Supposedly, this is the post-Golden Era where the public is bored with watching aircraft fly, but millions who buy Red Bull Air Race tickets each year, and nearly 300 million who watch on TV, have a different opinion.
The event consists of a series of pylon races involving up to 15 pilots at major cities around the world. Often the pylons are floated on barges in a large river or, in the case of the recent race in New York City, on the New Jersey bank of the Hudson River between Ellis Island and Liberty State Park. The Statue of Liberty was used as the launch point for racers entering the circular course.
The pylons are 65 feet high and are inflated by fans, like the dancing stick figures you see outside businesses. They break apart harmlessly if struck by an aircraft, but seconds are added to the pilot’s time. It takes 70 to 80 seconds to complete the course, and the pilot with the best time wins. Aerobatic maneuvers such as knife-edge flight are required at some of the pylons, while turns sometimes require a loop or half loop. The Edge 540 aircraft is highly favored by race pilots.
Student pilot training requires steep turns without excessive loss or gain of altitude, while race pilots must hold altitude to within a few feet or risk hitting the water—as one Red Bull racer did (he flew away with damage to his aircraft but safely landed at the airport). You’ll pull fewer than two Gs in steep turns (a gravitation force equal to twice your body weight), while Red Bull pilots pull 10 to 12 Gs for six to eight seconds.
The career of a race pilot is one of the options open to those with a pilot certificate. Both potential pilots and those already flying professionally have not overlooked that opportunity. For Red Bull, the energy drink manufacturer based in Austria, air racing is just a way to identify the brand with energy and excitement. Excitement is the goal for a variety of sporting events sponsored by the company.
Inquiries are coming. The pilot of racer 99, Michael Goulian, gets e-mails from young people age 18 to 20 all over the planet asking how they might become Red Bull race pilots. “It’s bringing people into aviation, but it’s bringing young people into aviation. That’s the most important thing,” Goulian said. “It makes aviation cool.”
Kellie Chambliss, wife of race pilot Kirby Chambliss, has seen direct evidence of the influence Red Bull has had on teenagers' interest in aviation. She is a pilot with 2,000 hours, 600 of those in tailwheel airplanes like the clipped-wing 1946 Piper Cub and Storch she owns.
“It’s a sport that not only people who like aviation can get involved in, but the average Joe and young kids love it,” said Chambliss. “Some of my girlfriends have teenage boys who are in love with this sport. It’s amazing. It’s a fast motorsport, on the clock and timed. They know all about the pilots. They know their hobbies and where they live.”
What you’ll need. OK, so you want to do this? Start early in your career. The path to the Red Bull Air Race starts with aerobatic competition, where you maneuver the aircraft—sometimes strenuously—in a tightly contained space. That is also the definition of the Red Bull Air Race.
Many of the Red Bull pilots have gone well beyond local and regional aerobatic competitions to either place highly or win in international aerobatic competition. At a minimum, they are highly skilled airshow pilots. They are used to performing in high-performance aircraft before a crowd.
That’s a tall order, whether you are just starting out as a student pilot or are already flying for the military or an airline. It doesn’t hurt if your airshow activities have already established you as someone who can draw a crowd.
Maneuvers have to be perfectly performed, and there is one that even student pilots can start to perfect. Some of the pylons must be crossed in perfectly level flight; any bank, no matter how slight, is the basis for a penalty. Knife-edge flight has to be flown with wings perfectly vertical. Aerobatic airplanes like those used by Red Bull have engines with inverted fuel and oil systems, meaning they still get lubrication and fuel when in unusual attitudes—or upside down. A conventional engine can be damaged.
Or just be a fan. If you want it, but not enough, root for the only two American pilots in the Red Bull Air Race series: Kirby Chambliss and Michael Goulian.
Several years ago Chambliss momentarily pulled 14.7 Gs during a race turn above San Diego. That’s when Red Bull imposed a special penalty—disqualification for turns of more than 12 Gs (the limit of most of the race airplanes). That’s a high number impressive even to military pilots, who rarely pull more than 10 Gs.
Michael Goulian feels he does better when something makes him angry, but he knows all things are done in moderation—just a little anger, not too much.
He likes to do things at 110 percent, and likes to be around people who feel likewise, no matter what their job. He finds such people at Red Bull, whether they are assembling pit hangars or assigned to rescue crews.
If you got the impression that Red Bull racing is open only to the world’s elite pilots, you’d be right. That doesn’t mean with some practice you can’t be one of them, but as the tough-love coaches would say, you have to want it.
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