The Camel And The Ancsa Were Flying Together

The past and the present. The friendly reunion, held on 12 September in Kecskemét, at the HDF 59th ’Dezsõ Szentgyörgyi’ Aviation Base on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of transport aviation and the thirty-fifth anniversary of the AN–26 transport airplane entering into service in Hungary, began with a LI–2 and two AN–26 military transport airplanes flying in a historic formation.

The veteran LI–2, which is the only one of its kind in the world that can still fly, was manoeuvred back to the storage facility after landing by an unusual ’device’, with two bottles of champagne in the hands of a soldier.

Retired soldiers have arrived from every part of the country, who used to fly the AN–26 ’Ancsa’ or the LI–2 ’Camel’ for years. Major General Zoltán Pintér, the Deputy Commander of the HDF Joint Forces Command, and Major General Zoltán Orosz, the Chief of Staff of the HDF JFC have also attended the event. As an ’introduction’, the program started with the spectacular aerobatic display of pilot Tamás Nádas, Hungarian and European Champion.

The reunion was opened by General (eng.) László Tömböl, MoD Chief of Defence Staff. He said these events that also create an opportunity to remember, are very useful for the Hungarian Defence Forces. It is especially true when the events are attended by servicemen and civil servants who have supported the Hungarian Defence Forces and the Republic of Hungary with their expertise.

The chief of the defence staff underlined: there is a need for reunions like this one, for we can gather strength for the future at such gatherings. General Tömböl added: there have been plenty anniversaries in the previous year and this year. Last year we celebrated the 160th anniversary of the Hungarian Defence Forces and the 70th anniversary of the Hungarian Air Force for instance, and the 200th jubilee of military higher education. And the jubilees we are celebrating today are a worthy sequel to these events.

– Perhaps it gives a special flavour to the sixtieth anniversary that this year the first unit of the multinational strategic airlift fleet has started to operate at the Pápa Base Airport, and similarly to the LI–2s or the AN–26s they also serve and support the interests and the set of tasks of the Republic of Hungary and the Hungarian Defence Forces – said Gen. László Tömböl, also mentioning that the equipments that had been operated and are being operated by the participants of the reunion have always served and still serve the interests of the defence forces well.

About the AN–26 transport airplanes the chief of the defence staff said: the equipments are reliable to this very day, and the personnel in charge of their operation and maintenance do a conscientious job. And even though the ’Ancsas’ were designed for short distance air transport, they also perform well on longer flights. They can get as far as Afghanistan or even Iraq.

– Even the most state-of-the-art, the best technology is useless if it is not treated, looked after, and driven by committed personnel who know and love their profession and even willing to make sacrifices for it – emphasized Gen. Tömböl, who expressed his appreciation and thanked all those who have been able and ready to make efforts in order to fulfil the tasks in the past and the present alike. The chief of the defence staff closed his speech by telling the audience that as long as the Hungarian Defence Forces exist, this set of tasks must also exist, and this capability must be operated. And he expects the personnel that are in their positions and doing their job at the moment to ensure that.

Brigadier General Nándor Kilián, the commander of the Kecskemét Aviation Base shared a couple of personal experiences with the participants from the years when as a novice fighter pilot, he had come across the AN–26 transport airplanes for the first time.

He said these memories come up to this very day, whenever he has to board an ’Ancsa’. The commander told the audience that the transport aircraft squadron was subordinated to the base only a few years ago. This was also new to the inhabitants of Kecskemét, since until that date the Base had operated fighter planes only. However, the adaptation went smoothly.

Lieutenant Colonel Csaba Lakatos, the commander of the airlift squadron added to the aforementioned: in recent years the aircraft has remained the same, even though the technology has changed constantly. Today the ’Ancsas’ are equipped with devices many civilian companies would envy. About the previous year the commander of the squadron said: in the second half of the ’90s the flying time had decreased gradually, and the troops often asked each other: "When are we going to fly enough?" A bit later Yugoslavia dissolved, the Kosovo crisis broke out, and the thing that nobody ever dared to think of eventually happened: after the Second World War, the first organized combat deployment of the Hungarian Defence Forces was conducted by the airlift squadron, the AN–26 abroad, in a theatre of operations.

– We have flown over the entire theatre of the Balkans crisis from the beginning until the end. Then came the war in Iraq. In Iraq we completed 108 deployments, starting from the transport of the first preparatory team to the withdrawal, and we are already above 10 in Afghanistan as well – said Lt.Col. Lakatos, adding: in this period the pilots have flown well over 400 hours a year, and the aircraft have spent 500-600 hours in the air. They have completed this huge amount of flying without any technical default, and what is even more important, there have been no accidents and nobody has been injured.

Following the speeches an informal discussion began with a delicious lunch. The artists of the Honvéd Theatre were entertaining the guests during the meal. For dessert, a cake was served that was created for the guests of the reunion by the confectioner of the corps, Tibor Domonkos. Colonel József Nagy, the deputy commander of the aviation base was the first to cut the cake that had the shape of an AN–26 and was displaying the national colours.

The friendly reunion held on the occasion of the anniversaries went on with the guests engaging in discussions and recalling old stories until late in the afternoon.