Posted on 04/16/2006 4:41:23 PM PDT by DieHard the Hunter
She elegantly steps from her cockpit, unravels her long blonde hair and shakes it free before smiling shyly through pink painted lips to the gathered, awe-stuck crowd.
This is no advertisement. This is Russian pilot Svetlana Kapanina, world champion aerobatic pilot and a key attraction at the Easter break Warbirds Over Wanaka air show.
Her petite frame belies the strength of a woman who can spin and control a Sukhoi SU-29 pulling up to 10 Gs, a level that could see most people pass out.
Her past as a gymnast helps, she quietly affirms in Russian translated by friend and fellow world champion Jurgis Kairys, of Lithuania.
Her training as a pharmacist assists with the mental control and the ability to maintain orientation – the skills needed to be considered the best female aerobatic pilot of all time.
But if there is one thing that keeps her grounded, it is the husband (a professional sportsman and kick boxer) and two children (aged two and four) at home in Moscow.
"This is a little bit special," Kairys says.
"For a husband to have a wife pilot I think it's something very different in Russia."
As the children are still young, they mostly wait at home while their glamorous 36-year-old mother performs and competes around the world.
But each started flying while in the womb and her two-year-old daughter is particularly enthusiastic.
It took Kapanina much longer to come to flying as a hobby.
In 1988 she went parachuting. The pilot was keen on her. He tried to chat her up. He offered to teach her to fly and she accepted. Advertisement Advertisement
By 1991 she was named Absolute Champion of Russia and has now won the female world aerobatic championship five times, last year finishing fourth against the men.
But, like any of her fellow pilots, it is the sheer enjoyment of flying that keeps Kapanina committed.
"It's nice and exciting," Kairys translates as Kapanina continues to talk.
"It's bigger adrenalin," he says as her eye glistens, her pink lips part into a grin and she enthusiastically nods, unsettling only briefly her blonde, flowing locks.
Wanaka is a tourist town not far from Queenstown, in Otago, South Island. They regularly host a "Warbirds over Wanaka" air show -- not to be missed!
It looks like bttt (bump to the top) is working again.
He had taste.
"He had taste."
But what she has is beyond skill, and into the realm of a gift. An inverted pass under a bridge would be a bit more than most can aspire except in their dreams.
She's an ace?
> She's an ace?
I doubt she's shot five or more combat aircraft down, if that's what you mean. I think the paper was taking some poetic license...
...that said, I don't mind at all!
I'd hit it... though she'd probably kill me. Maybe that's how she got to be an ace?
GO for a dbl-tap..
Otherwise, gots to say it..does arm-pit growth do double duty controlling the risers?
Awww, just because she's Russian doesn't mean she's got hairy pits... besides, I prefer a woman with natural attributes instead of shaved, tattoed and covered in peircings dangling with hardware in places the Good Lord himself must shudder at the thought...
She's got a great "ace".
I'm assuming they mean SU-27 (or 30,35,37, etc, all Flankers), or maybe MiG-29, or does the FSU have something the intel officers aren't telling me about?
Don't assume. By the way, intel pukes are usually the last to know.
Su-29
I think she a cutie!!
She would probably say, " No svet!"
Is that Supermarine Spitfire? Mk IX? (I'm guessing from the tail, long nose and perspex canopy...)
You need to worry about Opus Dei.
And you need not worry about me worrying about Opus Dei.
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