Blanik America's owner, Vitek Siroky,
visited his company's European suppliers in June. While at
Sportine Aviacija in Lithuania, he made a two-hour flight in one
of the LAK-17A racing class sailplanes.
Here he is after the flight with Irina Sebastjanovich and Natalja Ryseva of UAB Baltic, sales agents at one of the export shipping companies that Blanik America employs, who were kind enough to come to Pociunai from the three hours distant port city of Klaipeda. The photo is taken at the vast grassy airfield, about a mile from the Sportine Aviacija factory.
For those who are visually oriented, here is a panorama showing the countryside around Sportine Aviacija factory at Pociunai. It was spliced together from a number of images taken during a bumpy ride - so please excuse the quality. It should give you an idea anyway of what it looks like there.
Considering the cloud bases were rather low, only a little over 2000' over the terrain, not much cross country venturing took place. The logger said 110 miles including circling.
However, here is a trace for those who like tracks and loggers. The airport is at the green dot.
The Sportine Aviacija factory is located at N 54° 39.152' and E 24° 02.640'.
While
the Sportine Aviacija factory is about 70 miles distant from the
center of Vilnius, it takes close to two hours to drive to it
over picturesque country roads. The final stretch is a dog-leg
winding around Prienai and Nemunas River with its many meanders.
Here is a link to many more photos taken from the air of the Sportine Aviacija factory, the adjacent airport and surroundings taken during the Worlds Women Gliding Championships in early August 2001.
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