The aerobatic figures performed by this woman impress the world experts with the highest degree of flying art. Svetlana Kapanina is the only female pilot to win the World Cup Grand Prix. Her regalia can not be counted: an instructor pilot, “Honored Master of Sports” and a Russian coach, winner of 39 medals in the world championships and a member of the Russian aerobatics team. And, to all that has been said, Svetlana Vladimirovna is a beautiful woman, a loving wife and mother of two children.
Winner Makings
Three days before the New Year in 1968, Svetlana was born in the Kazakh SSR. Mom worked as an accountant, then as a gas station operator, but dad combined the work of a taxi driver with auto driving on ice. The last lesson brought his father the title of vice-champion of Kazakhstan. Svetlana Kapanina is not the only child in the family. She also has a sister and a brother.
The girl showed her perseverance and leadership as a schoolgirl. Not a single sporting event was held without her participation: lightning, races and gymnastic performances. Svetlana gave 6 years to gymnastic training. And already then she proved that any of her hobbies is accompanied by achievements. In gymnastics, the girl carried out the program corresponding to the candidate for master of sports. Perhaps now Russia has not received the most titled pilot, if not for the devotion of young Svetlana to her gymnastics coach Larisa Alexandrovna. A promising athlete was invited to the school of the Olympic reserve in Tselinograd, but Kapanina refused due to the lack of the same offer to her coach. And after the eighth grade, the girl left the sport and decided to master pharmaceutical disciplines at the Tselinograd School.
Flight homeland
After graduating from medical school in 1987, according to distribution, Kapanina Svetlana went to Kurgan to raise the chemical industry. It was in this city that the girl decided to realize her old dream - a parachute jump. By the will of fate, Kapanina met a man who, seeing the bewildered look of the girl, asked how he could help her. She asked: “Where do they record for skydiving?”. - “Why do you need a parachute, sign up for a pilot. With a parachute we will drop you at the flight section as well. ”
When Svetlana came to the office, where people are enrolling for various aviation disciplines, she said: “Airplane section”. Realizing that she did not say what she came for, the girl did not begin to correct what was said so as not to appear to be an insecure person in front of the employees of the air club.
So, the future champion, pilot Svetlana Kapanina, whose biography randomly determined her hobby and profession, began to train in an aviation sports club (ASK).
Training
A promising student was immediately noticed by Alexander Rukavishnikov. An excellent vestibular apparatus, physical fitness, and the desire to be the best - Kapanina Svetlana Vladimirovna possessed all these qualities. Photos of this sophisticated and charming blonde do not correspond to the classical representation of the appearance of a woman who devoted her life to aerobatics in flying art.
The first ordinary flight did not impress Svetlana, and then they made a real run for the girl with loops, turns and turns, after which she fell in love with the sky forever. Svetlana Vladimirovna still remembers these sensations: frantic speed, inverted earth with the sky, head bangs on the lantern, adrenaline and the desire to learn all this.
Issued Kapanina in ASK aviation communications technician. The first trainer was A.V. Rukavishnikov, a year later L.A. Solodovnikov began to teach flight skills In 1991, Kapanina Svetlana got into the aerobatics team and received the title "Master of Sports".
Performances
By 1992, Svetlana had already become an instructor, and a year later she went to her first European Championship, from where she brought a silver medal. And this achievement was the beginning of her long career path.
In 1995, in South Africa, she took second place in the overall classification, without leaving a single medal to pilots from the male category. And a year later, at the World Championships in the United States, after Kapanina won all the gold, her title was “Oklahoma Honorary Citizen”.
In 1998, in the UK, Svetlana opened an aviation show, organized in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Royal Air Force. There, local journalists dubbed the Russian aviator "Siberian Angel". This became her first professional nickname.
Today, Svetlana Kapanina is a first-class instructor pilot and holder of 67 gold, 26 silver and 13 bronze medals.
The best airplanes
For Svetlana, and for world pilots, Su-brand aircraft have the best flight performance. When there were government orders, aviation clubs functioned, they were released by the Design Bureau (KB) of them. Sukhoi and most of the participants in international championships carried out the program on these aircraft. Today, the Su-31, Su-29, Su-26 and the entire series of sports training aircraft are not available. They are only resold used and are still in demand.
Aircraft issued at the Design Bureau named. Dry, have good aerodynamics, resistant to overloads and ergonomic. But the lack of funding for this sport affected the stoppage of production of the best aircraft.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the flight sections were no longer supported by the state. This is evidenced by the fact that the average age of the team is 47 years! When Svetlana was a student, the number of hours allocated for classes was about 70 a year, and now if you manage to fly off at least 15, it’s already good.
Svetlana Kapanina test pilot of the Sukhoi Design Bureau?
In 2000, Svetlana with the rest of the aerobatics team was hired by Sukhoi. They offered the Queen of Heaven the position of pilot instructor with the prospect of becoming a test. Kapanina just at that time was a student at the school to them. Fedotova, who trained test pilots. After a theoretical course in practice, she did not have to apply knowledge. According to the plan, it was necessary to fly off a certain number of hours on different types of aircraft, in total there were 30 people in the group.
For some reason, most likely financial, Svetlana was not allowed to practice. Therefore, she never became a test pilot in the Sukhoi Design Bureau, but she remained to this day to work as an instructor at the plant. By the way, thanks to the Sukhoi company, the Russian aerobatic team always has repaired aircraft.
Dream - own school
Kapanina Svetlana Vladimirovna over the years has not lost interest in flying. She continues to perform in air shows and championships. Foreign organizers invite her to aviation performances, and she is forced to refuse due to the lack of an airplane. For example, each foreign participant in the championship has a personal aircraft, and the Russian team for ten people has two aircraft. Faced with many problems: the lack of equipment, facilities, and flying schools, it helps the young generation to learn the delights of flying, training children.
Over the years, Svetlana Vladimirovna began to think about working abroad as a way to earn money in order to organize a flight school and extend the dying life of airplane sports in Russia.
Non-standard situations
Svetlana Kapanina, whose personal life is in constant risk, got into dangerous situations during the flight. And in an interview, when she was asked if the engine had failed, she calmly replied: "Yes, and this is normal." On an international demonstration flight after engine failure, Svetlana so skillfully landed the plane that only the flight management knew about this incident.
There was a case, a day before the European Championships, during training, when performing the “corkscrew” figure, the blade of the apparatus broke and stuck into the wing spar, and immediately the screw fell behind it. The whole team froze in fear of waiting for the landing. Svetlana landed the plane on a dirt strip and achieved minimal damage to equipment, even managed to unfasten the headphones before leaving the cockpit, because she needed them at tomorrow's championship.
