Red Bull Air Race, London 2008
One of the stunt planes passing through the blue cones. The videos are worth a thousand photos.
What an exhilarating show! Helicopter flips and stunt planes that looked as though they were falling out of the sky made for an amazing pre-show. At one point the commentator said the pilot's got the control stick in both hands and it's just like he's stirring a cake as he performed another dizzying manoeuvre.
We went for the qualifying rounds yesterday instead of the actual race and looking at the pouring rain outside today I think we made the right decision. The weather was mostly cloudy but it was warm and we got bits of that hot, hot sun.
The rules of the race were fairly simple. The planes have to pass through pairs of cones without flying too high and without hitting them. The different colours on the cones indicate different requirements: when passing through blue cones the wings must be parallel to the ground and with red cones, perpendicular.
A shot of David hocking an airplane and Vanessa catching it. We managed to get this on the first try, which was good since our reluctant models took some convincing to get in position.
Breaking the rules or slicing open a cone results in penalty seconds being added to the pilot's overall time. One pilot clipped a cone in the qualifying round, earning him a 10-second penalty after which he pulled up and out of the race.
Simple rules, tough execution. You could see the focus on the pilots' faces in the overhead screen, and the strain and forced breathing when pulling up to 10 g's in a Half Cuban Eight (read back flip).
Tackling the course at up to 370 km/h they don't have much time to think. You can see the planes constantly making short, quick adjustments as they approach the pairs of cones—it looks like the pilots are making super-fast, gut reactions.
While it was only the qualifying round, it was a spectacular afternoon and I have to say, I was very tempted to get a hold of tickets to see the actual races today. Be sure to check out the videos!
Videos!
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