active holidays
Like a bird in the sky
20
Lithuanians state that they are the nation of farmers and pilots. That is because Lithuanian Kazimieras issued a book entitled “The Great art of artillery” in the middle of XVII, where he described the principles of creating a multi-stage rocket. Jurgis Dobkevièius and Antanas Gustaitis constructed planes in 1930 – 1940, whereas the flight of Stepas Darius and Stasys Girënas from New York to Europe was regarded as one of the major achievement in the aviation of that day. Moreover, the senior pilot of the first charter flight by famous plane “Yankee Clipper” from the US to Europe in 1939 was Lithuanian – Adomas Kalkauskas. The Lithuanian stunt pilots are famous for a long time. Jurgis Kairys (www.jkairys.com), who was the first person to carry out the stunt figures according to the music, belongs to the elite of pilots of the world. According to the number of air balloons for 100 000 persons, Lithuania is in 7 – 8 place in the world. There are more than 60 hot air balloons in the country. Moreover, Vilnius is the only European capital, where those balloons may take off. The 13th championship of hot air balloons was organized in Vilnius and its region in 2003. Lithuania may offer other types of entertainment in the sky: gliding, parachuting, hang-gliding, paragliding, motorgliding, and paramotors. Try one of those and you will experience a wonderful feeling of the free-andeasy flight. Of course, majority of air clubs may offer survey flights that are the simplest.
But the most exotic trips are those with an air balloon above Vilnius or Trakai. There are several piloting schools in the country for
those, who having experienced the joy of an unusual flight, want to learn piloting themselves.