The Stethoscope And Pilot Helmet No. 46

The medical centre of HDF 59th ’Dezsõ Szentgyörgyi’ Aviation Base is being renovated – sorry, if there’s anyone who doesn’t know what it is about, I’ll explain more clearly in the sickroom –, and because of the rhythmical hammering and the eardrum-bursting rattle of the electric chisel we can hardly hear what the other is saying. But he doesn’t want to go elsewhere, since – as he says – it is surgery hours now and a patient can turn up any minute. And he doesn’t like to let his patients down. He is not parting from his stethoscope either, he puts it down on the table within arm’s reach.

Lieutenant Colonel (Med.) Dr. István Toperczer is a well-known person and his name has institutionalized in the Hungarian Air Force. And not because of his healing function in the first place – although his physician colleagues say he is a good professional – but because of his hobby. For he is, and it is not an overstatement at all if we say that, Hungary’s number one aerial photographer.

Even though this ‘image’ was not created on purpose – says Lt. Col. Toperczer, who is called Doki (Doc) or TopiDoki (DocTopi) by everyone, and whose position is Head Physician of the Kecskemét corps. For he was not preparing to be a solider, he wanted to be a doctor. Although it is true that he has had a strange affection for flying since the first years of secondary school.

On the other hand, he graduated from the medical university and in 1987, he chose to work in Kaposvár, his hometown, in the accident surgery ward of the county hospital. Later he completed his surgeon’s and accident surgeon’s special examinations.

– I was doing my job at the hospital, then suddenly the time for conscription had come. The so-called compulsory medical service meant one year at that time – says Doctor Toperczer, who also tells me that since his passion for flying had not diminished, he decided to link ’the compulsory with the pleasant’ and submitted a request to serve at the military airport of Taszár. At least this way he could be near some military aircraft.

From late 1988, he spent twelve months at the Taszár military base, then after completing his service he returned to his employer, the Kaposvár hospital. He got in touch with the military again eight years later. At the hospital he met a pilot friend, with whom they had been still in touch since they had completed compulsory military service, their families often met, and who in the meantime was promoted to deputy commander of the base. After work, they usually engaged in a conversation and we can say they became friends. It was him who told Doctor Toperczer that he was welcome to the Taszár base again, since they happened to be in need of physicians.

TopiDoki thought about the possibilities and decided to go ahead. After nearly ten years, he left his ’civilian’ medical career behind and joined the army. As they say he found himself in the thick of things almost immediately. Beyond working at the base as the one and only physician, suddenly the Americans arrived overnight, who were using Taszár as the logistics backup base for peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina following the Dayton Agreement, which put an end to the war in the Balkans.

It was here and then, when the tought of aerial photography crossed István Toperczer’s mind for the first time. As he puts it: at that time, photography was already his hobby, and what is more, in 1994 he spent a month in Vietnam, researching the history of the Vietnam aerial war. But he was not studying the American retrospectives that have been ’adapted to music’ a thousand times already, but he explored the history of the war from the perspective of the Vietnamese.

– I have been to nearly every place in the country. I have seen all the museums, met former pilots, collected archive photographic and written materials. And took loads of pictures, of course. From the enormous amount of material I have obtained, later a book was born. And not only one, but in just a few years, three, one after the other. One in the United States of America, and two in England – says Lt. Col. Toperczer, who contacted his commander in Taszár ’on an impulse’ and applied for a permission to take pictures in the air. With the purpose of taking photographs of the aviation equipment regularly used by the Hungarian Air Force, in order to document them. Perhaps he was also a bit surprised when his idea was not rejected eventually, but on the contrary, they expressly welcomed the concept. They had only one condition: Doctor Toperczer had to pass the flight surgery fitness examination too. Since could do that without any issue, he received the ’take-off clearance’.

– The first takeoff was very memorable. Even though I had flied quite a lot before, I was terribly excited. Of course, the fact that I felt a load on me obviously contributed to this: since there were many people who were helping me with this piece of work, I could not make a mistake. I couldn’t have come down from the blue sky saying that the photographs are not good. So we took off in an Albatros, and I do not deny it, by the time our flight time ended, I felt sick. No such thing has happened to me ever since. But fortunately, the photographs were good, we completed the assignment – remembers Doki, who also tells me that later he also had the opportunity to rise in the air in the back cabin of a two-seater MiG-21 fighter jet. Taking off with an afterburner is an unforgettable experience.

That was the last time he had the chance to get onboard another type of fighter aircraft. But as he says, it is not a problem, for the L-39 is the best possible aircraft for aerial photography. It has a relatively spacious cockpit, which allows taking pictures. Besides the Albatros, Doctor Toperczer has often taken photographs in the last one and a half decades or so from various helicopter types and the An-26 transport aircraft. The latter is very good because its ramp can be let down in the air as well, thus nothing disturbs the photographer while he is taking pictures of the aircraft following the ‘Ancsa’. Of course, he did not fall into despair either, when he could not take off. If that was the case, he took pictures on the ground – sometimes of the service crew, and on other occasions the pilots returning from a flight.

I am told that in Taszár, Doctor Toperczer could personally experience the Kosovo conflict of 1999, when the aircraft of the US Air Force launched live strikes against Serbia also from the Taszár base. Naturally, he was there recording the events whenever he could.

– In addition to the above, there have been various international exercises where I also took pictures, and made efforts to be present at any high-profile event organized by the air force. Naturally, I have always adhered to the regulations whenever I was taking photographs in the air, and applied for the necessary permits every time – says Doki, who felt in 2000 that in the past years a ’strong’ material had been compiled, and it would be worth publishing a book about the aviation corps of the Hungarian Defence Forces. The idea was followed by action, and the publication giving an insight into ten years of the history of the aviation corps, from 1991 to 2001, was born. The book titled Felhõlovagok (Knights of the Clouds) was published in private edition, but it sold out in no time, therefore a second edition had to be put to market. This was already a bilingual publication, issued in Hungarian and English.

– Of course, I have not stopped taking photos after the book was published, and what is more, I wanted to continue the research I had started in Vietnam. So I went to Cambodia and Laos, and published the photographic material taken in these three countries in a touristic album, under the title Indochina. This book was published in 2005 – says István Toperczer, who, as they say, then started to ’swim with the current’, for in just a short while his book on military helicopters regularly used in Hungary, titled Forgószárnyas huszárok (Hussars with Rotary Wings) was published by Zrínyi Kiadó. This book also focuses on the tasks of the helicopter corps, such as research-rescue, musketry, flood prevention, fighting fires, or even cooperation with land forces.

TopiDoki continues with telling me that his newest book will be out soon, on the tenth anniversary of Hungary’s accession to NATO. The publication titled Ég-Szín-Tér (a pun; from the words Air-Scene-Space) will not concentrate on corps or aircraft types, but it is a nice selection of photographs taken at significant events in the past ten years. And in addition to the description of the aircraft, he also explains to the readers what they can see in the pictures. The descriptions that are only a few sentences long are not ‘dry, military texts’ but are worded in a thought-provoking way which is close to everyone and are dressed in a literary format.

Which are your favourite photos? The ones you have taken from the air, or the ones taken on the ground? Perhaps the ones with tourism in the focus? – I ask Doki, who replies after thinking for a few seconds: he likes them equally, for he is trying to record the exposed moments not in a documentarist way in the first place. He is thinking in the real sense of the word photograph, meaning that he is playing with lights. He does not lose his heart if it’s raining, the sky is clouded, or the pilot happens to be tired. He believes his pictures clearly show that they are not explicitly what we call report photos, but photographs in which he is trying to catch the mood and feelings of a certain moment in the lives of people. For example happiness or sadness.

Naturally, he has some favourite pictures. One of the big favourites is when a MiG-29 fighter and a Mi-24 combat helicopter are flying together on an exercise day at one of the open days at Szentkirályszabadja.

– The weather was terribly awful that day. It was just suitable for flying, but nearly impossible to take photographs. And then I said: once I have the opportunity to take off, then we should fly, and see what the outcome will be. I followed them onboard another Mi-24. I caught the moment above Lake Balaton, the two aircraft are flying below dark clouds, and you can see the outline of the jets. Below them Lake Balaton with its interesting lights, the Tihany peninsula and the abbey – says TopiDoki, adding: his other favourite picture was taken in Vietnam. Here he was taken to a picturesque place by boat in the pouring monsoon, in terribly awful weather again. The river was curving under the mountains and among the woods. With this photograph titled ’Shelter’ by him, he has also won an international competition.

Naturally, Lt. Col. Toperczer has already won a military photograph competition as well. Last time for instance in 2008, when he won the first prize in the competition announced by the Ministry of Defence with his photograph titled ‘Face to face‘, picturing an An-26. Moreover, from the ten pictures submitted, nine ended up in the top thirty.

Doctor Toperczer’s photographs can be found in nearly every barracks of the Hungarian Defence Forces, but especially at the aviation corps. So it is not surprising at all that the walls of the sickroom, and even his office are decorated with many of his photos. Though pilot helmet No. 46 on the desk can be a bit surprising for the observer, for today only the aviation crew have ‘custom-made’ helmets. But Doki is exceptional in this as well, because when he started to take aerial photograps he was supplied with this helmet, which was given to him for ‘regular use’ by the persons responsible. Therefore today it is natural that whenever he is about to take off, he is putting on this helmet.

By the time we have to end our conversation, the question also arises: what other desires does the physician/aerial photographer have? I am told that he would like to return to Vietnam once again, to meet the so-called flying aces of the aerial warfare who are still alive. That is the pilots about whom it has been proven that they had shot more than five enemy aircraft in the fights. There are fifteen aces who are still among us and TopiDoki would like to interview them to publish the findings in a new book.