In place of an epilogue… In writing this irregular story of our tower, I have now arrived to the present day. Writing the articles was an enriching experience and I hope those who have read my subjective account of our life will have enjoyed it and were not bored to tears. Of all the details… Continue reading The tower with a soul…19.
Category: The tower with a soul
The first 25 years of Ferihegy Tower as seen through the eyes of an air traffic controller
The tower with a soul… 18.
Approaching the present day… What a strange folk we are, we Hungarians! We complain when we have to work with an obsolete system and when it is replaced with something new, we complain that we are forced to learn new tricks when we had actually grown used to the old ones. This was the situation… Continue reading The tower with a soul… 18.
The tower with a soul… 17.
We could have done it differently… MP, my one time friend was appointed as the first director of Hungarocontrol, receiving his letter of appointment from the State Secretary for Transport (who has in the meantime moved to social work). I said one time friend because MP has also done his training in Riga and because,… Continue reading The tower with a soul… 17.
The tower with a soul… 16.
9/11 and other events of consequence. 11 September 2001 started like any other late summer day. Unlike most people, I do like September. The stifling heat of August is gone, allergens are also mostly gone, and so I breathe easier. So, for me fall is not a reminder of passing but of a new beginning.… Continue reading The tower with a soul… 16.
The tower with a soul… 15.
Exciting times and more progress The first decade after the change of the political system in Hungary brought home the realization that Hungarians had a peculiar interpretation of democracy. Instead of making use of opportunities, they immediately started abusing them. They interpreted freedom as being a license to do anything with laws being just a… Continue reading The tower with a soul… 15.
The tower with a soul… 14.
Finally, real progress For this chapter I had to solicit a bit of outside help. It looked like I too remembered old memories better than recent ones. Misi Kurucz was kind enough to help me by sketching the most important events in the life of the tower that came to pass during his tenure as… Continue reading The tower with a soul… 14.
The tower with a soul… 13
Ten years on the job Ten years on the job! I can say that the first ten years passed quickly but on occasion time seemed to be crawling. Under the previous protocols, someone with a 10 year old license would have already made it to approach control. I read somewhere not so long ago that… Continue reading The tower with a soul… 13
The tower with a soul… 12
From shared lunches to more restrictions As the years passed and we approached the tenth anniversary of being on the job, contact with other colleagues of my age group tapered off. Some of them went to other shifts or even other control units and this did not help of course. But on the few occasions… Continue reading The tower with a soul… 12
A tower with a soul…11
Small planes, small airports The change of political system in Hungary was the main driver behind the presence of an increasing number of small aircraft, more and more people chose this way to visit the country. Since there was only one international airport, Ferihegy in Budapest, every plane had to land there to complete the… Continue reading A tower with a soul…11
The tower with a soul… 10
New politics, new hopes The miracle happened in 1989-90. Hungary became independent, a sovereign State with free elections and a multiparty parliamentary democracy. That this also brought with it the darker sides of capitalism did not concern anyone back then. An omission we came to regret later. In short order we had to realize that… Continue reading The tower with a soul… 10