Don't ask the world's best aerobatic stunt pilot if he's ever crashed. He won't tell you.
What Air Bandits pilot Jurgis Kairys will say is that he's had a few close calls flying his high-speed, low-level freestyle aerobatics.
‘‘I went for a three-hour swim once,'' Mr Kairys said.
That was after the engine of his plane stopped mid-flight and he had to make a hasty exit.
Mr Kairys, a Lithuanian, has been in Dunedin preparing for this weekend's Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow and said he was grateful to the Otago Aero Club for helping him get to New Zealand and hosting him for the past week.
‘‘I must say thank you to this air club,'' Mr Kairys said.
‘‘The club's helped us to get a place for the container to assemble things and it's not far from Wanaka.
‘‘I need to exercise and I need to prepare for the things we do and New Zealand is very nice, you know.''
The 63-year-old impressed a handful of aero club members and public when he took his home-made stunt plane, dubbed JKA, to the skies over the Taieri for his first practice flight since it was assembled last Tuesday.
His plane could reach speeds of up to 460kmh on a downward trajectory.
Mr Kairys has put together an impressive resume over his 30-plus year of aerobatics, winning the World Grand Prix and having the biggest collection of gold medals of any stunt pilot in the world.
He was invited to the first two Red Bull Air Race World Championships and won them both.‘‘I won the first two competitions and then they are not inviting me again,'' he said.
It was a sore point being deemed ‘‘too good'' for the competition.
A former member of the Lithuanian and Soviet aerobatic teams, he had attended 10 world championships and won gold twice, once in 1990 and again in 1994, in the freestyle events.
Mr Kairys' signature move is creating the letter J with smoke from the tail of his plane.
‘‘The other manoeuvres are nice [but] it's maybe the heaviest manoeuvre I have done.''
He had flown with sticks of dynamite and under bridges and performed other seemingly insane manoeuvres over the years.
Asked how dangerous it was, Mr Kairys said: ‘‘I'm still alive. That is the answer.''
‘‘You need to know how to be disciplined and be professional.''Fresh from a Chinese airshow, he was looking forward to the Wanaka event over Easter, he said.
‘‘We needed to come back to Wanaka. This is really a special place for me. I'm really surprised about the shows when I have been here,'' Mr Kairys said.
Otago Aero Club member Jonathan Elliott said the club had organised for Mr Kairys to practise on the Taieri through fellow aerobatics pilot Robert Fry, of Auckland.
‘‘There's nobody in Dunedin that does aerobatics. It's a pretty unique experience, really.''
Mr Kairys would perform a show with Mr Fry at Warbirds, followed by a 15-minute solo demonstration.
He would also take part in a plane versus supercar versus motorcycle race.
