Dancer with planes gets world cup

Oct 26, 2000
Rokas M. Tracevskis

The first Acrobatic Flights World Cup was held in 1993. Each world cup is made up of several tours, which are held in different countries during the year. The competition runs as follows: each pilot performs various acrobatic figures in the sky to accompanying music. It is a kind of dancing in the sky in a plane.

The acrobatic figures and music are chosen by the pilot. A group of referees announce their judgment points for each pilot's show (similarly to ice skate dancing). In Japan, Kairys performed his program to the music of Mozart.

As usual, Kairys demonstrated a move he had invented and called it the Yaketori (cobra in Japanese), which only he can do.

The plane appears to stand vertically on its tail as it moves forward. Then the nose of the plane suddenly strikes forward or backward and levels off.

Kairys has participated in several world cups and has finished second twice, third once and won for the first time this year.

He'll be awarded the trophy in January, 2001 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the headquarters of the International Aeronautic Federation are located.

Previous winners of the world cup have been the French pilots Patrick Paris, Xavier de Lapparent and Dominique Roland, and the Hungarian Peter Besenyei. Kairys has gained modest world fame flying his plane under bridges in Vilnius and Kaunas. Hundreds of thousands of people gather to watch his shows.

In September he flew his plane upside down under the pedestrian bridge that spans Kaunas' Nemunas River. Kairys, would-be Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas and other leading Lithuanian pilots often demonstrate the astonishing programs in the sky together during various festivals attended by big crowds.

"If I were younger, I would cry with happiness. Now it is just my well-done work," 48-year-old Kairys told Lithuanian National TV, commenting on his victory at the World Cup 2000.

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