“I’ll Never Forget That Sight As Long As I Live”

The three motorized gliders — so-called ‘Movits’ — standing in a ‘soldierly’ line in the storage area of the airfield look at least as strange here. We are heading for them. With six men dressed in uniform white T-shirts and caps we are walking towards the machines which seem fragile. The moves of the three young men, who are in their early 20s, clearly reveal their excitement — for them, flying is still a great adventure in the first place. But the other three men, who are older, are calmness embodied, since they have walked up to airplanes several thousand times before — following the necessary preparations — to conquer the blue sky with their aircraft.

Get in, fasten your seatbelts, close the Perspex hood, start the engine — and the first aircraft sets out for the runway. And it does so regularly, just like it is required: keeping the first tyre on the so-called rolling line, the yellow line painted in the middle of the rolling way. We can tell that the man flying the aircraft used to be a fighter pilot …

When it reaches the starting line, the plane stops. The pilot must be asking the tower for permission to take off, and it is granted. The engine roars, the tiny plane soars and rises into the air within a few hundred metres. In a couple of seconds it is out of sight. And soon the other two Movits follow the first one.

Not far from here, sitting on a bench in the shade of the building of the aviation training company there are some more young people in white T-shirts. They are waiting for their turn to rise into the air in silence. They all know: today the whole day is for flying, which means that everybody’s turn will come. While they are waiting, they are reading books, newspapers, and brochures about the Hungarian Defence Forces, the Air Force, and the NFTC programme.

Meanwhile Lieutenant Colonel István Nagy, the commander of HDF Aviation Preparation Department (MH RFO) arrives. This summer, RFO has organized the HDF career orientation aviation camp (PIR camp) for the seventh time in a row. And the young people wearing uniform T-shirts are participants of the second batch of this year’s camp.

“The camp has been a success for years" — says the Lieutenant Colonel, and he shows me in a chart that in 2002, the first year, a total of 45 students applied for the camp which was organized in three batches, and this year there were 583 applicants among whom 120 lucky ones had to be selected, who can come to Szolnok with one of the batches of the 6-week camp.

Due to the large number of applicants, which exceeds the limit five times, this year only those were invited to the camp who will graduate from an institution of higher education in 2009 or 2010. In other words, they can be potential candidates for the NFTC programme, which is also supervised by the RFO. As Lt. Col. Nagy tells me, the camp is indeed one of the initial phases of the project assisting the HDF in the selection of pilot recruits. It means that in addition to numerous other opportunities — for example recruitment days, job fairs at universities — here they are also looking for candidates who would like to apply for the NATO Flying Training in Canada at a later stage.

The aforementioned chart also proves that this concept has worked well in the past years since even among those 120 young people who took part in last year’s camp 69 have applied for the NFTC programme, even though in 2007 the selection was not as NFTC-specific as it is this year… In the expectations of the RFO commander, even more ‘campers’ will apply for the flying training in the current year.

Lt. Col. Nagy also tells us that contrary to previous years, the camp is now located at the military airfield instead of the Szandaszõlõs sports airfield. The only reason for this is that the meadow of Szanda is not classified as an airfield anymore, therefore they had to ‘move in’ the barracks. Unfortunately, this has made the planning of their flights more complicated for they must harmonize the takeoffs with the military tasks, namely with both the helicopter staff and the flying training company. This is why the organizers would like to move back the camp to the lawn sports airfield next year, which has ‘worked well’ in the past, and now it seems the legal solution has been found.

Although the organizers of the camp are the RFO and HM Zrínyi Kommunikációs Kht, obviously there are also other military and civil organizations participating in the implementation process — tells me Lt. Col. István Nagy. In addition to HDF 86th Szolnok Helicopter Base — providing for the location –, HDF 59th ‘Dezsõ Szentgyörgyi’ Aviation Base of Kecskemét, and Honvéd Sportrepülõ Egyesület also have their share in the process. The latter provides the instructor-pilots and the four aircraft — the ZLIN-42 and the three Movits — the campers are flying. For the instructors, military aviation is not a novelty, since all of them are either still active, or retired fighter pilots, helicopter pilots.

In an aviation camp the main target is — obviously — that participants can fly as much as possible. The PIR campers have plenty opportunity for that since during the week spent in Szolnok, each of them complete at least 10 takeoffs in the HSE aircraft alone. And they have a chance to rise in the air with other instruments as well, because the programme includes flying with military aircraft. The participants also experience what it feels like for passengers to be onboard a Mi-8 and Mi-17 transport helicopter, a Mi-24 combat helicopter, and the An-26 transport airplane. And as a cultural event, the campers visit the aviation museum, which is near the Szolnok military airfield.

While the Lieutenant Colonel and me were discussing the above, three motorized gliders have landed. Anyone can tell the students are happy just by looking at them, since the instructors let them control the gliders for a few minutes. And for the time being, there is not a greater adventure than this…

“It was super!" — tells us Gabriella Nagy enthusiastically. The 24-year-old lady is a student of the Veterinary Science Faculty of Szent István University, majoring in Zoology and graduating next year. She has learned about the PIR camp via the educational and information network of the university, or to be more precise, it was not her but her sister, who immediately told her about it. She applied without delay and she was lucky, since a few weeks ago her mobile phone started ringing and she got the message: she can go to Szolnok.

“I feel fantastic, flying is great!" — she confides to us, then starts to speak about how these small aircraft bring flying closer to people, as opposed to enormous passenger airplanes, because if one is onboard one of these machines, every tiny move the aircraft makes, the ‘push’ of warm air rising, or gusts of wind can be felt.

In the opinion of Balázs Pásztor, who is scrambling out of the other motorized glider, it is nearly incomprehensible that he is here in this camp and can fly every day. According to the 22-year-old technical manager student of the Miskolc University it is another benefit that the camp is at a military airfield since they have ‘firsthand’ experience and can see helicopters taking off, get acquainted with other organizations in the service of military aviation, for instance meteorologists, flight controllers, and the engineering staff.

It was last year that Balázs heared about the camp for the first time at the university roadshow of the Defence Minister, when he decided to apply. He feels lucky for he has managed to be one of the 120 ’chosen’ campers.

"For me the biggest experience was when we could fly in the An-26 transport airplane. We were onboard the ’Ancsa’ for more than three hours. We flew from Kecskemét to Tihany, then back. We were still in the aircraft when the sun went down. I’ll never forget that sight as long as I live" — remembers Balázs.

One of the instructor-pilots of the camp, József Körömi is preparing to take off with the ZLIN-42. The man is still an active member of the military, serving as a lieutenant colonel, and a member of Hungarocontroll’s airspace management team. In the earlier days, between 1977 and 2000, he was a fighter pilot and flew a MiG-21 in Pápa and Taszár, with more than 2.500 hours spent airborne.

"I have been a membeer of the Szolnok sports aviation association for years now, and as an instuctor-pilot I feel it is my duty to participate in the activities of the camp. I have been coming here on a regular basis for the fourth year now, and usually I can stay for a week or two" — says the pilot while continues with the inspection of the aircraft before takeoff. In the opinion of the ex-fighter pilot the young campers are very enthusiastic and interested in flying, and especially like to rise into the air with the ZLIN.

While the aircraft are taking off again, Lt. Col. István Nagy tells me that this year they have divided the PIR camp — which is absolutely free for the participants — into six batches. The first campers arrived at the Szolnok military airfield on 30 June, and the last batch will leave on 8 August. But for the RFO, work will continue, of course, since this year’s learnings must be assessed and in a short while they are starting the preparations for next year’s camp. And it is most likely that there will be even more applicants than this year.