Great day out - Air Races in London
Ben on Jul 28th 2007
Serendipity for an adrenaline junkie? Happened to be in the right place at the right time, when my friend Jeff Boyle told me the sixth stage of the Red Bull Air Race was going to be in London this weekend. I’d never heard about this travelling event, but had always wanted to see one of the speed races out in the western US, and this seemed like something similar. Found myself staying over the weekend not too far from London, so thought I’d go check it out.
It was a blast! The rest of the crowd and I had a great day out - by the end we were all cheering and caught up in the thrill of it. The whole production is very well done, and really draws you in.
The planes are surprisingly quite small, and only weigh about 880 pounds (less than half your Honda Civic!), but are extremely powerful for their size.
If, like me, you have no idea at the start what’s going on, the pre-race presentation puts you in the picture. The show on the big-screen video-wall introduces the series, recounting the hightlights of the five races that have been held so far (Abu Dhabi, Rio, Monument Valley, Istanbul, and Interlaken).
The deceptively simple rules of the course are also laid out: the pilot flies a slalom course between or around pylons or “gates”, like downhill skiing. The course is flown twice per go, with tight turn-arounds at either end. The pilot with the shortest time through the course wins. Some gates have to be flown through on a perfect knife-edge, and others with wings level.
Mistakes, like flying too high through the gates or hitting a gate (they’re giant bags of air made of light spinnaker cloth that shred if hit) attract a penalty of seconds added to the course time.
I say “deceptively simple” because the course is being flown at speeds up to 250 mph, with variable, strongly-gusting cross-winds. About 30 feet over the water. Right in front of you! In the tight, flat turns at one end, and the “half Cuban” loop-with-a-twist turn at the other, the pilots pull up to 9 G’s at least three times in the space of the minute and a half course. It’s an amazing show; these guys are flying right on the edge of the possible, and it’s evident they’re not just flying the same old routine again and again.
Rather than try to describe it further, let me invite you to click here
for a video taste of the day. Amazingly, these highlights of today’s qualifying trials were posted on the Air Race website by the time I got back to the hotel from the event. Catch the race on TV tomorrow if you can.
Jeff, many thanks! Wish you’d been able to join me. Maybe you can get out to San Diego for September 22nd. In the meantime, look for some little mementos of the day in the post.
