressive picture when night fell. There was only one problem with this panel, and also the panel used to switch the runway lights… you could operate the switches only through a very specific movement of your hand, something that needed to be learned separately. Not infrequently, the first attempt had to be followed by a second one… For some colleagues the frustration was too much with the result that we had to call the maintenance crew to restore certain broken parts…
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The tower with a soul… 3
On 18/01/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
In memoriam…
Luckily, this subject can be kept short. Our tower is only 25 years old so most of us have not yet had the time to get old… Unexpected tragedies have also mercifully spared the tower crew with the only exception being KG, who left us prematurely. But he made his name originally as an area controller and was active in the tower only for the last few months of his career.
Our colleagues of the met office one floor down did not fare so well… In the 25 years we are talking about, several of their colleagues flew west
into the sunset. The first to go was Guszti, I can’t recall his full name any more. He was of Bulgarian origin but spoke Hungarian without an accent. He was a relaxed, quiet chap with a ready smile and he came up to the tower cab regularly to chat up on things. He was the last person you would expect to have a stroke.
Two decades later, two met guys transferred to the heavenly observation post almost at the same time. UZ was only a little older than me and he too had been in the tower right from the start. He was a section chief when the note came that his time was up. Though he never complained, it was evident that he went through great suffering before finally being released from duty in this world. Just a few months later KJ left us so suddenly, we all shivered at the news. He was my age and he was a guy who worked out regularly. He actually died while exercising…
Sanyika's original vehicle
I left the story of Sanyika to the last, not because it is less important but because it is so extraordinary. Sanyika was the permanent driver of the van allocated to the tower. He was a very interesting character, it was impossible not to like him. It was his duty to transport us all over the airport, from the personnel entrance to the tower, from the tower to the company restaurant and to the offices in Terminal 1. He drove some 300 km per day, the Barkas van sort of becoming part of his body in the process. He was not at all offended when we started calling him our Centaur, part Barkas, part Sanyika… Well, Sanyika the upper part, Barkas the lower… you get the picture. In time, the old Barkas was replaced by a Ford minibus and the “operation” left Sanyika thoroughly unhappy. It just did not feel the same! And here comes the incredible part. Not much later, he passed away while waiting in the minibus. He died as he had lived… an inseparable part of our airport.
May peace be with you my dear friends, we will always remember you.
To be continued…
The tower with a soul… 2
On 11/01/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Envy and other incomprehensible things
We were off to a turbulent start when the “old-timers” discovered that our starting salaries were the same as the salary of a controller after one year… we were certainly not to blame for this disparity but took all the flack nevertheless. Some of the more senior colleagues from the approach control unit had a few axes to grind also… it took a few years for me to find out why.
Flack or axes, we loved the tower work. There were four teams and I was in Team C, together with my friend ZG. This was a good arrangement, it was easier to make time pass together and we made fun out of just about everything. There were things most controllers hated to do. Like for instance having the flight progress strips torn off and inserted in their holders.
This had to be done the night before the strips would be used and the complement was for the whole day (we did not have just in time strip printing back then). So we started the night shift with attending to the strips while the “big” guys worked. Why they hated doing this so much was a mystery but for us it was a perfect opportunity for a fun competition. Who was the fastest at tearing the strips and inserting them individually into the holders? We timed everyone and we had everything from individual records to world records… Another activity apparently below the dignity of more senior colleagues was exchanging the soda bottles. The tower was supplied with a few crates of sparkling water and the empty bottles had to be taken to the terminal where they were exchanged for filled ones. This “catering” duty was just one more occasion to have some extra fun, for us anyway. Some colleagues back then would not be seen dead with one of those crates. Why I could never understand.
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The tower with a soul… 1
On 05/01/2010, in The tower with a soul, by lajos
Preface
The "new" Ferihegy tower
Having held an Aerodrome Control rating in my ATC license and having actually worked as an aerodrome controller, I have this “thing” for the most spectacular air traffic services unit of them all, the Aerodrome Control Tower. Not only is their role vital in running airports efficiently, they are also for the most part magnificent architecture objects, lending their beauty to the whole of the airport they serve.
A particular tower in Europe is even closer to my heart than the rest. Although I started my career in the old tower at Budapest Ferihegy airport and never actually worked in the new one, I did contribute to the airport expansion project which included construction of the new tower as you see it to-day.
Reading the above, you will not be surprised to learn that it was no accident that Ferihegy Tower was the second in our series on the towers of the world. Why not the first? That is another story I might tell you in the future…
What you are reading here is a new series, based on informal chats I had with Lajos Molnar, an aerodrome controller who, unlike me, has been there in the tower at Ferihegy from day one. We talked about many things but the focus was always the tower… its people, its soul, its essence that makes it special for those who work there.
This is the story of a tower with a soul as told by Lajos Molnar who has been touched by that soul and whose soul is part of that tower.
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New series on Roger-Wilco. The tower with a soul…
On 31/12/2009, in The tower with a soul, by steve
If you enjoyed reading the sometimes incredible stories in Same Time, Same Place, Same Level…, keep your seatbelts fastened! The last part of Same Time having just been published, we are bringing you a new series under the title: The tower with a soul. This will be the story of the first 25 years in the life of the new control tower at Budapest Ferihegy airport.
Presented in several chapters covering the professional as well as the human interest aspects that characterized the first 25 years of the new tower, the series is not trying to be an official history of the edifice or the control unit it houses. It will be the picture as seen through the eyes of a controller who has been there right from the start. Factual, often moving, sometimes a tad subjective… but at all times a real life rendition of life in a tower with a soul.
Part 1 will be posted in the first week of January 2010.
Should MALEV be saved?
On 01/12/2009, in Airline corner, by cleo
Do you remember the term “flag-carrier”? This was usually applied to the airline of a country which was seen as the object of national pride. As recently as a decade ago, when new States came into being, no matter how small, one of their first acts had been to create a national airline (often followed by an air traffic control centre… but that is another story). Of course the aviation marketplace has changed in a big way, there is intense competition between companies, and being a flag-carrier has all but lost its patina.
Airlines have disappeared from the scene, some are gone completely (SABENA) others live on wearing the guise of companies that took them over (Northwest) and still others have kept their colors and name but are now just a division in a mega-carrier (Austrian and Brussels Airlines in Lufthansa, KLM in Air France). Most of them had one thing in common: their long (and not so long) term prospects were all but rosy. Surviving on national pride was not an option.
The problem with Malev is that many in Hungary want to save it because they believe that a country must have a national airline. They also claim that a country’s independence is reduced if it does not have its own airline. These are the worst possible reason for trying to save an ailing company and it costs a lot of taxpayer money before the company folds anyway.
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Aerodrome control towers of the world – Budapest, Ferihegy
On 10/11/2009, in Towers of the world, by steve
The origins
The Budapest area has had three airports before operations moved to the current location, Ferihegy. The first Hungarian aviation pioneers tried their wings at Rakosmezo, a forlorn and ill-equipped pasture where enthusiasm was the only thing that kept those daring souls in the air. The first “real” airport was at Matyasfold, the second at Budaors on the other side of the Danube. This was a singularly poor choice for an airport, frequent fog and low clouds, combined with hills in almost every direction left many a pilot sweating before their plane bounced on the nicely trimmed grass.
The idea to build a new airport came in 1938 and the tender for the new airport terminal was published in September 1939. The result was announced in December of the same year. The winning design was that of Karoly David jr. who had a truly unique idea: the building, when viewed from above, would resemble a twin-engine propeller aircraft.
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Anniversary – IL-18 HA-MOH crash at Budapest-Ferihegy airport
On 10/10/2009, in Anniversaries, by steve
35 year anniversary on 15 January 2010
Some anniversaries are occasions for sadness and a moment’s silence. An aircraft crash is always sad, a huge loss for everyone involved. When HA-MOH flew into the ground in the early evening of 15 January 1975 only 9 crew members were on board and they all lost their lives. She was on a positioning flight coming home from Berlin. They were stuck there for several days, waiting for the visibility to improve in Budapest.
The plane struck the ground 1360 meters from the runways threshold and about 120 meters from the centerline. The probable cause has been given as bad weather, darkness, fog, lack of crew coordination and possibly spatial disorientation.
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Anniversary – First radar system deployed at Budapest-Ferihegy airport
On 06/10/2009, in Anniversaries, by steve
50 year anniversary on 6 May 2009
Those who visit Budapest Ferihegy airport these days see a very different facility from what it had been in 1959. If arriving on one of the low fare carriers, you do pass through the original terminal (Terminal 1) but it has changed quite a bit even though an effort was made to preserve the original at least on the inside.
But 1959 was a significant year mainly for air traffic control. On 6 May a radar system was commissioned, the first ever in Hungary used for civilian traffic.
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Same time, same place, same level… 8.
On 30/09/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
View from the tower
There can be little doubt that an airport looks its best from the control tower. True, pilots may lay claim to this, insisting that nothing equals the view from the front office window of an airplane in the final stages of its approach, but for earthbound controllers, the tower is absolute tops.
The panorama afforded by the wraparound windows set at 60 or more feet above ground level is nothing short of breathtaking and the sight of the tiny airplanes, ground vehicles and people moving far below transports one back right into our childhoods’ dream world of model railways. In addition, there is very little happening at an airport without the tower people being aware of it and this tends to impart a sense of power. It is only natural that controllers in the tower should have their share of stories to tell.
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