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Expect support
The gliders, Sportinė Aviacija ir Ko, do not hide their concerns. Orders for coronavir have dropped significantly and are now only available for one year, although there have generally been at least two. What awaits you in a year? The head of the company Vytautas Mačiulis does not hide his ignorance, so he would like the help of the government.
“We would like our state to establish a motto like” Lithuania without aviation – Lithuania without a future “, – V.Mačiulis smiles very happily, having started flying gliders a good four decades ago.
Emphasizing that the moods are optimistic, V. Mačiulis continues the idea with the statement: “We have a job, there is no one to work for. The state should continue to pay attention to aviation, because we, as a small company, the UAB, cannot compete with the Western aviation industry and, in particular, with the German one. That’s it. We make a very good product, we make gliders with electric motors. We were the first to start in the world, certifying a model as a paraglider that can only start the engine while it is already in the air, flying and flying back to the airfield, so you don’t have to land somewhere else if there is no more power ” .
The state should continue to pay attention to aviation, because we, as a small company, the UAB, cannot compete with the German aviation industry.
The glider flies using solar and wind energy; the wind, as V. Mačiulis says, can be used in the mountains, because the wind blows around the mountain, allowing it to fly far and long. Solar energy allows gliders to fly in our lands, when hot air bubbles rise, then the glider’s dominance manifests itself, to find the best relationship between upward and downward air currents.
“The glider is landing all the time, about 0.5 m / s when flying at low speeds and about 2 m / s when flying at about 200 km / h. Taking advantage of the updrafts, the glider takes off, draws energy and keep flying. In Lithuania, we exceed routes between 200 and 500 km, although the Lithuanian record is a thousand kilometers, by the way, achieved with our production glider, “said V. Mačiulis.
Photo by Julius Kalinskas / 15min / Vytautas Mačiulis
For sport and learning
According to him, one of the purposes of gliders is sports and the other is the opportunity to learn to fly them. He recalled that even in the interwar period, even future military pilots were taught to plan, in the Soviet era planning was also the path to aviation.
“First they taught me to fly gliders, there were two-seater gliders and it was the cheapest way to train a pilot. If you can fly a glider, you are good to go. After all, turn off the engine and each plane will turn into a glider. But if the pilot does not know how to fly a glider and turns off the engine, it flourishes there, his pants get wet, the stress is enormous for him. And the paraglider flies and both without an engine.
Of course, large planes don’t fly that far, they don’t trap thermal, but they still fly, even fighter jets fly without an engine, more like a rock, but at that high speed they get close to the ground, the glider flattens it and lands it, if there is. “V. Mačiulis told the pilots about the advantages of gliding.
We make a very good product, we make gliders with electric motors. We were the first to start in the world.
However, in Lithuania, by joining the A. Gustaitis Aviation Institute, gliders have not received additional points for some time, suggesting that such an experience seems unnecessary.
“The best pilots are gliders. Prepare them to fly without an engine. And it is the cheapest way to select psychologically stable people who will carry hundreds of passengers. And now they are preparing the operator. We are talking about the need to prepare a pilot who can land an airplane even if the computer refuses to take responsibility. You may remember how a plane landed in the Hudson River when it collided with birds. The pilot was a former glider, an experienced aviator who knew that the plane also flies without an engine, “he said. the head of the company.
Photo by Julius Kalinskas / 15min / “Sport Aviation and Ko” Glider Factory
Orders are falling
During the year, Sportinė Aviacija ir Ko manufactures 12-14 gliders, repairs them and manufactures glider transport trailers.
“Now our main product is electric gliders. The first were those who could only fly back on their own. Now there is the last glider, the certification of which is being completed, it can take off on its own: it no longer needs a stretch plane, it can take off at the first thermal, the engine is switched off and the engine continues to fly without power, there is power left. We work with that electricity, ”said the director.
Nobody buys toys during the famine. Perhaps it is necessary to repair the roof of the house, because it is raining, and 100 thousand. not everyone can.
According to him, it is precisely because he built self-launching gliders that the company has orders. “Orders went down, last year we had orders for about two years at that time. Now we only have about 14 months, it fell very steeply. As orders drop, so does working capital, just like everyone else. And it has decreased, because nobody buys toys during the famine, that is the answer. Maybe it is necessary to repair the roof of the house, because it is raining, and 100 thousand. Not everyone can use the euro, “said V. Mačiulis.
V. Mačiulis says that it is surprising that Lithuania prepares pilots in very expensive studies, which then go to work in other countries. And the engineers-in-training only maintain the aircraft, they do not develop new products. The development of new products is left to small companies, which is not the case at the state level, the state does not invest.
And he claims not only to talk about gliders, but also light aircraft. According to V. Mačiulis, the production of drones and drones has started, but these are usually only module-level subjects, only to the extent that a “brain” has been created for them.
Photo by Julius Kalinskas / 15min / Glider in the Pociūnai aedrome
Specialists are missing
The company also faces the problem of specialists, that nobody is preparing what they need.
“For example, the manufacturers. It is a profession that works, but the manufacturer needs to know how to work. After all, we form everything from fabrics, plastic is not poured into molds, but fabrics are placed in them, soaked in epoxy resins, dried, hardened, polymerized, and turned into plastic. Plastics are used in glass, carbon and kevlar, these materials are lighter than metals, stronger.
Moral satisfaction: benefit here or not?
The factory has been in operation for 51 years. In those days it was called an experimental sports aviation factory, the Soviets were experimenting with big aviation in small companies, giving materials, letting them test. Our company’s solutions were used in the development of SU-26 aerobatic aircraft. Up to 600 people worked here. Now – 45 “, – said V. Mačiulis.
According to him, gliders are made almost exclusively by hand, machines here cannot change people. It takes about four months to make a glider.
Lithuanians don’t buy these planes; According to V. Mačiulis, its buyers are not from Lithuania: “We export everywhere, mainly to Western Europe, the United States, Canada, we sold some in Argentina, Australia and Japan.”
Photo by Julius Kalinskas / 15min / “Sport Aviation and Ko” Glider Factory
If more gliders were produced, they could probably be sold, at least until now. At least that was the case before the pandemic. However, the company survives only thanks to the enthusiasm of employees, managers, shareholders and the desire to produce gliders, V. Mačiulis is convinced.
“Moral satisfaction – profit here or not?” He smiles when asked about the company’s earnings and admits that there is still a lot of romance in this activity for him.
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