Gliders, Simulators, And The Rehauled Military Courier Plane

The history of the Career Orientation Aviation Camp (PIR camp) dates back to 2002, when the Aviation Preparation Department of the Hungarian Defence Forces held a camp for the first time for young people interested in flying. Back then only 45 youngsters could participate in the event in three turns. But in the last few years a total of 120 lucky youths could learn about the basics of flying for six weeks in Szolnok.

The original aim of the camp has also changed. In the first years, all the organizers wanted was that the participants could gain first hand experience about the ordinary days of military aviation, and in the meantime, rise into the air – with traditional gliders – a few times. In the last few years the main aim has become recruitment and preselection for the NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) program of the Hungarian Defence Forces. Therefore in recent years MoD Zrínyi Non-profit Co. has also joined in the organization of the camps – says Lt.Col. Tamás Bali, the Senior Officer of the Aviation Preparation Department of the HDF Joint Forces Command.

From the meadow in Szanda to the air base

We are talking with the lieutenant colonel in the building of the flying training company of the Szolnok Helicopter Base. This has also been the headquarters of the campers for two years. In earlier years the summer PIR camps were held at the Szandaszõlõs airfield, but the Szanda meadow has lost its classification as an airport, therefore last year they had no choice but to move the campers to the military air base.

It has advantages and disadvantages as well – says the young senior officer. The biggest disadvantage is that while in Szandaszõlõs we were our own masters, that is we did not have to adapt to anyone, at the military airfield we must pay attention to the Mi–17 transport and Mi–24 combat helicopters starting or returning from their training flights, and the Jak–52 training aircraft.

But there is also a big advantage in this situation, because at the flying training company the first phase – that is Jak–52 flying training – of the preparation of fighter pilot candidates who started their NFTC program last year, is still underway. So the campers can experience what happens if they enroll a flying training program.

According to Lt.Col. Bali the statistics of recent years show that a considerable part of the PIR camp participants submit their application for the NFTC training. Of course, there are a lot who fail the very strict phyisical examination, but it is a fact: the majority of the Hungarian fighter pilots and helicopter pilots who have participated recently or are currently participating in the training in Canada learned the basics of flying and decided to be a professional pilot at these summer camps.

The senior officer also told us that the theme of the one-week camps has been the same for years. The young people who applied to the program arrive at Szolnok Monday morning, and after the necessary administration and other duties they experience the first takeoff. On Tuesday they are usually shown around the Szolnok base. They visit the helicopter battalions and also go to the aviation museum right next to the barracks. By this time they are also allowed to fly in transport and combat helicopters. In the afternoons they are flying across the blue sky again with their instructors.

Wednesday is entirely for flying, while on Thursday the campers visit the Kecskemét Aviation Base and the Aircraft Repair Plant. The best part of this day is undoubtedly when they – with a bit of exaggeration – fly around the country in an AN–26 transport airplane. On the last day of the camp they say farewell to each other with morning flights.

Even in simulators

– Compared to the last few years, this year we have incorporated two minor changes in the program. One of them is that in their free time between flights, the campers have the opportunity to try the various simulators in the department. The other one is that on Fridays, a colleague of the Aviation Safety Department of the HDF Joint Forces Command gives the youngsters a lecture about the beauty and, of course, the dangers of flying. Therefore the campers get a full picture of the specialities of military aviation – says Tamás Bali, who also tells us what kind of simulators the campers can ’fly’. One of them is the JetFly fighter plane simulator that is well known from various recruitment events, and the other one is a traditional ’trainer’ which helps in mastering the use of the apparatuses that can be found in the cockpit of small aircraft.

But the greatest experience for the campers is without a doubt when they are allowed to sit in the new equipments of the RFO, the room simulators that were handed over last December. In the helicopter and small aircraft simulators there are almost realistic circumstances – with the exception of gravity forces – waiting for the campers, owing to the 3D projectors. And the most important thing: the simulators have the digitalized picture of nearly all the military and civil airports in the world so the ’pilot’ can start either from Szolnok or from Kecskemét, but even from New York.

Lt.Col. Bali tells me: naturally, these room simulators are not only for the participants of PIR camps but they are also very useful in the first phase of the NFTC training, for the fighter pilot and helicopter pilot candidates can master the basics of fyling at skill-level in the simulators before the first takeoff.

Flying, flying, flying

While we are talking, the area in front of the building becomes busy. The twenty campers have just returned from the tower where the meteorologist on duty told them the weather forecast for the day. The news were good: in the morning there will be almost constant sunshine, minor showers and thunderstorms are expected only late in the afternoon. Which means that today they can be in the air almost all day.

After the short morning briefing, in the order written on the flight schedule planned in advance a few of them are heading to the planes immediately. Naturally, they do not rise in the air alone, every camper is accompanied by a ’professional’ pilot instructor who is either still an active or a retired military fighter pilot or helicopter pilot with decades of experience and thousands of flying hours.

Every instructor is a member of HSE. In addition to the pilots, it is also HSE that provides the aircraft for all the six turns of this year’s PIR camp. They fly the campers in three Falke motorized gliders and a four-seater ZLIN–143 aircraft simultaneously. It must be said about the latter type that it used to be in regular service in the Hungarian People’s Army and it was the courier plane of the Tököl corps. HSE bought it a few years ago, and following a rehaul in the HDF Aircraft Repair Plant in Kecskemét it could take off again. Of course, the members of HSE have also thought about possible failures, thus there are two Falke and a two-seater ZLIN–42 are on standby as replacement aircraft.

In the meantime the first Falke starts its engine and the aircraft approaches the runway. It does so regularly: the pilot keeps the first wheel of the plane on the yellow line, he so-called rolling line painted in the middle of the rolling way. When it reaches the starting line, the plane stops. It is very likely that the pilot is asking the tower for permission to take off, and it is granted eventually. The engine roars, the tiny plane soars and rises in the air within a few hundred meters. In just a couple of seconds it is out of sight…

We follow them with the ZLIN–143. We have asked our pilot, Lt.Col. József Körösi to help us take a few pictures of the Falke in the air. Lt.Col. Körösi, or as he is known by everyone, Csücsör starts the engine and soon we also take off. We find the motorized glider a few kilometers to the northeast from Szolnok, in the designated airspace. The pictures are taken and we are already on our way back to the military airfield to avoid taking up much flying time from the campers.

The tiny four-seater plane lands without a jolt, we can feel that the pilot has spent thousands of hours in the air. Csücsör was a fighter pilot between 1977 and 2000, he flew MiG–21s in Taszár and Pápa. He is still an active soldier as a member of Hungarocontroll Ltd’s team responsible for airspace management and distribution. Moreover, he is a permanent participant of the career orientation camps, this is the fifth camp he’s helped to organize as an instructor. He says he tries to spend one or two weeks in Szolnok every summer, since being a really ’obsessed’ person his aim is to make more and more young people love and learn about flying.

The concrete is really busy: the planes spend thirty minutes in the air then they land, and a new camper can sit next to the instructor immediately. The continuous ’operation’ is only interrupted for short periods when the planes are fueled. Fortunately, the campers enjoy flying very much, it seems that they do not want to leave the cockpit ever.

Everyone spends at least six hours in the air during the week – Lt.Col. Tamás Bali, who is watching the event with us, tells me while we are standing near the edge of the conrete, but this also includes the time spent onboard the helicopters and the transport airplane.

Two out of twenty…

Another two Falkes land on the Szolnok concrete. A young lady gets out one of them, her smile – as the saying goes – is all around her head. She tells me: she has terribly enjoyed the thirty minutes spent in the air. Dorottya Szekeres, who is 19, completed her secondary school final exams at Vásárhelyi Pál School of Economics in Szolnok. She would like to continue her studies at Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence and work as a professional soldier. That is why she has decided to come and see what military aviation is like. She was also very interested in helicopters and fighter planes.

– So far I have only flown in passenger airplanes, but I wanted to try by all means what it feels like to rise in the air in a ’tiny’ plane. One of my friends told me about the camp and I decided almost immediately that I would apply. I was lucky and got into the second turn – says Dorottya, who also told me that her parents were not happy when she told them about her decision, but fortunately, they did not want to persuade her to withdraw from the PIR camp.

What Dorottya liked the most was flying in a Mi–24 combat helicopter. She said terrain following was a great experience.

Gergely Kassai, who flew in another plane, is excited about flying in the AN–26. The 23-year-old young man who is a graduate IT student of Pannon University has already submitted his application for the NFTC program, and what is more, he also passed the physical fitness examination and was given the best qualification, the so-called 1/A. Which means that as regards his health and physical condition, he is fit enough to become a fighter pilot. Unfortunately, he cannot begin the fighter pilot training this September because he has not finished his university studies yet.

– I know that everyone says so, but I have always wanted to be a fighter pilot, since I was a little child, and it seems that this dream may become reality soon. I simply love flying, every form of it – says Gergely enthusiastically, and he also tells me that he is an experienced camper. He has already been to the PIR camp in Szolnok three years ago. It was then that he decided for good that the day will come when he applies to the NFTC program.

Before we say farewell to the campers, Lt.Col. Bali tells us that on the first day of July, the deadline expired for the fourth, fifth, and sixth turns of the PIR camp. Just like any other year, there were a lot more applicants than there is room for this year. They are happy to see that because it has been proven again that there are many young people who are interested in military aviation. Young people who will perhaps become the fighter pilots or helicopter pilots of the corps of the Hungarian Defence Forces…