With my poor marks I had no chance of gaining access to any university
in Bratislava. Maybe metallurgy in Ostrava – I was told they take anybody! – I
did not pass the entry test. In Nitra, at the Agricultural University I –
passed!
What was the reason for my trying to study at a university? I don’t know, honestly, I don’t!
In Nitra – 80 kilometres from home – I lived in the dormitory right under the Castle hill. Because my father was a clerk at the time, I was not receiving any financial support from the school; my father, being clerk, had but very small salary, so there was no financial support from home either. How was I surviving I don’t know to this day. There were times I lived on a few slices of bread and one smelly cheese called Romadour for a few days. Once I bought a glass jar of cheap marmalade – a precious thing to me – only to drop and smash it on dormitory’s concrete steps. On occasions I received help from some of my fellow students whose peasant parents used to send them flitches of bacon, home-made sausages and other heavenly foodstuff. It did not occur to me to try and earn some money as I used to do back in Bratislava. Back there I usually went to a railway station to unload goods wagons (with shovel) – coal, potatoes, bags of concrete. In Nitra I did not think of it, and, besides, I happened to be interested in my studies. For the first couple of semesters it was chemistry, biology and similar subjects that impressed me and travelled with me for the rest of my life – thank you, professor Čepelák and assistents Soviš, Hell, Holobradý, Černák, all good men. However, there was some side interference, namely flying, one lovely girl and athletics.
I have lived in the proximity of Vajnory airfield all my childhood. It was the only airfield in Bratislava (apart from the gliding hill in Dúbravka and a tiny airfield in Pezinok; after the war the Russian had a field airfield for a few months at Zátišie, from Vajnorská ulica towards the mountains). Vajnory airfield was both military and civil; during the war mainly military, of course. Throughout my childhood I was able to watch either the biplanes, later the Messerschmitts, Junkers Ju-52, Dakotas, Spitfires, “Kombajn” Šturmoviks, and also gliders and sports airplanes. I always dreamed of getting near them, of touching them... The opportunity came up in Nitra due to a free program through which the Air Force was trying to recruit new members: I applied for membership in the local aero club, sat for three months in the classroom learning theory of flying and in February 1955, I flew for the first time; the airplane was C-106 with registration OK-BJG, the instructor was Lacko Bartosiewicz (see the blog Aeroclub). There were no membership fees, nor any documents, also flying was for free, as it was all under the umbrella of the Air Force. In the aero clubs I became friendly with many people, and some of them I am in contact with even now, 55 years later.
And what about the lovely girl and the athletics? Well, physical education was one of the compulsory subjects at the VŠP (Vysoká škola poľnohospodárska). Through the phys-ed I met an occasional instructor, who used to work at the faculty, and she charmed me into track-and-field club at the stadium under the Castle. “Cipena” herself was representing Czechoslovakia in 800 metres dash. I was not especially good at athletics; I was there only because of her. My highest achievement at the time was 6th place in decathlon at the City of Nitra Shield competition, among some 30 competitors from all around Slovakia. The sport remained with me, however, and a few years later, purely by accident, I reached my personal sporting peak; I am going to brag a bit now, and I beg for forgiveness.
It was like this: I was a member at aero club Vajnory. The club at the time had a very strong parachutist section, and a few of its members even held some world records (Nagy, Kis, Hindický, etc.) The parachuting at the time, along with flying in aero clubs, was a semi-military affair: military equipment, backpacks, arms, hand grenades, obstacle courses, flying foxes, etc. Sometime in 1960 they had a big get-together from the entire western Slovakia. For two weeks they were marching there, running through their obstacle courses, shooting – all dressed up in the camouflage outfits, with military gear hanging from their bodies, and everybody looked supremely macho. At the end of the fortnight, they held a big competition. It consisted of running around the airfield’s perimeter (some 3-4 kilometres), where every 50-100 metres they had to crawl/jump/navigate some obstacle. Towards the end of the run there was some target shooting from the rifle each of them carried, including hand grenade throwing.
On that day I came to the airfield with nothing particular on my mind, except maybe to assist with flying as a second pilot. Opposite the entrance to the airfield there were some tables around which all the parachutists were forming a queue. The chief organiser, a major Pecho, told to me that there is no flying today, the competition would be taking place all day instead. Having nothing to do I asked the major if I could take part. Why not, was the answer, just get yourself the proper gear... The gear I borrowed from a fried Šano Nagy, after he finished his run, we were about the same size. I put it on, joined the queue, applied – and off I went. We were sent from the starting line one at the time, every few minutes. I remember overtaking a few that started before me, I ran, jumped, crawled, shot at the target, tossed a few hand grenades and that was it. Having nothing to do I was watching the buzz for a while, and then there came the official announcement – and I was among the winners, as THE winner! The diploma, signed with no small measure of disgust by major Pecho, has been with me since then, sleeping in the pages of an old atlas:
I never found reasons for not being interested in taking part in the next, national, round of this competition; why was it not offered to me? Secrets that I’ll never be able to crack... A few years before that I managed to get a similar sporting diploma called a Badge of Physical Ability (in the memory of a Mr.) Tyrš (and early proponent of such program):
My studies have not benefited from the combined onslaughts of flying, Cipena and athletics. After two interesting semesters there appeared subjects that were to be the core of my studies for the next few years: methods of feeding of domestic animals (according to a soviet expert Praskovja Malinina), quality of domestic animals (according to a soviet scientist Trofim Lysenko), soviet methods of storing animal feed in silos... I read the study material the moment we received them – my old habit from secondary schools, when I avidly read all the textbooks the moment I received them – only to put them aside the moment I finished and looking into them only under duress. At the university, after perusing the new texts, I decided that the soviet methods of anything are not to my liking and made one of the many great mistakes in my life – I joined the Czechoslovak People’s Army. I leave this diabolical institution for some other chapter, and let’s stay with the universities for a while.
Taking stock of my
past now after scores of years have passed, I cannot avoid the sad finding of
how stupid I was when I was eighteen years old. I arrived in Nitra in July
1954 and put up in a student dormitory under the Castle. There were about six
of us in a room about 5 x 5 metres: Janko Guzlej, Janko Haluška (he played
league soccer with Košice team), Janko Hvozdík-Palenčík, all of them from the
east of the country, Milan Silberhorn, Fricko Goetze, both from Trnava, Pišta
Faško and myself.
I was not a keen
student, and the dormitory atmosphere was not conducive to studying either,
what with drinking, cards, noise, etc.; I could move out to a private
accommodation – I declined. Other opportunities were neglected as well, and
here’s their list:
- Shortage of money: like at home in
Bratislava, I could earn some working at railway stations, but was lazy;
- Socially awkward: upon becoming member of
the aeroclub I became friendly with a number of good people. Miloš Mičik and
Jana Smatana (later captain with Czechoslovakian airlines), both instructors in
the aero club; Major Róbert Vesperín, manager of the aero club, and his wife
Jarmila. I was entertained for dinner by them a few times, and we became
(almost) friends. Jarmila was a rather sad bird: she married a man who was
married to flying, towards which she was at best lukewarm. They were childless.
From the few debates with her I remember but little: she came from the Czech
part of the country, but her Slovakian was fluent. He was trying to teach her
flying, which she did not like; while I was at Nitra, she had her first solo
flights (1955). A few years later I heard to my surprise that she flew
aerobatics at various airshows;
- Through my involvement with athletics I
became friendly with quite a few good sportsmen: Mišo Suláni (a junior discus
record holder); Bozena Druková (she held a few junior records in middle
distance runs, and later represented Czechoslovakia in 800 metres dash), etc.;
- Through one beautiful girl, who worked at
the Department of sport at the Uni I became friends with her boss named Šulgan,
also with a few professors and tutors at the Uni. High-quality contacts I had a
number in a very short time. What use did I put them in? Zilch!!! I was stupid
and could not see past the tip of my nose!
- By the way, Cipena. We were both eighteen
years old. She was beautiful, she was resourceful, and she possessed in
abundance of what I was short of. No, not only that... I was socially awkward,
whereas she was a social champion. Of course, she knew everybody in Nitra (a
town of about 40,000 at the time). She knew everybody at the University and
managed to be friendly with everybody as well. I was introduced by her to many
social circles, be it in pubs, cafes, or private houses, and everywhere I
behaved like an outcast, like I wished to be somewhere else. Her interests were
similar to mine, too. For instance, several times she took me to Lupka, an
archaeological site. Being who she was she knew everybody there, and we were
allowed to roam freely around all the excavations.
- We were together, with two-and-a-half gap, for about seven years. I liked her, because, unlike other girls, she was not using “crutches", by which I mean cosmetics, fancy hairdos, high heels, fashion accessories – she was simple and natural, at least then. Smoking was her dream, and we bought together a few packets of cigarettes. I did not like them; she did, so much so that she became addicted. After we parted in 1960, I haven’t seen her for some 45 years. I found her in a retired people’s Home in Voderady when we were both 70 years old. She recently suffered three brain episodes and was unable to speak. To every question she reacted by indicating by hand the height of a small child with the word Monika, possibly her granddaughter. I did not learn more; asking the Home was against my hair, and so, our life between 1960 and 2006 remained veiled in mystery. We embraced in her small room, cried a bit, and I took her to the best restaurant in nearby Trnava. Afterwards, on the way to taxi, she pointed to tobacconist – and asked for a packet of cigarettes. I bought her two packets and took her back to the Home. You were still beautiful, my Cipena (in 2021 I learned that she died in March 2018)...
- Within my extended family I also had many good and friendly contacts: cousin Jarda Nechanický was a doctor; uncle Škraba a butcher; auntie Otka, her partner Mr. Starý, was a deputy minister somewhere in the central government; auntie Helen, although retired, still knew everybody in her employer Dynamit-Nobe companyl; uncle Gustav Havelka was manager of district car service outfit called Mototechna. I did not consult any of these, and many more...
All-in-all, my whole life was in front of me as if on a plate, all I had to do was taste this and taste that – I did not! For each of the above people I was interesting from a different angle: for the athletes for my natural talent; for the aero club people for the fact that I was from a University; for the university people for my flying; for the girls because I was from the Capital where each aspired to get, eventually. I threw everything in the air, decided that the Agricultural University was not for me – and marched straight into the army. The army was for me even less, as I found after 2-3 hours after signing, but it was too late to wriggle out. And what would I do if I had the opportunity to read this text then? I know for certain – I would ignore it and continue with my ignorance...
I spent two years
and a few months in the air force. After returning home I worked as a land surveyor,
labourer and finally, as an air traffic controller at Bratislava airport.
By law, university degree was condition for becoming an air traffic controller, but that degree of education eluded all the incumbents. Such a degree was not even offered by any of the universities at the time. The Transport university in Žilina had a course called Air transport organisation (not sure about the exact name), and I enrolled in their correspondence course in 1961. Semester began the same way as at the Agricultural university beforehand: first two were dealing with the basic subjects, mathematics, physics, analytical geometry, and such. And dialectical materialism, of course. Third semester, and all semesters thereafter, were leaning towards the organisation of air transport modelled on the soviet system (many of the textbooks, including mathematics and physics, were in the Russian language, many of them translated from “western” languages, mainly English and French). From my employment as an air traffic controller, I was aware that the Aeroflot (soviet government air transport company) was one of the worst air transport companies in the world, and the quality of soviet-made airplanes was lagging by only a whisker. My enthusiasm began to wane, and I turned my attention to the problems in the air traffic control systems and methods in Czechoslovakia.
A few years later I was working for the automobile maker General Motors as a mechanical design draftsman. Remembering bits of my electrical experience in air traffic control I gravitated towards the electrical section. After a while I actually ended up in that section, and after another while I was promoted to be an electrical engineer. General Motors' system of work, and its general culture, was not invented for me, however. I resented that, instead of concentrating to my work I had to learn the idiosyncrasies of my superiors (and, during my two years there as an engineer I had three of them, in rapid succession, each of them with different priorities). None of them, repeat, none of them!, was interested in technical aspects of my work. Each of them wanted to hear only what he thought he could absorb (none of them had any electrical training); each of them was interested only in what could present HIM to HIS superior in some good light. I always thought that if the same system existed upwards in the management ladder the guy right at the top probably does not know there is an automobile manufacture below him... After a year or two as an engineer I left GM and began offering my services as a free-lancer. Thus, I worked for car companies (Nissan, GM, Mitsubishi, Toyota, etc.), for truck manufacturers (Kenworth), for army vehicles manufacturer (ADI), for industrial robot manufacturers (Machine Dynamics, Automation Dynamics), for electrical switchboard manufacturers (Terasaki, Schneider), etc.
I retired in 2007 when I was almost 72 years old. Having nothing to do I went to the local university to enquire how I could get a university degree in electrical engineering, what with some 35 years of working as an electrical engineer. The answer was unsurprising: I would need to study for some 5 years. Can I get credit for my 35 years of practice? Alas, no, the electrical engineering is nowadays much further than in “my” time... And that’s how it ended – to me without universities, to universities without me.
And my opinion (for
what it is worth).
I have worked for
some 35 years side-by-side with a number of “real” engineers; to some I was
even supervisor, especially after I became working as a contractor. Some of
them were brilliant, and I learned a lot from them; some of them were just
average, and many – below par: not interested in their work, without any deeper
knowledge. It is not for me to criticize those I deep down envied their ability
to acquire a university degree – unlike me. I just mention a handful of
incidents I remember from those years.
Based at Ivanka airport in Czechoslovakia, working as an air traffic controller, I realised that the radio transmitters/receivers, together with radars at our disposal, were not suitable for work required from us, and I began to think of improvements. There were two engineers in charge of the equipment mentioned: for the first two years of my work (1960-62) it was a Mr. Furko, after him a Mr. Roth. Not having much technical knowledge at the time, I tried to pick their brains with a variety of questions. None of them, Furko and Roth, were interested in debating, let alone answering any of the questions, they both complained to my superiors that I am constantly trying to interfere in their work with trivia, and I was strongly advised to address my questions to my superiors. Eventually I ignored them both and all and started designing radio equipment more suitable for our needs myself, More is written about it in Air Traffic Control chapters.
Around 1990 I was running a group of technicians installing electrical components in industrial robots, designed for manipulation of automotive parts. The electrical components (cables, switchboards, etc.) were all designed by me. One of my sons mentioned that his friend Daniel, a student in 4th year of electrical engineering studies, is looking for work during school holidays. Daniel came, seemed keen, and I took him on board. His job was to install electrical relays in switchboards (relays are one of the basic components in electrical engineering). I had no time for lengthy explanations: Daniel received a few boxes of relays, together with a demonstration how they are installed, and off he went. After a few days he came to me with a question: what does a relay do? From a student in the 4th year of electrical engineering that was a surprising question. I explained it, which did not take longer than a minute or two and attempted to fathom Daniel’s electrical knowledge: very basic to poor! And what’s more, Daniel confided to me that he is not interested in his electricity at all!
After a few weeks he went back to his school, and I haven’t heard of him for a while. Much later I heard that he received his degree in electrical engineering and landed a job in that field. What am I to think of the institution, however, where such a “product” was manufactured, certified as good, and sold?
Around 1994 I worked for the automobile manufacturer Toyota. At the start of volume production, they had enormous problems with the electrical system of the previous model of Camry. In an attempt to avoid the repeat, I designed a method of testing the electrical system before the start of volume production. The method consisted of connecting all electrical components on a table. An electric motor-powered alternator was supplying electrical energy, and we were turning the components on and off trying to find what is out of ordinary. The car had some 1200 possible combinations, and we were determined to test them all. I needed at least two automotive electrical technicians, but I ended up with two university students of 3rd or 4th year of electrical engineering for 6 weeks during their school holidays. Of the two, Carmen was a genius! Immediately grasped the nature of the task, studied the method the details of which I was still wrestling with, and even suggested a few improvements; I learned a lot from her! Fernando, on the other hand (both had Spanish parents), was not interested, and his knowledge of things electrical was limited. Much later I heard that they both received their diplomas in electrical engineering. And later still, I heard a few negative comments from his colleagues in electrical components’ manufacturers where he was working. Carmen ended up selling cars in her parent’s home-town of Vigo in Spain. Good luck to both.
During my 35-odd
years in the trade I learned how to evaluate prospective employees, colleagues,
superiors. It seldom takes longer than 10-15 minutes to find whether the person
knows something, whether he is interested in the subject, his attitude, etc. I
can’t understand why the universities are unable to create some sort of
reliable evaluation of their students, be it at the beginning, or during, their
studies? Why are they “manufacturing” product that is often faulty from the
beginning? Why is the society buying such "product"? Why are we supporting them
financially?
My “engineering” achievements.
- - By watching weather patterns on a primary radar in 1962 I realised that it is possible to improve weather forecasting (unbeknown for me at the time, the phenomenon was observed some 40 years earlier by an Englishman, ref. blog (12) Air traffic control 4/7). The idea has become standard tool in weather forecasting within the next 10 years, ref. the following items;
\ I- Inception, design and construction of initial engineering requirements (selection of location, forest clearing, access road construction, power, telephone lines, promotions in the form of pestering via postal mail all the institutions I could think of that had any possible connection with the idea, etc.,) of two radar centres in mountains above Bratislava-Raca (1963-1968), one for the weather forecasting Institute, the other for the use by the Air Traffic Control, both eventually commissioned for service in 1972 (I left some 30cm high pile of A4 sized document on my desk when I left Czechoslovakia in August, 1968).
T The one built for weather forecasting was one of the first institutions of its kind in the world. My reward: threat of being jailed for "operating outside management instructions, and undermining the authority of socialist institutions";
- - Nomad airplane electrical system modification to
the U. S. Coastal service requirements (1985);
- - Electrical circuit system for GM Holden’s (1978,
in use to this day);
- - Design and introduction into production of
electrical system for GM Camira JB-JE, and GM Commodore VK, the first GM
production vehicles with electronic fuel injection system (1983);
- - Design and introduction into production of
electrical system for Nissan Pulsar/GM Astra vehicles (1985)
- - Design and introduction into production of
electrical system for GM engines automatic testing plant (1985);
- - Design and introduction into production of
electrical system for automotive assembly industrial robots, for assembly of
Ford Capri and Ford Falcon vehicles (1987);
- - Design and introduction into production of
electrical system for TD 2000 sports car;
- - Design and manufacture of Central Control Module
for TD 2000 sports car;
- - Design and introduction into production of
electrical system for Toyota Camry/GM Apollo (1986);
- - Design and introduction into production of
electrical system for Kenworth T300 truck (1996);
- - Design and introduction into production of
electrical system for some 50 different Kenworth trucks (1995-2000);
- - Design of electrical system for two different
military vehicles (1998);
- - Design and introduction into production of
electrical system for Toyota Camry (2003);
- - Design and introduction into production of
electrical system for testing of electrical systems of vehicles prior to volume
production (used by Toyota worldwide);
- - Fault-finding of electrical system of emergency
vehicles (2004-5);
- - There had been no fault in my work, short- or long
term;
- - I assisted at least 32 people to improve their carrier (from a mechanic/labourer/clerk to an air traffic controller, from a labourer to a technician, etc.);
And a regret or two...
- - I never had a chance of taking part in
construction of the radars above Bratislava-Raca, I never heard how they were built
and how they are performing;
- - I never found time to acquire a university degree in my profession ;
- - I never had superiors or managers who understood –
or even wanted to understand – what I was doing (by far the worst were the air
traffic control and the automotive companies; the best were small companies,
such as the industrial robot manufacturer – thanks for all the wisdom,
Mike Culling, Tim ?, Alan Feeley, Paul Tsironis, Keith Bithell, etc.!).
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