Being in the air causes euphoria, but can we tell it enough? The aerobatic pilot of the Flying Bulls squadron likes to get into any machine, but since his serious accident he has not been flying at all costs. “It was my colleague’s fault, but my responsibility, because I had a warning two days before that I should not fly to Bratislava,” Jan Rudzinskyj recalls the fall as a lesson in humility in an interview with Radiožurnál. He is preparing a big surprise for the visitors at the Pardubice Aviation Pilgrimage.
Guest Lucie Excellent
Prague
5:03 p.m May 8, 2024
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You flew in Dvůr Králové on the 110th anniversary of the planned takeoff of engineer Jan Kašpar Blériot. I looked at it in the National Technical Museum – in my opinion, a person must be a complete lunatic to sit in something like this, be it engineer Kašpar or you.
Engineer Kašpar didn’t know it yet, they were trying it. It was a big challenge for me. I have already flown that plane. I have to say that I have never piloted anything heavier in the air.
Either an underestimation of the weather or the state of technology, or, on the contrary, an overestimation of one’s own abilities. The main cause of accidents is people, not planes, according to pilot Jan Rudzinskyj
It’s not quite a plane, is it? It’s a couple of these beams and a bit of fabric…
It is interesting that the Blériot, for example, is the only plane where the flight itself is the hardest part of the flight. Takeoff and landing are relatively easier.
You mean to tell me I’m going to take off with it?
Yes. But to keep it in the air, you have to forget everything you know about flying. You have to adjust to the fact that it is something different, that it is controlled differently, and that if you control it like a modern airplane, you will kill yourself.
Engineer Kašpar crashed twice in Dvůr Králové, so I was there to break his bad luck for the third time. It was a certain pressure and luckily it worked out. The weather was challenging, it was quite windy, hot and the plane didn’t want to fly, didn’t want to climb. There are such big wires and a hill, he didn’t know I am, if I overstep it. In the end it all clicked and went well, I landed. Then I was grateful.
‘Don’t fly to Bratislava’
You also fell in a plane in 2006. When you’re flying a plane where you know it’s 50/50 whether you’ll crash or not, do you think about what happened before?
No, it’s not 50/50. Of course, such a plane is challenging, but if I felt it was 50/50, I wouldn’t get on it. It’s just different and you need to approach it that way. But during the flight, I don’t remember ever crashing, being in the hospital or anything like that, there at all it isn’t.
Once, in an accident a few years ago when I was there, the memories came back for a moment and I had to work with it and get a little therapy because it suddenly started coming back.
If I ask you about those memories, can we talk about it?
Clearly.
Did you fall on your nose?
The accident ended with me sticking straight into the ground, from about 50 meters. It is quite fast, but at the same time there is a lot of time. At the same time, time stretches and you have time to solve it. This situation had no solution, but it is interesting that time is both long and short.
Was it your fault?
It was a colleague’s fault. It was my responsibility, because two days before I had a warning at night not to fly to Bratislava.
Did you have a dream?
I had a dream, or rather it woke me up from that dream. My whole body said: “Don’t fly to that Bratislava.” Then I kind of let it go, I thought OK, I’ll be careful, I promised. Crap. It’s good to listen to intuition, even if it seems illogical, but intuition is often illogical. And I didn’t listen to her.
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So my responsibility for being there. But technically it was the fault of the colleague who bumped into me. We had a mid-air collision.
Sure, humility pays off. How old have you known this?
I’ve known this for a long time, but since the accident, I’ve been following it more. You know what’s interesting about intuition? If you listen to her and follow her, you won’t know it, but everything goes normally well.
It’s only when I don’t listen to her that I find out, I get over my grip, and then I realize: “Well, I didn’t listen to intuition.” But when I follow it, nothing big happens. No praise will come, no one will confirm with a stamp that I did well.
And you became a famous pilot the moment you hacked.
Unfortunately.
Did you imagine it that way?
I once wanted to be a famous pilot, but I definitely didn’t want it that way. But the universe will simply arrange it for you, not the way we want it, but the way we need it. And I needed a lesson in humility then. I hope I don’t need her anymore.
Dangerous euphoria
Now we have opened one important chapter, and that is the art of not flying.
This is great art. To explain: it’s when I have, for example, a stupid feeling or conditions they are on the edge. For example, I need to fly, but I would be risking too much, so being able to say no, I won’t fly – even though people are waiting for me at an airshow or I have passengers whom I promised to fly somewhere with them.
There can be a lot of those pressures. In fact, it is a great art to allow yourself not to fly, to bear the unpopularity of that decision within the framework of safety and integrity, even though it may not be understood at the time. Again, you never know. I just hope that if it comes, I can do it. I do not know it.
Early in his career, he ejected from a burning plane. ‘It turned out as well as it could,’ recalls the pilot
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Do you know what the greatest art is here behind the microphone in interviews? The art of not asking. It becomes an art at some point, when the conversation is already drifting somewhere where you feel that it can hurt the person in some way or that you are reaching deep into their comfort zone, where it could be harmful, so don’t say it.
That’s it, that’s the same. To listen, stay present and not follow. These are euphoric states, when a person steps out of it, but then either steps into something, hurts someone or himself, God forbid himself and someone else.
Fascination with flying. Please explain it to me, I don’t know it.
How to explain it? For as long as I can remember, I was always looking at the sky, at the planes and that I needed it. The first time I flew on a commercial plane, I wanted to get off. I saw clouds and thought I had to lie down in them – a very physical feeling that I just needed to. Of course I knew that wasn’t possible.
I spent the time at school, which was extremely boring to me, thinking in the air. One where I was sitting, I was still flying, imagining how I was flying, to somehow last there. I was just so attracted to it and still is, that when I have a longer break, I miss it. The only time – and you’ll understand – where I don’t miss it is when I’m in the Himalayas.
Aviation pilgrimage
Your Flying Bulls squadron will also perform at the Aviation Pilgrimage in Pardubice. Have you prepared something new, different than usual for this event?
We have big news as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 will be arriving here for the first time since World War II. These are aircraft that were plentiful here during World War II…
And we didn’t want them here.
Yes, we didn’t want them, but we haven’t seen them in a while, so we’d love to see them, because it’s a beautiful piece of technology. I worked on it for about eight years and managed to get the plane here.
So a Messerschmitt 109 will arrive, as a premiere after such years, and a second Messerschmitt will also arrive, also a unique Messerschmitt 262 Schwalbe, which was the first jet fighter to be operationally deployed. So these two German uniques will arrive.
Another premiere is that the company Aero will present its NGéčko. The L-39 NG was at the NATO days for the first time last year and will be presented at the Aviation Pilgrimage this year. Péter Besenyei, founder of Red Bull Air Race and Hungarian aerobatic legend, will arrive. He’s a charismatic, amazing pilot, a guy who’s 68 years old but flies like he’s in his twenties.
The aviation pilgrimage is coming, it will be on June 1 and 2 in Pardubice. Do you have everything ready?
We are preparing a wonderful program. The army will arrive again with gripens, CASA will arrive, paratroopers will arrive, will show offair ambulance. There will be a lot of it. There will be unique aircraft from the Second World War, from the First World War, air scenes, battle scenes, explosions and even a Kobra helicopter.
In addition, we also have a children’s day on the ground, so there is a program for the whole family. There are veteran cars and I don’t even know what else. It’s big and it’s a great program for the whole family, so anyone who wants to come to the airport on June 1 and 2 in Pardubice to spend a nice day or weekend would be very happy.
You can view the German Messerschmitt aircraft in the photo gallery at the beginning of the article. What planes does Jan Rudzinskyj dream of? Listen to this in the entire interview, the audio is also at the beginning of the article.
Lucie Excellent, jkh
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