A few words about who I am

I was born in 1956 in Budapest, Hungary. Today I live in Sweden, but I am very international, have been living in many countries. 

I am an ATM (Air Traffic Management) systems engineer and a pilot. My background is software engineering, but I do not work with programming any more, just as hobby to not to loose the knowledge. I work in the aviation business and find my work interesting. Ada83, Ada95 and C are the languages I use. I also used Assembly language, but that was a few years ago. On the other hand, I have used it for many years, so I may say I am still quite good at it. Generally, I like programming computers. I still think it is interesting to see how something develops from nothing, just an idea.

A dream became reality

In 1998, after about 40 years of dreaming about flying, finally I got my Private Pilot License. The dream came through one sunny, but cold morning in February on a snow covered small Swedish airfield ESME (Eslöv) where my Flight Examiner was based. About two hours after landing there the first time, I landed there again with him on my right side. A few minutes later he handed over my temporary license, and I finally was allowed to fly passengers without an instructor on my right.

The flight exam was a little unusual, for the navigation part he pointed at a little church about a half an hour flying distance from the airfield and told me to fly at 500 ft AGL, fly over and identify the church. It sounds easy, if you have never been to Sweden. In all the countries I know, churches are in the middle of the towns and villages, usually easy to identify. In Sweden there are many churches, and just too many of them spread out almost anywhere. Try that in a snow covered landscape with forests and farms under you, when roads and railroads are almost invisible. This kind of exercise was completely new to me, I never before tried to navigate at that low level. Luckily, I am quite good at navigation, I managed to fly over and identify the church to his satisfaction (and mine). Actually, I missed once, flied over but realized the fact just a few seconds after, told him and turned back. This time no mistake. 

Flying in France

In 1998 I received an offer from my employer, the Swedish Civil Aviation Administration to work in France for 1,5 years. I accepted this and moved to France to a little village, called Noisy Le Roi outside Paris in the summer of 1998. By the way, the 1,5 years later became a total of three.

To find a club to fly in was not very difficult, I was welcome in every club I opened the door to. To find a good club, where I felt I would like to fly was not that easy. After visiting many clubs, talking to many people, test flying some aircraft I finally found the club of my requirements, the Aero Club Air France Toussus Le Noble, France. Later, it proved to be the right choice, no mistake. I never for one minute felt unwelcome and unwanted. Whoever I talked to during my almost three years there, I always felt welcome. Not only socially, but even regarding my safety requirement, quality of service, quality of aircrafts, maintenance, availability of instructors and aircraft, and last but not the least the professionalism of all the stuff and other members contributed to the fact that I never regretted the day I entered through the door. If anybody ask me where to be a member and fly in the Paris area, I say the Aero Club Air France. I was a member of this excellent club between 1998 and 2001 and would not hesitate to be a member again if I would return to the Paris area.