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Tomáš Jerje | KFY+KAP

| Naši absolventi
When studying at FP I dreamed about flying

Tomáš Jerje studied physics and mathematics at our faculty with a focus on education, and although he really enjoyed teaching physics and received a master’s degree in this field, in the end his childhood dream won out. However, he still teaches part-time.

You are currently a helicopter pilot in the emergency medical system, which is certainly an interesting job. What is a regular work day like?

A regular day at the air rescue station starts at 6:30 in the morning. By seven we determine the current weather conditions in the Liberec region, we look at the webcams for individual areas, we check NOTAMs (danger warnings, changes at airports, in airspace, etc.), we print out an operational flight plan, we inspect the helicopter and take it out of the hangar before seven. This is followed by a briefing in the helicopter of the entire crew (pilot(s), doctor, rescuers). Here we test the radio communications between members of the crew and our connection with dispatch. From this moment we are ready to fly and the entire crew waits on instructions from dispatch. Some days we make six flights, other days we don’t fly at all. Over the long-term there is an average of 1.8 flights per day. Bad weather may also be a limiting factor, so we may be grounded for an entire day. And if anyone asks how we pass the time during what can be fourteen-hour shifts, like everywhere else there is administrative work to be done, as well as sports and good food. The work day basically ends when the sun goes down, which is around 9 pm in the summer or 4 pm in the winter.

Were you already flying when you were studying at our faculty? How did you juggle this with school?

When I was studying at FP I was still only dreaming about flying and would go to the air rescue station, the heliport at the hospital. I started pursuing my childhood dream of being an air rescue pilot once I was working as a second-grade teacher six years ago. It was a grueling schedule because the flight school was in Hradec Králové. I often went after the day’s teaching, then two hours to get to HK, flight time, and then back at night. And back to work the next day. To fly you also need to pass theoretical tests, which require hundreds and hundreds of hours of study. It is certainly not the case that all you need to do to become an EMS pilot is to start flying a helicopter. The road to the job is truly long, time consuming, financially demanding and uncertain. But that’s a long story.

You got your master’s in teaching physics at Hradec Králové, you taught physics at the primary school in Chrastava, and in Liberec you headed the Physics Center.  But in the end, flying won out anyway...

That is all true. Now I’m lightening the load a bit – a band from Liberec called Těla (Bodies) has a song with the line: daddy’s got a doctorate. I always liked that song and thought that maybe I could do it, and it worked out. Now, whenever I hear the song, I always think back on those days. But seriously now, I enjoyed physics and math from an early age, which is why I went to a technical high school and then taught a combination of mathematics and physics. Then I had the opportunity when teaching to study physics remotely at UHK so I gave it a try and nearly five years later successfully completed my studies. While studying, I got involved with the Elixir school project and then headed the regional center in Liberec for over four years. Since my dreams of flying were coming true, I received an offer to fly as an instructor for helicopter pilots. This profession combines teaching with flying, so it was with a heavy heart that I left my beloved class at the primary school in Chrastava during a school year that had already started and moved my family to Hradec Králové. We were there for over a year and then returned to Liberec, where I started flying with the emergency rescue service. Here, my childhood dream has come true.

You said that you were fascinated by physics as early as kindergarten. So, you surely must still be involved with it in some way today. How?

Yes, in kindergarten. It started with taking apart toys that moved or blinked, and ended with soldering simple electrical circuits. Physics has been with me ever since. A helicopter is a complicated machine with physics appearing in a hundred and one ways. I’ve actually had an advantage in many tests because I studied math and physics. If a pilot is an instructor, then he constantly passes on his knowledge of physics, especially to those who were never really interested in it. And I also teach a few hours each semester as an external instructor at the Department of Physics here.

What did you like the most when studying below Ještěd? Any fond memories?

Well, if you think I’m going to say the city and Ještěd, then you’re wrong. I was born here, so nothing seemed unusual to me. I liked the fact that I had decided to start teaching part-time while studying. Even though it didn’t help me in theoretical subjects, in many ways it wasn’t bad. And of course, there were all the good times spent with my classmates, I’ll always remember that. There were very few of us studying physics/math so we formed a little family. I’m still in touch with some of my classmates to this day. Sometimes we get together and think about those carefree days which at the time didn’t seem so carefree to us.