(15) Air traffic control (7/7).

  

A few remarks concerning the overall atmosphere in the air traffic control over territory of Slovakia in those faraway years.

  Distorted values.
  The so-called socialist countries were boasting about classless societies, bereft of exploiters and exploited, that everybody’s remuneration is commensurate with the nature of work performed. At the same time, it was being proclaimed that the Communist Party, together with the working class (in the “classless” society!) are the leading forces in the society.

As to remuneration, the salaries of various employees were similar. After becoming the Air Traffic Controller in 1960 my first salary was 1490 Kčs (Czechoslovak Korunas) per calendar month. Every year I received a few Kčs per month more, and in the year 1968 I was receiving 2200 Kčs per month. For comparison, the cleaning lady in or offices received about 1600 Kčs per month. A few years earlier, as a labourer, I was receiving about 1500 Kčs per month, a year earlier my assistant Land Surveyor was receiving also about 1300 Kčs per month. Recently I discovered a document according to which one of my aunts, working as a “liquidator of insurance cases” was earning 2900 Kčs per month in 1969. My wife, a technical clerk, had in 1967 salary of 1944 Kčs per month. We air traffic controllers had an additional benefit of one uniform every few years plus a free airline ticket once a year to anywhere in Czechoslovakia (for comparison, our counterparts in Austria were getting several airline tickets per year to anywhere in the world). Some of my colleagues were promoted to higher positions, for instance to the position of a Senior Controller, where the salary was somewhat higher; such an honour has never been bestowed upon me.

 In our office there sat air force “coordinators”, one in every shift (Filipko, Ollík, Švarc a Zúbrik). Their role was to maintain contact between the civilian and military ATC. The military being superior to the civilian, nominally these “coordinators” had upper hand in our mutual dealings. That upper hand was restricted by their ignorance of ATC procedures, law and regulations, and also by their lack of language skills. They were all colonels by ranking, and their salaries were around 5000 Kčs per month, plus uniforms for free, food while on duty for free, flats in military-owned blocks of flats (for free), and once a year one month of recreation in one of the military-run holiday establishments. Each of them had a car, whereas among us, civilians, only a couple of bosses had them.

  Now, what is the connection between this and the control of air transport over territory of Slovakia? This one is hard to explain.
  For instance, the Air Traffic Control service had an array of equipment at its disposal. Some of the equipment was so important that even a momentary failure could endanger safety of flights. Most prominent amongst these were transmitters and receivers. Second in prominence were telephones; third were radio beacons scattered over Slovakia, and, finally, teletypes.

  Apart from insufficient coverage of territory of Slovakia (between about 20 and 60%, depending on the height of the airplane), our transmitters and receivers (Soviet made) were of inferior quality, our transmission was difficult to understand, and they were prone to frequent failures; “hot” back-up equipment, despite being stipulated by law, was non-existent. In the case of the failure the controller on duty would ring Technical Centre and appraise the mechanic on duty of the failure. On occasions it happened that there was no answer from the Technical Centre. On such occasion (-s) the controller had to ring around, looking for mechanics. Sometimes he would find them in the airport pub. When complain was raised he would receive an answer to the effect that the “mechanics are workers and are entitled to a beer or two”. Hidden in the answer was universally understood statement that we “office people” are of somewhat lesser ranking. Quite often we heard people say that we are just sitting in our offices, nice and warm, just talking into our microphones, while they are somewhere outside, WORKING hard. Quite often we heard the words uttered behind our backs that “here goes another zerozero”. That referred to the standard way of communication between the ground and the air traffic. The aircraft heights were given in metres, 1800, 2100, 2400, etc. They were of vital importance, and they were repeated by both controller and the airplanes. In English, that sounded for example, “Climb to two-four-zero-zero”, which was in turn repeated by the airplane “Roger, climb to two-four-zero-zero”. The mechanics heard those interminable zero-zeros often and we became zerozeros to them, whether they knew the meaning of it or not. Such a situation is hard to understand today, in the cosiness of “western” societies, but that is how it was…

  Communist Party members (some 10-20% of the population) were also class by itself. One of our colleagues was a bit of an alcoholic (an understatement!) and would turn up for work intoxicated. Being a member of the Party, he would earn for his troubles just a mild admonishment from his boss, more in a jest, than anything: “Oh, Yano, can you get sloshed just a little less on occasions?”. Of course, Yano was allowed to continue working, it goes without saying…

  Described above, these were not infrequent instances, they were daily occurrences! During my shift at Prague Area ATC I warned an air taxi pilot (Olda Chyba) of a very strong cold front crossing his path and advised him to fly around or land and wait for it to pass. Chyba ignored my warning, flew straight into the front and crashed, killing himself and his 4 passengers. Another air taxi pilot, Mičica, was based in a mountainous area, and used to fly in meteorological conditions far below permitted minimums – I, myself, saw him once taking off in an almost complete fog! Talking to him he told me that based where he was, he would not be able to fly for half of the year. As to myself, I was flying once from Prague to Bratislava a twin-engine L-200, with 4 passengers on board. Some 30 kilometres from the airport, flying 300 metres above the ground, I narrowly avoided a scheduled airliner, a Tu-124, flying nose-to-nose towards me at the same 300 metres above ground, in an area where he should have been at least several thousand metres above ground.
Needless to say, the instances described above, had never been reported in writing, never officially discussed with the management, procedures have never been rectified.

And here is one classical example of lackadaisical approach to air traffic was direct cause of crash of a Bulgaria airliner near Bratislava in 1966.

  Shown below is text I wrote in wikipedia Discussion a few years ago.

  I worked as an air traffic controller at the Area Control Office in Bratislava between 1961 and 1968. I also taught flying on powered airplanes at the aero club Vajnory. In my spare time I was designing air traffic control radar station to be located at a nearby hill called Malý Javorník. Upon request I am able to present copies of my relevant licences.

  On the day of the Bulgarian Airlines Il-18 airplane LZ-BEN tragedy I had a morning shift (6am to 1pm) and there were several aircraft flying from southern Europe towards Prague. One of them, a Czechoslovak Airlines jet was flying to Prague, another, the Bulgarian turboprop, was flying to Berlin. After crossing the area of my responsibility (between Sturovo and Brno) and while they were under Czech Air Traffic Control somewhere between Brno and Prague, they both decided to turn around and land in Bratislava due to fog at both Berlin and Prague. There was a military area on the way. The Czech airliner was allowed to proceed from Brno to Bratislava directly above that area, the Bulgarian one was instructed to make a slight detour (from Brno via Velke Kostolany), in accordance with the existing rules. Our instructions were acknowledged by both aircraft. We were unable to see the two aircraft on our radar. When both of them were about 80 kilometres from Bratislava airport they were instructed to contact the airport’s tower for further instructions. After a few minutes I received telephone call from the tower (who were able to see both aircraft on their short-range radar) informing me that both the aircraft are approaching the airport from the same direction, across the military area. The Bulgarian crew clearly ignored my instructions and simply followed the Czech airliner. I was finishing my duty a few hours later, and on my way out, I saw the Bulgarian air crew at the Briefing Office. I asked the captain informally why have the instructions been ignored. He replied that they could see the Czech airliner clearly some distance in front of them, and there was no problem, was there? Well, knowing that any complaint to my management would be falling on deaf ears I went home (there was at the time the atmosphere of not reporting anything, from “minor” trespasses of aviation law, through malfunctioning equipment right to ATC and associated personnel working under influence of alcohol. (A complaint from Me, "That Well-Known Shit-Stirrer", would have been rejected double-quick!).

  I lived only a few kilometres from the airport, and a few hours later, just as the sun was setting, I heard the jet airplane of the Czech airlines taking off. I was outside my house and saw it climbing at about 1000-1500 metres above ground, above the mountains which are about 300-600 metres high, heading in the military area direction, and Brno. I went inside and a few minutes later I heard the noise of the turboprop engines, knowing that it belonged to the Bulgarian aircraft. When the noise subsided, I assumed the aircraft turned away from the mountains, away from the direction of the military area, towards Velke Kostolany, in accordance with the standard instructions. How wrong I was! A few moments later I heard the children outside screaming that an aircraft had crashed. I ran outside and saw the unmistakable cloud of smoke rising above the clouds covering the mountain tops down to about edge of the forest level (approx. 150 metres vertically above the airport level). I ran to the nearby factory where I knew they had telephone in their guardhouse, rang the airport tower with the news, only to hear from them (expletives deleted) that the “Bulgarian” is not responding, and could not be seen on their radar…

  I ran to the site, about 3-4 kilometres distant. First snow of the winter was beginning to fall. When I arrived at the site it was almost completely dark. I saw flames everywhere, scattered parts of the airplane, human body parts, scattered luggage, and from the general arrangement of the broken trees, parts, etc. I realized that this was a highspeed impact, and that there was nothing for me to do. I ran back to a nearest telephone and appraised the air traffic control of my findings. I realized immediately that the crew again ignored the instructions to turn away from the military area, and simply followed the Czech airlines aircraft that departed a few minutes earlier; the same way as they arrived a few hours earlier. The height of 300 metres above the airport level was stipulated by the air traffic controller with respect to some other traffic in the airport’s area, under assumption that the Bulgarian aircraft would follow the instructions and turn to the right after take-off (away from the mountains, that at the time of take-off were clearly visible (together with the cap of clouds on their tops), and towards Velke Kostolany.

  Epilogue.

  Thank you for attention. I apologize for errors, and although I made various notes for myself over the years, it is 50 years since, all in all. I would be grateful for all remarks, criticism, corrections, additions from aviation people, even from the management and State Security, and relevant items will be incorporated with thanks.

  And one more apology...

  My text is tinder dry, and only just-so interesting to people involved with air traffic control. Still, I felt it important to say what I knew and what I was doing; I am not sure if it had been described as such anywhere else. And as well, I wanted people to remember times we were forced to live in from the perspective of an ordinary person. „Western“ world at the time was technically and organizationally far ahead of us and was progressing organically along with development of new technologies and methods. We were learning about it only slowly, with the improvement of our language skills. Squinting towards the „west“ was not permitted, our heads were forcibly turned towards the East (i. e. Soviet Union), where the air traffic control, and aviation as a whole, was even more backward than ours; our society was reeking with rotten smell... Most of us were steeped in „western“ culture, western way of thinking, we were born into it, as were our ancestors, Czech and Slovakian culture is, and has been, „western“; „Eastern“ thinking was being forced into us by the Soviet „culture“ and by the non-elected lowlife in our governments. I lived in that system, and reading my notes I cannot but think of 32 lost years...

To you people in the future - defend your freedom!

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At the time of leaving Czechoslovakia in August 1968... For details ref. relevant blogs.

- In 1955-57 I worked in the Air Force as an electrical mechanic on jet fighters MiG-15; Blog No. (4)

- In 1958-59 I worked as a Land Surveyor; (5)

- In 1959-60 I worked as a labourer/shoveler in Chemical Industries J. D.; (6)

- In 1958, I started promoting - verbally, by mail, telephone, etc. - the idea of organising some sort of aerobatic competition (see my blog Aeroclub). The first World Aerobatic Championship took place two years later, in 1960, at my home aeroclub of Vajnory;  (8)

- at that Aerobatic championship I discussed with a member of the Spanish team the squiggles I (like many local pilots) used to describe aerobatic manoeuvres. His much-improved version of my squiggles has been published as the Aresti Catalog; (8)

- I was trying to commemorate the recently killed French pilot Leon Biancotto at our aeroclub by some Memorial Aerobatic competition - I did not succeed, the opposition was too fierce; (8)

- After some deep discussions in mid-1960 with the local parachutists (Kiss, Nagy, Hindicky, Mehes, etc.) they decided to start lobbying along channels similar to mine. The result: World Parachute Jumping held at our aeroclub of Vajnory a year later; (8)

- I was working as an Air Traffic Controller with responsibility for air traffic over the territory of Slovakia (during exchanges occasionally also over the Czech part of Czechoslovakia); (10  - 15)

- I had very good personal relationship with many persons high in the aviation field: Ondro Hudoba, a friend, whom I helped to become Manager of airport in Kosice; col. R. Vesperin, high in the management of (Air Force owned) aeroclubs in Czechoslovakia; all the top persons in the management of (Air Force owned) aeroclubs in Slovakia (col. Anton Soska, their Head, cpt. Viliam Kuna, Hanovec, Huliak, etc.);

- I was preparing plans for relocation of the ATC radar and radio-communication equipment (despite discouraged, expressly ordered not to by the management, even threatened by jail by the omnipresent Secret Police (StB); (12)

- I was beginning to cooperate with a budding weather forecaster (Dusan Podhorsky) on my idea to use radar for weather forecasting; (6) (13)

- I was involved in talks with the neighbouring ATC in Austria about cooperation in positioning our radar so that images from it could be used by the Austrian ATC; (13)

- I was lecturing in courses for new Air Traffic Controllers (meteorology, radio equipment, Aeronautical Law, etc.) - 1967 only; (9)

- I was lecturing in winter courses for future pilots at the Aeroclub Vajnory;

- I was promoting the idea of establishing a Faculty of Aeronautics at the University of Transport in Zilina; (9)

- there being no persons with flying experience among the existing Air Traffic Control personnel at the time, I managed to bring some 10-14 Private Pilot Licence holders from Aeroclub Vajnory to the ATC; (9)

- I was working as a volunteer flight Instructor/tug pilot/joy flights pilot, etc. at the Aeroclub Vajnory;

- I was the holder of Private Pilot Licence with all possible ratings: Single- and Multi-engine airplanes to 5400kg max. weight, Flight Instructor, Tug Pilot, Joy flights pilot, international flights endorsement (English). As a lieutenant (and a Courier pilot) in the Reserve Air Force I, together with a few others in the aeroclub Vajnory, used to ferry various high-ranking persons all around Czechoslovakia ;

- I was in contact with a few aerobatic pilots from abroad (Ruesch and Wagner, Swiss, N. Williams, England, one Hungarian (Toth?), and few others whose names I can't remember);

- I was organising meetings to discuss the political climate in Slovakia which at the time was hampering progress in ATC developments. (14)

 After demise of the "socialism" (7) with its socially corrosive, morally and economically destructive policies, most of the ideas mentioned above have been implemented; the radars, both ATC and the meteorological one, have been built first, as early as one or two years after my leaving of Czechoslovakia.

The Faculty has been established some 20 years later.

Since 1960, World Aerobatic Championships are being held every few years in different places around the world.

Any regrets?

My Grampa Hatvani spent 4 years in the Austrian army at Korneuburg (1896-1900). At the end he was offered a chance of staying on, which he declined. Had it happened, I would have been born somewhere in Austria, instead of in Bratislava (= on the "free" side of the future Iron curtain) ...

In Australia.
On arrival in Melbourne at the end of September 1968, we were housed at Broadmeadows Military Camp in a unit in one of their "Nissen" huts.
The next day I rang the Department of Civil Aviation, as instructed by Mr. Sutton at Australian Immigration Office in Vienna, Austria. On hearing my case I was invited, in November 1968 (I think), for an interview to a building at Flinders St., Melbourne. My (already translated) Air Traffic Control and Private Pilot licences were examined, copies taken, and I was interrogated by the panel consisting of 3 men and one woman. At the end of the meeting, I was told that in order to gain the Australian ATC Licence I must undertake a 12 months' long course that was scheduled to begin sometime next year, and that I would be notified in due course. As well, I was told that only applicants who are British Subjects have any chance of success. My references to my recent activities (listed above) in Europe were being politely ignored. Apart from answering the panel's questions I had very little to say, being sure of my fairly high qualifications.
Following this initial interview, I have never been contacted by the DCA, and in the meantime I had to seek some sort of gainful employment. I worked for a while as a cleaning hand at Essendon and Moorabbin airports, technician at Ericsson, Broadmeadows, and in August 1969, I landed a job as a Design Draftsman at GM Holden's.
I was mentally leaving my 15 years in aviation behind, when, suddenly, I received the following letter from the DCA, written by a member of the examining panel. As we were in the process of changing our address at the time the letter was received much later, well after the time indicated in the letter:

 

Being 33 already, not being a British Subject yet (not until 1972, three years later) and the DCA intake age cut-off being 36, I could not risk NOT being accepted again. Instead, I decided to continue in my carrier as the Design Draftsman (and, eventually, as an Engineer, see further blogs). My reply to the DCA was written by hand and I did not keep a copy. The following is the content of it, rendered as faithfully as I can remember: 

A few weeks after the arrival in Australia, I landed my first job: on presenting my Flying and ATC licences to a TAA and Ansett reps. (a Mr. ??? & a Mr. John Bird) I was taken to the TAA base at Essendon Airport to wash airplanes and workshop machinery. After few weeks I resigned and worked for a few months at Ericsson telephone company at Broadmeadows as a telephone relay sets tester. Eventually we moved from the hostel to a flat at Elwood and I found a job as a mechanic at Super Spread Aviation company at Moorabbin airport where I was cleaning hoppers in their De Havilland crop dusting airplanes.

Since September 1969 I was working at General Motors-Holden's as a draftsman, eventually an engineer, until 1984. Further jobs are mentioned in their separate chapters.

An aside: sitting around a swimming pool at Waikerie during the World Gliding Championship in 1972 I chatted with a much older gentleman sitting next to me. For some reason I told him about my strange experience with the Department of Civil Aviation. On hearing that he exclaimed "why didn't you tell me about that? It costs us some $30,000 to create a person with your qualifications". It transpired his name was Don Anderson, the boss of the DCA at the time of my application. I don't recall the end of that conversation (I think he was talking about his impending retirement), but a few years later (around 1992) the same happened to a woman (Jana Vallo) from Czechoslovakia, who came to Australia with a full set of credentials similar to mine, and she failed to get a job with the same Department as well!

Note.

Since publication of these texts + notes on the Aeroclub in Slovakian language some 12 years ago I managed to find three former colleagues who worked in the same capacity, in the same office and in the same Aeroclub as myself. All three of them were intimately familiar with everything that is written in my texts, and undoubtedly could remember things that escaped my attention at the time or fell through cracks in my memory. All three of them were well into their sixties, even seventies, when I sent them copies of all texts of my years in the Czechoslovak air traffic control, as well as copies of the Aeroclub text. Two of them received their copies via Internet, one of them I had to send hard copies, him not being on the Internet.

I asked all three of them for comments, or criticism, corrections, revisions or additions.

First two of them commented only verbally to the effect that the text is well written & that they could not think of anything that could be added to it. The third of them, the one who received the hard copies, some 45 pages of A4 format, just looked at them, perhaps read a first few lines, perused some of the pictures in them, and told me over the 'phone that the text seems very well written & that he will read it all if he could find time for it, and let me know of his opinion, etc. That was several years ago, I haven't heard from him since...

(14) Air traffic control (6/7).

There is an end to everything...

I left Czechoslovakia in the shadow of certain imprisonment in August, 1968. On my manager's table I left a folder at least 20 centimetres thick with everything I compiled in my 5-6 years of endeavour. I do not know what happened to it, but the radar centre on „my“ mountain was built some three years later, even two radar centres: one for the Area ATC purposes, the other for the Bureau of Meteorology. They can be seen above Rača from almost anywhere in Bratislava. On the picture below (thank you GONZO from Picasa Vajnory) is the Area ATC radar; the BOM radar is a little to the left from this angle:

The picture of it above I found on the internet, but I do not remember who to address my acknowledgment to.

I have never heard who managed to push the whole idea to its conclusion, what dramas were played around it, how it works... The few individuals who might know something – fewer and fewer every year – remain silent; this narration has been published as blog on the popular Slovakian news agency site a couple of years ago, and there has been no meaningful reaction to it.

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The following text I discovered in 2020.

Dusan Podhorsky.....

...Employment 1963 - 1992 at Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute as synoptic and aviation weather forecaster, founder of radar and cosmic meteorology in Czechoslovakia, builder of regional seat of Radar and cosmic meteorology at Maly Javornik mountain (1972), etc., etc.......

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Years 1967 and 1968.

At the end of 1966 „my“ mountaintop began to be overgrown with shrubs and new growth, when one nice day earth machinery arrived at the beginning of the road to it from Rača, drums with telephone cables were dumped next to the ditch being excavated, and the activity was irresistible for me to ignore. Enquiring around the workers I learned that it is telephone cable for the Ministry of Interior – another name for the State Security.

My stupidity at the time could have thrown me to prison, that was hanging above my head for a while already anyway: I sent a letter to that Ministry whether us (that is Area Air Traffic Control) could ask for some part of that cable to be reserved for our purposes. The Ministry was at the time the most powerful organisation in the country, it was the brain and the muscle behind the official puppet government. I was summoned to the Ministry, to its office in Bratislava, and was threatened with the entire arsenal at their disposal (almost all, that is!). I was accused of trying to disrupt functioning of the state apparatus, of spying („how did I know what the Ministry was endeavouring to do?“), etc., etc. These were the highest possible accusations that could bring me behind bars – if the times were any different. Thankfully, they were not, due to the so-called Prague Spring.

At the time the political situation in the country began to mellow, it began to change for the better, at least as we saw and felt it. In that political turmoil I, too, had my fingers. It was absolutely clear to me that it is impossible to continue with the disinterested management, nor with the political system supporting such managerial practices, and that a reform is needed urgently. I was canvassing the possibility of some reforms in the aviation circles around the country (of Slovakia), and managed to gain almost widespread support. In 1967 the pressure for reform became almost irresistible.

The so-called Prague Spring has been described from all possible angles elsewhere, and by others, much better than I possibly could, so that’s enough from me.

Just a few words: towards the end of 1967  we organised a few meetings to thrash out the nature of changes we deemed necessary for proper functioning of the Air Traffic Control services. We were inviting to these meetings persons who could contribute, in our opinion, to the nature of reforms. Once we managed to rope in a Comrade Slaninka who was responsible for the air transport sector at the Central Committee of the Communist Party – the boss of all the bosses! Until then a name nobody ever heard of. We unearthed him by simply asking about such high function at the Communist Party building, something unthinkable until recently. He did not know how to wriggle out (the Party apparatchiks had no experience with speaking with the plebs), and eventually turned up at our meeting – and agreed with everything!!! Manager of the Bratislava Airport, Comrade Želinský came, and agreed; Comrade Bella, Chairman of the Trade Union; Comrade this and Comrade that agreed – I don’t remember all their names any more. A few days after invasion by the armies of Soviet Union, a few of those Comrades, those, who at our meetings agreed with everything, came to me and whispered in my ears, with not a small hint of venom: „You are finally getting what you were asking for, MISTER Hatvani...“

Many years later I found a quote in the Czech playwright Vaclav Havel's memoirs, a quote which seems to fit my position at work well:

(My efforts to improve) "....it begins as an attempt to do your work well and ends with being branded an enemy of society."

Btw, I used to frequent a small theatre in Prague called Na zabradli, where a young playwright (mentioned above) was introducing his new play. I did not understand what it was about, and thought of him as a bit of a nut. I saw him there a few times - same age as me (25, give or take) -, unremarkable appearance, in my eyes a typical cafe denizen of Prague. At the time I knew nothing else about him.

(13) Air traffic control (5/7).

In the end I selected two mountaintops called Malý and Veľký Javorník, a few kilometres above Rača, on the eastern edge of Bratislava. They were in environmentally protected area, with the only access being along muddy forest tracks. There was no infrastructure of any kind within several kilometres; there were no funds available, and, naturally, no interest on the part of my management.

As to the infrastructure, I was completely ignorant of everything. I began to borrow, buy and read technical literature of all kind, water reticulation systems, sewerage systems, electricity, telephone, gas, building of roads, architecture, etc. I began to see my radar phantasy in an entirely different light, like an almost unsurmountable and complicated reality. I was lucky to have a couple of unexpected breaks.

The mountain nearest to Rača, Malý Javorník, was covered by mature trees, mainly by oaks and beeches. I happen to know a person in the forest management agency, whom I managed to persuade to clear the peak of the mountain under some pretext (it was, I think, infestation by some beetles), and he obliged! Suddenly, I had a nice cleared mountaintop, with nearest tree some 100 metres away in all points of the compass. What next? Well, a kind tornado turned up to assist…

About a kilometre uphill from Rača something akin to tornado flattened trees in a path some 100 metres wide and some 400 metres long. At the time I had a friend in the organisation that was responsible for designing and building roads in state’s forests. He was in charge of building the road from Rača to the path devastated by the tornado, in order to provide access for timber machinery and trucks. The job had already been approved when I managed to persuade him to lengthen the road a little, which eventually happened: he lengthened the road by 2 or 3 kilometres, right up to the forester’s house called Biely Kríž, which is less than a kilometre from “my” mountain.

And I not only had a cleared mountaintop, I had an access road to it!

Around the same time I met with a young weather forecaster, who became interested in my efforts – more about him in the previous article about radars.

I duly informed my managers about “my” mountaintop, and “my” new road, which information was received with expressions of pain in their faces, and snide remarks of the kind “will you ever stop stirring”, “can’t you stop fantasising”, etc…. Needless to say, in the atmosphere of fear of which the socialist system is redolent, none of my colleagues were in the least interested. Every time I raised the topic they all started eagerly studying their shoe laces...

By the way, I am presenting my management here in a bad light; the individuals involved were not bad people by any measure, though! Absolutely not!!! They were decent guys, and personally I was with them on good, even cordial, terms (there were two of them, Area ATC manager Jozef Mihalovič and his boss Ferdinand Barborák). They reported to the Central Administration based in Prague, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia. Both my bosses were former telegraph operators and I doubt that that their secondary education came dangerously close to matriculation. Their native tongue was Slovakian (a village dialect, even), whereas the Central Administration spoke Czech (from among some 300 employees there was but one Slovakian). My managers were afraid that by presenting some outrageous demands – in Slovakian language, at that – that they may demonstrate their education and knowledge, and so they resorted to playing hide-and-seek game with me. My contacts in Prague were good, but I was referred by them back to my managers, or, by the cheeky ones (nazdar, Zdenĕk Pohl), directly to the State Security, ŠtB, in Slovakia (the real power behind the puppet government).

As to this ŠtB, at least as to the individuals I was in “working” relationship, I can say almost the same as about my managers. Many of them, especially the older ones, were doing the job for money. Various admonishments, even threats, were administered almost with resentment, with disdain. Most often it was in the form “we have no idea why you are chasing your bats, but if you feel that it is important just turn the noise down a bit”.

Nobody ever asked why exactly it is that I feel the need to “chase my bats”. “What is it that you consider so bad, even in the breach of some laws) that you keep at it so much?”. “Why do you think that the safety of air transport is under threat?”. Questions like that I was waiting for, I was looking forward to!, and had my answers ready – to no avail, the opportunity to present them never came… Like the Church before them, the State Security was in the business of defending apparatus of the State; safety of the air transport was not in their Manuals. Maybe, just maybe, if I was able to construct my reasoning by linking the air transport safety with some sort of threat to the security of the State, I might have succeeded, but I was not a lawyer, nor a philosopher (and I was but 25 years old, with no relevant qualifications or deep wells of knowledge of any kind).

In 1967, after our first son was born, I was allowed to visit neighbouring Austria, with whose Area ATC we had close and fairly cordial relationship (conducted entirely via the one closely monitored telephone line) I was planning to have a chat with our Austrian colleagues about possible cooperation around our “planned” radar centre on top of Malé Karpaty mountains. It just happened that from materials available to us though international aviation organisation (ICAO) I deducted that their radar coverage may be also difficult due to the Alps running through the middle of their country, and that a radar located somewhere sideways could provide a valuable angle of view. I had a meeting with their Area ATC manager, also with Vienna Airport radar engineer, and two Area ATC controllers (Höglinger a Mittelmüller), whom I knew through our telephone contacts. They all demonstrated lively interest in “our” ideas (a welcome difference after the Slovakian apathy and lethargy). Discussion ran along the lines of the possibility that Slovakia would provide a suitable site, infrastructure and buildings, and Austria would provide radar equipment. I had another meeting with the same people in Vienna in December of the same year, in order to inform them about our progress – there was none…

It was during these months that I fully realised that the so-called socialism is a system that is destined to wither on vine. System, which suppresses individual's efforts, talents, striving, etc., and replaces it with edicts from "above", that is from the highest positions of the ruling groups, cannot compete with political systems where individuals have freedoms. When I saw that the fruits of my labour, "my" radars are about to become reality despite opposition from my management, I began to regret the "free gifts" I had been donating to that "socialism". At that time, I decided to walk away from it!

Third such meeting took place in September 1968, when a week earlier I, with my wife and two infant sons, escaped Czechoslovakia following the Soviet occupation. I was offered a position at the Austrian Area ATC, which offer I declined with thanks. Reasons? Well, from what I saw in the few days between the invasion, and my escape to Austria, I was convinced that the occupation of Czechoslovakia was but a preparation by the armies of the Soviet bloc to invade western Europe, and I was desperate to take my family right out of that Europe, and as far as possible. At Bratislava airport I saw Soviet air fighters MiG-21, some fifty of them, together with vast array of ammunition and supporting machinery and personnel. It was heart-rending to see De Havilland Vampire jet fighters of the Austrian Air Force – all six of them – practising at Vienna Airport, with pluck and courage: six of WW2 vintage airplanes, against hundreds of up-to-date weapons... At the time all civilised nations (and even some of the less so) threw their doors open to the refugees from Czechoslovakia – thank you, thank you one and all!!!. We chose Australia, and by the end of September, 1968, we found ourselves, my wife and two infant sons, on the tarmac of Sydney Airport, courtesy of Qantas diverting to Vienna one of their half-empty 707s on the London to Sydney "Kangaroo Route".
This is us in Melbourne, Australia, around Christmas, 1968:

What you see on us all is what we arrived with, plus a couple of shirts and a bundle of nappies for the boys. The building behind us, where we lived for a few months, courtesy of the Australian government, is the Australian Army corrugated iron "Nissen" hut at Broadmeadows, Victoria.

(12) Air traffic control (4/7).

A few words about radar.

There was a screen of primary radar in our office, with its antenna located on the ground in the middle of Ivanka airport*. Radio frequencies of the radar had similar properties to those of our transmitters and receivers. Consequently, it was possible to see the airplanes at most frequently used heights of 1200 to 3000 metres only to the distance of 40 to 150 kilometres. The radar’s maximum range was 400 kilometres, but as was the case of transmitters/receivers, due to its location, its practical range was severely restricted due the hilly terrain, meteorological conditions and the curvature of earth. Because of this, and the slow and ponderous communication, the radar was never used, despite being constantly at our disposal. This picture shows the display, operated by a very popular bloke Fero Lisý:

One thing on its screen was tickling my curiosity: the clouds. I was able to see clouds heavy with rain, and especially the storms, and the approaching cold fronts (only their "faces" nearest to our radar. For their depths another radar would be needed, "looking" from the side. Radars with different wavelengths would also be needed for more detailed data-gathering, with - at this time - unforeseeable and certainly useful results). Today anybody with access to internet can see the weather at any time. In those faraway days (1962) it was only us and maybe the air force. Since we were receiving weather reports and forecasts at regular intervals it was interesting to compare these with what we saw on the radar screen: the differences were amazing! The reports and forecasts were created on the basis of observations from numerous ground stations and were invariably crude and several hours behind the actual situations as we were able to observe them. Ants, and no doubt other insects, have been weather forecasters par excellence since time immemorial - I wonder what kind of "radar" is being used by them...

I tried to attract the attention of our local (Bratislava airport-based) weathermen to these phenomena. I kept inviting them for several years to sit with me in front of our radar screen – none of them came!!!** None for several years, until one day, one of the newly hatched forecasters, fresh from the university, a RnDr Dušan Podhorský, came; and not only came, but became interested! That visit, in its final results, had far-reaching consequences not only for the needs of the Hydrometeorological Office, but for the improvement of radio communication and radar coverage over the entire territory of Slovakia. None of us two had any inkling of it at the time, though…

We began discussing clouds and meteorology. I was talking from my experience as a pilot and from my several years of watching the clouds on our radar; all this information was evaluated by Dušan from his theoretical angle. As well, I told him all about my problems with disinterested, apathetic, even resentful management. In the end, we received an unexpected boost in the form of a tornado (see next chapter).

Around the time something like a tornado flattened trees in a strip some 100 metres wide and 400 metres long about a kilometre above Rača (eastern part of Bratislava), and Dušan asked if I could take him there to take some photographs. After that I took him a couple of kilometres farther along "my" new road to “my” mountain, freshly cleared of vegetation, and confided in him about my efforts to improve radio communication and radar coverage of Slovakia for the purposes of Area Air Traffic Control. Dušan mentioned that a radar located on a similar mountain could be useful for the purposes of his institution, and – without knowing at the time – that was the beginning of his carrier as the forerunner of usage of radar in meteorology.

                            

                            ***

* Primary radar emits radio waves that bounce back from obstacles in their way (mountain, clouds, airplanes, etc.); the returning waves are captured by an antenna and processed for graphic indication on a screen;

** Of the most ardent "refusenics" I remember but two names: a professor Popálený and RnDr. Forgáč. The former was refuting my claims by claiming that it is impossible to beat precise and time-honoured ground observations with some sort of pilot's fantasies; the latter restricted himself to a sort of leg-pulling remarks, akin to the adults' treatment of little children.

In about 1963 a Zlin Z-381, equipped with some meteorological instruments, landed at Vajnory. It was brought by the (then) famous glider pilot Ladislav Háza, a Czech from Prague, I think. After admiring his at the time rare airplane (the same type on which I did my basic training a few years previously), and especially its obviously meteorological instrumentation, I mentioned to him my ideas about radars and meteorology. He laughed me off, as I recall. I think he did not understand what I was blabbering about. In 1963 I myself had no clear idea myself...

By the way, much later I discovered that this Háza was fairly high in some National Hydrometeorological Institute in Prague.

                           ***

 Attempts to improve radio coverage.

I started a campaign (1963) to re-locate our transmitters/receivers and the radar somewhere on a hill. With the help of aero club airplanes, I tested most of the Slovakian territory, from Bratislava down to somewhere Prešov-Michaľany line, in low and medium altitudes, recording radio reception of Area ATC and local towers' ATC. The only airplane in Vajnory with a suitable transmitter/receiver was one Meta-Sokol. Its equipment was of poor quality, the airplane was not always available to me, so it took me around two years to get to the point where I was satisfied with the amount and quality of my data. The last and most niggling blanks on my radio-coverage maps were filled during one flight with Palo Veslár from Senica somewhere to the mountainous area of central Slovakia and back.

After those two years I concentrated on two mountains in the Malé Karpaty range near Bratislava, named Malý and Veľký Javorník. These two were not the ideal mountains from the radio coverage point of view as 2/3rds of its coverage would be above the neighbouring countries (I would have much preferred Inovec, near Trenčín, for instance), but these two mountains were ideal from practical point of view. I lived nearby (in Rača), and was able to study them in more detail. From my recent land surveying days, I was able to wangle a couple of detailed maps (1:10,000, top secret in those days), and use them for detailed evaluation. On a few occasions I „borrowed“ an all-terrain vehicle „Gazik“ from Ivanka airport, with a small low power transmitter/receiver PYE on board, which was used for communication on the ground. With this equipment, and from „my“ mountains, I was able to communicate with airplanes flying at low levels (1800 metres) from Bratislava almost to Košice (300 kilometres away!), loud and clear!  For comparison, our official, and far more powerful, equipment could not reach airplanes above Sliač, which is but 150 kilometres away from Bratislava.

To my surprise, our management was not interested in this information in the slightest. On quite a few occasions I was summoned to the airport’s State Security office (StB), where I was threatened with various unpleasant sanctions if I do not cease my anti-management activities???!!! Often I had no idea where is the Security getting information about me from. Many years later I discovered in the so-called Petr Cibulka lists how many of my colleagues, even friends, be they at my work, or in the aero club, were agents or at least confidantes of the State Security.

I did not cease my „anti-management“ activities, though, only began to work more quietly, almost clandestinely. For that reason I was never bold enough to confide in our colleagues in the Czech half of Czechoslovakia, whose problems were no doubt similar to ours (but who, in the person of Jindra Černohorský had far more skilful operator than us in Slovakia, and they were closer to the seat of power in Prague).

***

Recently I discovered the following information. The articles inform on the activity in (my!?) meteorological radar centre after it was commissioned in 1972. Alas, I have no information on the performance of the Air traffic Control radar centre that was built at the same time:

https://journal.geo.sav.sk/cgg/article/view/107/102

.

 3. Conclusions (from the Journal above).

Listed quarter of a century has been extremely successful thanks to enthusiasm of the first team of ‘musketeers’ on the crest of Malé Karpaty, which since 1977 has been gradually enriched with qualified programmers, electrical engineers and IT specialists, making it a total of 112 members. Close cooperation between RCRM and several universities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia resulted in a number of master and doctoral theses led by the staff at Malý Javorník. These were years filled with numerous professional internships for students and professionals, supported financially by the World Meteorological Organisation, FAO, IAHS, ESA, CMEA, COSPAR and INTERKOSMOS.

Note.

In 2022, I have come across information about Sir Robert Watson-Watt, a British meteorologist, who in the 19twenties studied radio waves generated by lightnings. His observations led eventually to realization that radio waves bounce off stationary, and eventually even from moving objects (1935, some 25 years before me).

It is remarkable that in the 1960-ties, two professors of meteorology in Czechoslovakia were not aware of the Sir R.W-W's work! He, for his work, was gradually promoted to the position of Overseer of all radars in the UK; as for myself, I was being laughed at, denied any progress at work, I was accused of "undermining the achievements of socialism" and eventually threatened with jail...

(11) Air traffic control (3/7).

A few details.

In the territory of Slovakia, the main air traffic orientation points were marked by radio beacons called NDB (Non-Directional Beacon); also, commercial station’s radio transmitters were used by the airplanes. One such popular transmitter was Radio Bratislava, located at Veľké Kostol'any. Radio beacons were located at all airports, and also at points important for air navigation, for instance at Břeclav, Nitra, Štúrovo, Jelšava, etc. Computers at the time were unheard of, except for darkly ominous newspaper articles, where the „cybernetics“ were described as burzhoazie pseudo-science, devised to better exploit the proletariat (this just as an illustration of the political atmosphere of the time).

In relation to computers, I cannot miss an observation about the work of the computer we all carry in our heads.

The Air Traffic Controller, in the course of his function, has to keep in his short-term memory a number of various bits of information from a variety of sources, and on the basis of this information he solves a variety of conflicts. Let’s say he makes a mistake, any kind of mistake, serious or insignificant. In an absolute majority of cases, he would stop after a minute or two, and returning to the moment the mistake was made he corrects the mistake. If, however he is in his work interrupted by something outside his sphere of duty – the mistake would be often forgotten.

Apart from communication with the airplanes by variety of means the controller cooperated with neighbouring Area ATCs (Austria, Czech, Poland, Soviet Union and Hungary), with airport towers in Slovakia (Bratislava, Piešťany, Sliač, Poprad a Košice), with military ATC, and even with aero club airfields, or organisations with vested interests in air transport (airlines, police, etc.). The cooperation was chiefly in the form of air traffic information and solving of various problems associated with domestic and international air traffic.

The controller even had a „red“ telephone at his disposal, actually an ordinary black coloured variety one, that was connected somewhere high to the State Security (StB) organisation, or the Communist party (virtually the same organisation). We did not have any telephone directory for this telephone, the messages were exclusively one-way. Usually when it rang some important sounding voice was demanding various services (nobody ever asked if we were busy at the moment, if a collision between airplanes is imminent, for instance – God only knows what the other end was thinking about us). I, for instance, had to „quickly!“ run a few times to the airport passport office a few hundred metres away, to ask their boss not to bang his rubber stamp into the passport of some passenger for „it would be fixed by the Communist Party“. From those days I remember one individual from somewhere in South America by the name of Gilberto Vieira, whom I was entertaining in the café for half an hour, waiting for him to be collected by the Security Service gorillas. His command of English was not exceptional, and he addressed me "comrade"; he was a bit uneasy to hear from me the word Sir in return...

Connection with the neighbouring ATCs (towers, Area ATCs, etc.) was by means of direct telephones, less frequently by means of teletype. The latter one was reliable, but slow; telephones were, mildly put, temperamental. With the airport towers in Slovakia telephones the connection was largely reliable. Problems arose when the local tower operator was not immediately available, away on lunch break, or whatever. When situation arose that required his involvement, emergency landing, for instance, we had to contact him (or the local police, State Security, military garrison, or whomever) by any means imaginable; mobile telephones were at the time some 30 light years away...

With the neighbouring Area ATCs the direct telephone connection depended on the whims of the day: with the Austrian and Czech ATC it was reliable; with the Hungarian ATC the connection depended on the weather along the above-ground telephone lines – winter months were especially bad; with the Polish ATC the connection was sometime available and sometime not. Telephone connection with the Soviet ATC was available but seldom; as to myself, I do not remember speaking with them even once! Prior information of airplanes incoming from the direction of USSR, required by law, was seldom on hand. The Soviet airplanes, despite required by law to contact us well prior to entering our airspace, ignored the law. First time we discovered they were in our airspace was when they contacted us on the radiotelephone. Our reception being poor we heard from them only when they were well halfway in our airspace. Sometimes we received information about their presence from our military colleagues, sometimes even from the airport towers these airplanes were flying nearby.

Contact with the airplanes.

Airport towers used radio telephone for contacts with the airplanes; in 1961, the year I started at the Area ATC Bratislava, the contact with the airplanes was exclusively by means of medium-wave telegraph.

The ground-based telegraphists had their own little office, and messages from, and to, the airplanes, written on pieces of paper, were carried along the long corridor. Urgency of the messages had different meaning for the ATC Controller and for the telegraphist. If, for instance, the telegraphist stopped in the corridor for a chat with somebody, the message had to wait a few (or many) long minutes for delivery. Telegraphists, apart from the receiving and carrying messages, had a variety of other duties. For instance, transmitting messages to airplanes about the airports, meteorological reports, and also "homing". This was done at the request from the airplane, when the bearing of the transmission from the airplane was determined by rotating the telegraphist’s directional antenna. The airplane, with the help of bearing from at least two different telegraphic ground-based stations was able to determine its geographical location. All these „other“ duties were slowing down the flow of information between telegraphist and the ATC controller.

Airspeed of most airplanes at the time was between 250kmh (Li-2, for instance) and 450kmh (a DC6). In terms of distance, these speeds represented between 20 and 40 kilometres. There were also a few jet airliners in the air already (Tu-104), with airspeed of about 850kmh, and the distance flown with that airspeed was 15 kilometres per minute – 75 kilometres in 5 minutes! Connection by means of telegraphy, with the associated slow-shuffle along corridors, was almost meaningless, especially with regards to the small area of Slovakia (roughly 200 x 400 kilometres).

Also available to the Area ATC were two radio telephone transmitters/receivers, working on short wave frequencies (around 4600 and 6500kHz). These were used but very seldom, for the frequent „dead“ areas of reception, and for strong interference from a variety of sources, such as electrical storms, solar flares, etc. When Short Wave Transmission/Reception (a.k.a. VHF), common in aviation around the world, was mentioned to the management they went into spasms! Their resistance to such outrageous novelty (even some of the colleagues, let alone telegraphists) was considerable, because nobody had any experience with radio telephony. There was also a language barrier: in telegraphy, a so-called Q-code was being used for virtually any kind of message. For instance a weather forecast was labelled QAM; flying time and height over, say, Nitra, was called QAF Nitra 1234/1800; airport closure was an ominous-sounding (to us, still) QGO, etc. In radio telephony, four (!) languages were mandatory: the local Slovakian, Czech, Russian and English. The first two languages were o.k. For English a smallish booklet of official phraseology was available (excellent for the WW2 air traffic); booklet of Russian phraseology was not available (if it ever existed).

Around 1963 the pressure to do away with telegraphy was becoming so strong, because the airplanes were gradually doing away with their telegraph operators. Finally, microphones began to appear in our office! These were operated by female radio-telephonists (with the phraseology booklet at hand), and messages were still flying to-and-fro on pieces of paper. The distance was not along the long corridor, it shrunk to just across the table. In the accompanying poor-quality photograph, the radio telephone operator sits on the left, the controller sits behind the slanting board:

The Controller eventually received his microphone a year or two later.

With the arrival of microphones another problem turned up. That should have been, of course, solved BEFORE, not after, but it wasn’t, and I doubt anybody as much as mentioned it.

It happened thus: radio transmitters and receivers on Very High Frequency (VHF) were located at the Bratislava-Ivanka airport, in the very corner of the Slovakian territory. Due to the hilly terrain, also due to their short-range antennas, and also due to the curvature of Earth, contact with the airplanes at most frequently used heights was possible to about 50-150 kilometres from Bratislava; with the very few airplanes flying higher at the time (5,000-10,000 metres) the contact was possible up to about 250 kilometres from Bratislava. Slovakia is, however, some 400 kilometres long and 200 km wide, and the Area ATC was responsible for air traffic control over its entire territory; also, for responsibilities other than air traffic control it is important to be able to communicate with the airplanes to at least several hundred kilometres OUTSIDE Slovakian territory. With the air taxis, flying usually only a few hundred metres above ground, the contact was possible to only about 50-70 kilometres from Bratislava. They, too, were entitled to the Air Information Service, to Emergency Assistance Service, to the Search and Rescue Service – provision of all these services was the responsibility of the Area ATC.

In summary, coverage of the territory of Slovakia with the radio communication service on VHF was insufficient.

Looking at this dismal coverage by voice radio-communication equipment it beggars belief that this cavalier and certainly illegal situation was allowed to exist: here you are, Comrade Controller, area of some 80,000 to 240,000 square kilometres in size, in which are flying airplanes in all kinds of meteorological conditions. Under the law you are responsible for maintaining prescribed distances between them, you are obliged to maintain UN-interrupted contact with all of them, you are responsible for organisation of emergency situations, and dozens of other duties. And here you are, at your disposal, transmitters and receivers that are capable of maintaining contact with these airplanes flying over between 10 up to 70 percent (if that!) of the territory under your control. What happens to those 90 to 30 percent of airplanes that you are unable to communicate with if they happen to get into some knotty situation? Are you complaining? You cheeky unsatisfied bugger!!! Don’t you know that YOUR Communist Party and YOUR Government have much more important matters to deal with than your piffling little complaints? What do you have against our political system to burden it with your nearly malicious constant complaints???

 Believe me or not, that's how the so-called People’s Socialist system operated!!!

Today this „performance“ of the State administration would be termed something like gross negligence punishable by law (I am not a lawyer, please forgive me those of you who know better).

I could never understand the international aviation agencies, ICAO, IATA and others, for their inability to see the poor to dangerous activities of transport administrations in these communist countries (and no doubt other countries as well, some African countries come to mind).

At the time, some airplanes have telegraphists on board still, and contact with these airplanes was over 100% of our territory (albeit contact of a slow and ponderous kind – see previous chapter). And we had a radar at our disposal, too...