Jozsef Torocsik – the first Hungarian at EUROCONTROL
What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid?
I could boast and say that I have always wanted to be an air traffic controller… but it would be a lie. I remember having admired airplanes and airports from around age 6 but my early dream was to become an archeologist. When I first got the aviation bug, I wanted to be a pilot… even more than an archeologist.
What moved you to become part of the air traffic control family?
My attraction to aviation lasted longer than that for archeology and initially I was building model airplanes. Then one day, after a model airplane competition which as usual I did not win, I cranked up my courage and approached the pilots of the sailplanes parked on the grass of the airport where the event was being held. I was really charmed by their friendliness (the first taste of the family feeling) and soon I was contemplating how to break the news to my folks at home that I will be a soaring pilot.
Then tragedy struck… I was told after a routine ophthalmologist visit that I would need to wear eye glasses for the rest of my life.
That girls will not like me and my glasses was the second thought that came into my mind. The first one brought tears. I will never be a pilot. People with glasses were excluded even from training in those days…
I consoled myself with dubbing in several hobbies of which ham radio became the most serious one. I still remember getting my call-sign and the great time I had exploring the world in Morse code. For us, ham radio was a bit like social networks are to kids to-day.
I guess frequent visits to the airport to see my mom off on her business trips and the ham radio combined to make me sign up to become an air traffic controller.
What were the most remarkable sideways jumps in your career?
In the old days if I told you this, I would have to shoot you afterwards… state secrets and all that. Anyway, the Budapest Area Control Centre was in the city tucked away under a hill, co-located in a dingy bunker with the air defense headquarters of the Hungarian People’s Army.
I was in my sixth year working there as an air traffic controller when a set of old rules, hitherto ignored, were suddenly reactivated and we were no longer allowed to travel to Western Europe. Even our passports were withdrawn… Suddenly that bunker felt even more suffocating than before; I could not stay there any longer. So I left for the airport and started work in the training centre as an ATCO instructor.
What were the most significant events that influenced your professional life?
My eye sight started deteriorating in the early 90s and I realized that the writing was on the wall: it was only a matter of time before I would have to give up being an air traffic controller. I have always been a believer in the principle that says if you have to change, do it while you can still pick the time and place yourself… So, when a vacancy was announced at the EUROCONTROL Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU), I applied immediately.
There were 17 applicants I have heard and for some reason they picked me… So after 20 years of service as an air traffic controller, I became a flow controller at the CFMU and the first Hungarian on EUROCONTROL’s staff at the same time.
Can you name a person who had a profound influence on your professional life?
I am lucky because I can mention not one, but dozens! I will always remember the deep impression my teachers and instructors at the ATCO course made on me. Their devotion to the job was the best proof for me that I had made a wise choice.
Later on my colleagues also taught me a lot. Their message was clear: you do air traffic control with total dedication or not at all.
Was there a “Darth Vader” in your life that you needed to conquer?
No, fortunately no Darth Vader or even an evil eye… But there were others with whom I had to compete and this was a constant motivation to do better. I am forever grateful to them.
If you had a second chance, would you try to avoid aviation?
No way! I would probably try to do better in some aspects but the choices I made would be the same.
Would you recommend aviation as a career to young people to-day?
Most certainly, yes. But only to those who would do it also for love alone…
What personal traits should they have first and foremost?
That is a tough one… there are so many needed for a good controller, it is not easy to decide which one should come to the top. But I would certainly mention sincerity, a word not that fashionable these days… then frankness in the face of colleagues, the job and myself. The ability to do checks all the time, recognize and admit shortcomings and mistakes so that they may be eliminated as quickly as possible. Yes, this last one is perhaps the most important of them all.
What is the funniest aviation related situation you can recall having been in?
I have been witness to many funny stories during the 20 years I spent in ATC… You will be able to read them in the book I am currently writing.
Perhaps not that funny but certainly the most extraordinary story came during the long, harsh winter of 1976 in what was then called Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Hungarian controllers did their radar training there and we were taken every day from the sleeping quarters to the approach control unit and back by a rickety crew bus. We had to drive part of the way on the active runway.
One grey, misty afternoon as we were driving down the thin snow covered concrete all of a sudden an Aeroflot IL-18 nosed onto the runway and started its take off roll hurtling down opposite to our little bus. The bus driver tried frantically to leave towards the side but snow banks of at least half a meter high quickly discouraged him… But the IL-18 wasn’t faring much better either. In a cloud of snow, it was breaking like mad, propellers in reverse, the plane skidding left and right… then stopping not far from us.
We thought the pilot would be really mad at us until we saw an IL-14 pass above the IL-18 elegantly, settling on the runway not far from the bus… This was all pretty incredible, just imagine we were now closed in between two Ilyushins with few escape options left but it was not the end of it yet. At the other runway end, a Finnair Caravelle taxied onto the runway and, mercifully, stopped cold. I am sure the sight presented to its pilots has made it into Finnish pilot lore to be told and retold in crew rooms everywhere. The absolute Guinness record of runway incursion!
Our bus did manage to exit the runway when the IL-14 pulled forward so we never had a chance to see how the 3 aircraft cleared that runway but it must have been quite a performance.
Any other bit you would like to add?
The rest will be in the book I mentioned… it will finally be written and there will be an English translation!