OREANDA-NEWS. June 16, 2008. The Grand Prix Open Cup of Russia in helicopter sports took place on the Gorskaya aerodrome in the settlement of Lisy Nos near St. Petersburg, with OJSC N.W. Telecom as the General Partner.

The event was organized by the Federation of Helicopter Sports of Russia*, the St. Petersburg Administration , the Committee for Physical Training and Sports of St. Petersburg, the St. Petersburg ROSTO Aeroclub and the ROSTO Interregional   Public Organization (DOSAAF) of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, with the support of the St. Petersburg Sports and Engineering Assembly.

On the eve of the Grand Prix Cup competition, on 30th May 2008 a presentation of the Federation of Helicopter Sports of Russia dedicated to the 50th anniversary of helicopter sports took place in St. Petersburg. During that day people were introduced to the history of the sport, talked to multiple champions of the world Viktor Degtyar and Pyotr Vasilyev, took photos and received souvenirs – booklets, flags and badges. The MI-2 helicopter, on which the champions exquisitely landed on the Europe Square , was the highlight of the presentation.

The opening ceremony of the Grand Prix Cup competition included demonstration parachute jumps of a group of sports masters from the Gatchina Aeroclub and paratroopers of a special-purpose detachment.

Plays for championship in the most spectacular exercise of the world championships program – Cargoes Delivery ("Postman Event") – were held in the Grand Prix Cup . Flights were performed by two helicopters in parallel until two victories of one of the crews using the play-off system. After four series of flights, the four winners continued fighting in the quarter-final and then in the final flights. As a result, masters of sports Alexey Mayorov and Sergey Shvarts (TsSK of the Air Force, Samara) won the Grand Prix Cup. They were the first to leave behind Viktor Degtyar and Pyotr Vasilyev, champions of the world in this exercise.

A fantastic show performed by eminent pilots and aviation sportsmen was a real present for all viewers. They saw a astounding demonstration of aerobatics performed by Honoured Master of Sports Andrey Bespalov on a Yak-52 plane with smoke effects, extremely low-height flights, loops, fighting turns, spins and steep banking.

After him, silver prize-winners of the MI-2 helicopter competition performed pair acrobatics. Viktor Degtyar, a silver prize-winner of the competition performed complex acrobatics on a MI-2 helicopter alone: a whirligig, steep climbs, fighting turns, climb turns, deep spirals, diving and skew banking. A flight of two Cessna-172 and one Cessna-182 planes of the Gatchina Aeroclub finished the event.

Groups Peace to Children, William and Contrast Band Blues performed in the intervals between the flights, and the festivities ended with a concert of the August rock group.

Throughout the day the warm and sunny weather favoured the viewers and sportsmen and emphasized the atmosphere of the holiday in heaven.