2024-04-15 05:21:23
Aims not only for aviation to flourish, but also for the district to flourish
Although Lauryna can now be seen almost every day in the village of Rudikai in Kupiškis district, the man was born and raised in Panevėžys.
Since childhood, he watched his father, a pilot, who inspired him to follow the same path. “For as long as I can consciously remember, aviation has always been around – it has never gone anywhere,” he says.
But agriculture was also on the sidelines. The interviewer recalls that in the twelfth grade, his cousin wrote a project to get financing for agricultural activities and become a young farmer.
Seeing that it was possible to receive such support, Lauryns also wrote the project and received additional money. “That’s how I’ve been trying for almost fifteen years,” he calculates, adding that back then the most important goal seemed to be to get financing, complete the project and start other activities, but that didn’t happen.
“Here, where we are, is my mother’s homeland, my grandparents had a farm,” Laurynas continued. Then he inherited just 17 hectares from his relatives, and now he counts a sometimes larger area of cultivated land, almost 400 hectares, where he grows grain crops: wheat, barley, rapeseed, peas.
Even now, the fields he works around the airfield are within a radius of twenty kilometers.
After his first impressions of farming, he also had to work as the director of the Panevėžys Aero Club – then Laurynas was only 21-22 years old. Having worked there for seven years, at the same time he began to create a new place for the development of aviation.
However, the construction of the runway had to be well done. Although the direction of the cultivated fields used to be the same, they were unknowingly started to be worked in such a way that they coincided horizontally with the road and leveled the field as much as possible. To level the field, they burned maybe a ton of diesel.
Yes in 2017 the idea arose to establish the Kupiškis aero club and aviation school – an aviation training center, with the aim of promoting the development of aviation not only in this region, but also throughout the country. And more or less a year later, planes started flying here.
As Laurynas says, it is not only important to have money and experience – it is also no less necessary to want: “When you want, opportunities arise.” Waking up next to an airfield is common these years, as if it’s completely normal, even though some people dream about it their whole lives – it’s like the American dream.
How can you manage to make a living in both agriculture and aviation? The businessman laughs and answers: “I don’t have time, I’m often late everywhere and I’m in a hurry.” In a hurry, he sometimes flies by plane.
Due to the lack of time, there was even a situation that made many people smile. “It happened that I went to Panevėžys by plane on the weekend to pick up parts of the combine harvester,” he remembers the adventure. – I called the service in Panevėžys and asked them to bring the part to the airfield. In 45 minutes, the combine was already running, when in 45 min. in the best case, I would have gone to Panevėžys by car”.
From accommodation to flights or revealing the gender of the child
Since Laurynas understood very well that students and guests from the farthest corners of Lithuania would come here, he also needed a place where they could stay. The so-called “English cabin” and sleeping places in a modular cabin right next to the airfield appeared.
How many people can it accommodate at one time? The interviewer says that it depends on how much luxury you want when you arrive. For example, one cabin can accommodate four people, and rooms can accommodate more. He remembers the times when he once set a record – he could accommodate as many as 26 people in all rooms.
Visiting here at the beginning of April, the host already says that the season has started, and people are already quite intensively flying. For this reason alone, people come here even from the farthest corners of Lithuania – Šilutė and other cities.
“You’ve passed three airfields, but you’re coming here,” the pilot instructor marvels at the arrivals from the same Šilute. Most of the time, people visit Kupiškis itself only when they receive a gift voucher for visiting the airfield.
And when the guests arrive, they admit that it is their first time not only on a plane, but also in Kupiškis. Who flies in two with the pilot, and who gets into a three- or four-seater plane. The instructor pilot, speaking about safety, emphasizes that when you are on the airfield, there are rules at every step.
“However, it is necessary to be afraid, I myself am sometimes afraid, but that fear is already different. Fear is a fuse, you think about everything. If you do as it is written in aviation, the probability of an incident is very, very, very low,” emphasized Laurynas.
Those who don’t want to get on a plane or a glider can order an air show or even a baby gender reveal service for their celebration.
Lauryns assures with a smile that if someone had told him a year ago that he would provide such a service, he would not have believed it – it was news to him that people wanted such entertainment. However, this way for a couple to find out the gender of a child is particularly popular now. Who cuts the cake, who blows up the balloons, and who spares no expense and orders the entire air show. Through it, pilots release blue or pink smoke as they fly past the family to announce the happy news.
Learn even in a month
There are also such guests who, even though they were very afraid of flying and swore to themselves that they would never get on a plane, return here to study. How long does it take to learn to fly an airplane? Lauryns himself says that the learning time depends on the individual person. “I answer this question with personal experience,” he immediately warns. – A year of time is a good result, two years – laziness. The record of what I managed to do as an instructor is a month.”
The interviewer assures that if you want to be a good pilot, you don’t need to graduate from any Aviation Institute, where the state institution trains pilots for seven years. In his opinion, if a person concentrates and really wants to achieve results, he can do it in 18 months and become an airline pilot.
And training programs for novice pilots can be twofold. For example, if you came without paying anything and completed the training, you get a commercial license. There are lectures and flights every day. Such a road can cost about 90 thousand. euros with the idea that even the second pilot of a mid-level airline can earn 80-90 thousand per year. euros, let alone the captain’s salary even in not so big companies.
Another way is modular learning. This means that such a program is more applicable to those who have less financial means and are pressed for time. At the Kupiškis airfield, pilots obtain a private pilot’s license (PPL (A)), a night rating is obtained, and flight hours can also be collected there.
“Now we are also preparing the instrument rating – instrument flights and multi-engine flights. After completion, you get an SPL license and a commercial license. With this training, you can turn into 50-60 thousand. euros”, the pilot instructor gave an example.
Lauryns communicates with his colleagues about aviation and with children at schools whenever he is invited – he always visits to tell the children what he is doing. According to the man, this is especially important in the smaller regions of Lithuania: to say that there are more choices.
Speaking about future plans, he says that the engine itself does not stop either. Although there were many troubles at the beginning of the business, they have not diminished until today. For now, the closest plans are to build a second hangar for airplanes. Fourteen of his own airplanes and gliders are currently in the hangar, with several other air vehicles in other locations or repair shops.
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2024-04-15 05:21:23