The 3000th Flight Hour Among 3000 Meter High Mountains

There can be several milestones in a soldier’s life which provide opportunity to look back and
are often the results of years’ or decades’ work. The promotion in grade or in position, the
decorations due to different performances and merits are all recognitions of the commitment,
sense of duty and persistence displayed by soldiers throughout their career.

As the number of annual rings characterizes a tree, so does the number of hours flown the
military pilot. Hidden in the number of flight hours are age, experience, a lot of self-denial
and successes. As the “1000"s are slowly growing in number, so are the faces, experiences,
memories of dead pilot comrades or young candidates written into the pilot’s imaginary
album, and he finds himself turning up unnamed in more and more aviation stories that are
already related as anecdotes.

Among the number of flight hours, the round ones are usually always memorable events in
the airmen’s lives, and among these, the completion of the first 1,000, the 2000th or the 3000th
hour stand out especially. The event is significant is itself, but becomes truly memorable if
some special occurrence or place is related to it.

Maj. F. is currently doing his tour of duty in Afghanistan, where he is responsible for training
the Afghan aircrews. He has come a long way to get here from the classroom of the Kilián
György Aviation Engineering College of Szolnok, where he started his helicopter pilot
career 29 years ago. During his career, which started with his flying the favorite Mi-2 type
in Börgönd, he has seen many reorganizations and disbandment of units, yet he always kept
his great passion for flying. Having risen through the airmen’s ranks to become air squadron
leader, he is currently one of the most seasoned instructors and test pilots at the transport
helicopter battalion of the HDF 86th Szolnok Helicopter Base in Szolnok.

Flying Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters, he participated in many exercises and almost all
flood control rescue missions during the 2000s. He fondly recalls his participation in the
international search and rescues exercises “Cross Landing" or in exercise “Lord Mountain",
which all were challenging and memorable tasks for the pilots. The peak of any soldier’s
professional career, including the helicopter crews, is deployment on missions abroad.

Maj. F. – or Ficki, as his comrades and friends call him – has reached this peak on multiple
occasions. He completed his 3000th flight hour while flying on a mission among the 3000-
meter high mountains of Afghanistan. His wife and his five proud children are waiting for
him to return home. What could we, his pilot comrades say to that? We wish him good health
and further successes in his career in aviation!

Many good landings to you, Ficki!