Avionics News May 2013 - 51

one day I asked one of my instructors if he could teach me to
ﬂy a motor plane. After two hard-working months, I passed my
PPL on a Cessna 150 and have never stopped learning since.
What aircraft do you fly?

I mostly ﬂy all kinds of single-engine aircraft from Cessna
150s to Cirrus, but I really enjoyed the several hours I ﬂew as
co-pilot in an old Cessna Citation some years ago. That was
really a big boy’s game. I did my multi-engine training on a
Britten Norman Islander (BN-2), which is a unique aircraft
here. Doing a couple of maneuvers with our Hungarian and
European Aerobatics champion Tamás Nádas in his Extra
300 amazed me on the power, speed of rolls, speed and the
preciseness of an aerobatic aircraft.
What is your favorite aircraft to fly?

I love our Cessna 150. This is a real aircraft compared to the
ultralights that many of the pilots are ﬂying here. In this aircraft,
I have been instructing IFR and ﬂying in real IFR on crosscountry, visiting neighboring countries. I ﬂew about 250 hours
in a Socata TB9, which is a comfortable cross-country aircraft.
I would love to ﬂy in the future on some kind of turboprop
aircraft like the Pilatus PC12 or the Piper Meridian.
When did you know you wanted to become a pilot?

As a kid at the age of 3, our family moved to a house near
the international airport in Budapest. At that time, we had
these loud Tupolevs ﬂying over, so I had no choice other than
to stare at the sky at each takeoﬀ. Later, cycling and jogging in
the forest surrounding the airport, taking part in school visits
to Budapest Airport and getting the ﬁrst simulator program
for Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer strengthened my dream to
be up there. It all happened about 12 years ago when a friend
of mine, an active member in a glider club, invited me for a
ﬂight with a glider at one of the local grass ﬁelds. I think that
was the day. To see the nearby hills and the gorgeous view
of downtown Budapest with the Danube River and the Buda
Castle made me want to return more often.
How does being a pilot impact your job?

The ability to understand, as a user, what all systems
are doing or should be doing is a major advantage when
troubleshooting avionics issues. By experiencing pilot
workload, I can better explain the importance of certain
modern avionics and their upgrades to fellow pilots. This can

help provide proper justiﬁcation on seemingly unnecessary
– and many times costly – work to be done. Without having
ﬂown several types and brands of diﬀerently equipped
aircraft, it would not always be an easy task to set up all the
built-in systems for line testing.
What are your current ratings?

•
•
•
•
•

Commercial, Single Engine Land: Instrument
Commercial, Multi Engine Land: Instrument
Certiﬁed Flight Instructor
Frozen ATPL
MCC and JetFam course ﬁnished on a B737 simulator

As a pilot, what are your thoughts on installation
challenges?

With the rapid aging of general aviation aircraft and its
equipment, and the availability of new technologies that
could upgrade the legacy systems and provide a higher
level of safety and lower pilot workload, I would like to see
installations and upgrades not require the huge cost and
burden of developing STCs. There should be clearly written,
upgraded guidelines like the AC43.13-2. Until a Part 145
organization is carrying out the installation based on these
guidelines, this should be acceptable for the authorities.
The requirement of STCs, DOA organization, etc., either
pushes our potentials and customers to cancel the
upgrades, or let “somebody from around the corner” do
the installation without documenting it and not even using
the right tools and cabling, and claim that it was installed
by the previous owner. Or, they will sell their aircraft and
turn to ultralight category where the latest, most-colorful
moving map systems can be installed by a local computer
guy. Some manufacturers are asking huge amounts of
money for installation documentation, which should be
readily available in digital format at almost no cost these
days. This prevents smaller GA markets from being able
to support these products locally, which will result in a
decrease of safety levels.
It is also challenging to expand a company’s operations
where Part 66 B2 (avionics) trainings are not readily
available for GA aircraft. 

Would you like to be featured in AEAviators? Contact Jenna
Kramer at jennak@aea.net or 816-347-8400 to discover how.
AVIONICS NEWS

•

MAY

2013

Avionics News May 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News May 2013