Red Bull Air Race 2006

Combining Speeds of Over 200kt, High G Forces, and the Pressure of Racing Against the Clock, Red Bull Air Racing is a New Dimension in Aviation Sports.

The Red Bull Air Race Juggernaut Brought 11 Aircraft, Pilots, and Their ‘pit Crew’ to Langley Park, the Site of Perth’s Original Airport Back in the 1930s, Turning It Again Into an Airport With a Temporary Runway (Trw), Hangars and Control Tower.

Prior to Coming to Perth, the Red Bull World Series Travelled to the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Germany, Russia (Although Cancelled), Turkey, Hungry, the Uk and the Us.

After Reassembling Their Aircraft at Fighter Combat International’s Jandakot Hangar, After Being Flown Into Perth on a Chartered 747 Freighter, the Red Bull Aircraft Flew Into Langley to Take Up Residence Four Days Before the Big Race.

Coming Into Round Nine of the Series, Kirby Chambliss (Pictured Opposite in His Edge 540) Led the Championship by Only Five Points, Ahead of Hungarian Peter Besenyei (the Man Behind the Inception of the Red Bull Air Race World Series in 2001). Chambliss Had to Finish in No Less Than Fifth Position to Be Crowned 2006 World Series Champion.

“my Problem During the Entire Series This Year is That I Want to Win at Any Cost – It Would Be Smarter to Simply Fly for Points,” Said Red Bull Sponsored Chambliss. “i Can’t Afford to Make a Single Mistake Here in Perth if I Want to Win the Championship. ” With Six Points on Offer for a Win, Rein-ing Champion American Mike Mangold Positioned Third on the Championship Points Table, Seven Points Behind Chambliss, and So Was Unable to Hold on to His Championship Title.

Also Out of Championship Contention Was the Uk’s Paul Bonhomme Who, in Fourth Position, Was Determined to Better His Final Series Standing at Perth.

Perth Spectators and Air Race Fans Watching Worldwide Could Not Have Asked for a More Thrilling Final Round to the Air Race World Series.

Red Bull Rookie

the 2006 Red Bull Series Was a First for Perth and Also for Rookie of the Year, Castrol Aviator Sponsored Michael Goulian From Massachusetts. For Michael, a Professional Airshow and Aerobatic Display Pilot, Learning the Ropes of the Red Bull Series Has Been a Challenging Experience.

Australian Aviation Spent Some Time With Goulian to Find Out From a Pilot’s Perspective What It’s Like to Fly in the Red Bull Air Race World Series.

“there Was a Lot More to Learn Than I Thought There Would Be,” Explained Goulian.

“the Guys Are All Friendly but You Are Clearly a Competitor So You Don’t Get a Lot of Tips From Them.

So It Took Me Half the Season to Work It Out Plus I Struggled at the Beginning of the Year Flying Two Different Types of Airplanes Until I Got My Extra. ” the Extra 300shp Proved to Be Quite Good for Goulian in the End, Although It Was Not Quite as Fast as the Edge Being Flown by the Top Four Pilots.

“i Think for My First Year I Have Shown That Being in Top Equipment I Can Be at the Top of the Ladder and That’s Where We Want to Be Positioned Next Year. ” Coming to Perth Fifth on the Points Table, the Guys Are All Friendly but You Are Clearly a Competitor So You Don’t Get a Lot of Tips From Them. Michael Was Suffering From a Subluxa-tion to His Sacroiliac Joint, Where His Spine and Hips Meet, Caused by a Previ-ous Back Injury and Stirred Up by the Long Flight to Australia.

Undergoing Constant Remedial Mas-sage in the Days Leading Up to the Big Race, Goulian Said the 12 to 14 Gs He Will Be Pulling Will Only Aggravate the Pain.

But Pain Aside, the Hardest Thing for Goulian During the Race Would Be to Not Fall to Asleep! “the Hardest Part for Me in the Red Bull Air Race, Quite Frankly, is Staying Awake. The G Forces Are So High and After a While It Wears You Down. When You’re Flying Manoeuvres at Aerobatic Airshows You Pull Up to 10 Gs but It’s Only for an Instant. This is 10 Gs for a 180 Degree Turn and It’s Pretty Hard on Your Body. ” All the Red Bull Pilots Own Their Own Aircraft and Are Paid an Appearance Fee, but Receive No Prize Money. To Make a Living Out of Air Race Flying, the Red Bull Pilots Need to Source Sponsorship.

“sponsors Are Vitally Important,” Explained Goulian. “for Me, Red Bull Air Racing and Aerobatic Airshow Flying is How I Make My Living. So With Spon-sorship It Allows Me to Do That as You Really Couldn’t Make a Living Full Time and Support a Family if You Didn’t Have Sponsors. ” Luckily for Michael, He Picked Up Sponsorship in April 2004 While Flying the American Airshow Circuit.

“castrol is a Company That Has a Racing Heritage So When I First Went in to Talk to Castrol They Understood – They Know What It Means to Have a Driver and Piece of Equipment and How to Use It to Win,” Continued Goulian. “for All of Us Here It’s a Dream to Have a Major Sponsor to Be Able to Support You and Help You Grow. It’s the Pinnacle and You Can’t Ask for More. ”

Want to Be a Red Bull Pilot?

Australian Airshow and Aerobatic Pilot Pip Borman Would Like Very Much to Be-come Australia’s First Red Bull Air Race Entrant, However, “we Had the Invitation Offered to Us to Compete but When You Boil It All Down It’s a Huge Commitment and With My Lifestyle and the Commit-ments I Have Here I Just Can’t Afford the Time. ” the Dedication Required to Compete in the Air Race Series Sees the Pilots on the Road for Around Nine Months of the Year.

“there Are Some Australian Guys Vying for a Position in the Series Next Year Which Will Be Fantastic,” Explained Pip. “australian Content Would Do the Red Bull Series the World of Good and Would More Than Justify What is Hap-pening Here in Perth. The Majority of These Guys Have Been With the Series for the Past Two Years So There is a Depth of Talent That You Can’t Acquire Overnight. To Be Competitive on the Series It Would Probably Take You Two Years to Get Up to Speed Unless You Are a Freak Sort of a Talent and Have a Freak Sort of an Aeroplane. ” the Track the Track Was Set Up on the Waters of Swan River Directly Across From Langley Park Between the Narrows Bridge and the Causeway.

The Track

Layout Was Designed to Be Challenging for the Pilots and to Be as Much of a Spectacle for the Crowd as Possible.

“the Way They Set Out the Track Helps to Slow Us Down So We Don’t Pull as Many Gs” Explains Kirby Chambliss. “it Also Makes It Look Really Cool When You Go Zipping Through, Rolling From One Wing to the Other at a Very Fast Pace. ” “reducing the G Not Only Reduces the Wear on Our Bodies but Also the Planes” Added Chambliss.

The Pylons Used for the Air Gates Are Made of Light Spinnaker Material and Are Sturdy Enough to Remain Stationary in All Weather Conditions but Fragile Enough to Split Apart the Instant They Are Hit by an Aircraft. Constructed in Sections, if a Pylon is Hit and Deflates, a Response Crew Can Replace a Damaged Section and Re-inflate the Pylon in Around Three Minutes.

To Make Things More Challenging, Air Gate Pylons Are Coloured Red and Blue. Red Air Gates, With Pylons Only 10 Metres Apart, Had to Be Crossed Verti-cally in a Knife-edge Position. Blue Air Gates, Slightly Wider at 14 Metres, Were to Be Crossed Horizontally in Level Flight. This When the Average Wing Span of the Aircraft Are Only Eight Metres! Failure to Pass Through a Gate Correct-ly, or Even to Hit an Air Gate, Attracted a Time Penalty Which Would Be Added on to the Pilot’s Lap Time.

Colliding With a Pylon (Reportedly Worth Us$5000 Each) Incurs a Penalty of 10 Seconds and for Some Pilots It Gets Their Heart Rate Pumping High.

“it Depends on How You Hit Them – Some Are Very Benign,” Explained Chambliss. “i’ve Smoked One Going Really Fast Before and You Can Hear It Burst. If You Hit the Gate Straight on, or Under G, the Airplane Gets Pretty Wild and When You’re Only a Few Feet Off the Ground, You Better Know How to Catch It Quick. ” the Track Also Featured a Chicane of Three Red Pylons and Four Red Pylons in the Shape of a Square – Called the ‘quaddro’. Aircraft Would Need to Pass Through the Quaddro Twice on Each Lap, From Two Different Directions, Before Moving on to the Next Gate.

Being Susceptible to Winds, Only the Slightest Breeze Would Cause the Air Gates to Shift Slightly Out of Alignment.

“the Difference Here is That the Weather Conditions Have Changed Every Day So We Saw a New Race Track Virtu-ally Each Day,” Said Michael Goulian. “earlier in the Week, the Wind Was Blow-ing From the West and the Day Before the Wind Was From the South. So, Your Path Through the Track Each Day Will Be Different and Your Entry Into Certain Gates Will Be Different and That Requires a Lot of Preparation Before the Race. ” Having Seen the Perth Track on Paper Three Weeks Prior to Arriving in Australia, Kirby Chambliss Had a Rough Idea of What to Expect. “what We Get to See on Paper to What Actually We See Out on the Water is Not Always Exactly the Same,” Said Chambliss. “all We Can Do is Memorise the Track – We Can’t Really Work on the Angles Until We Get Here and See It. ”

The Race

the Race Consisted of Four Sessions – Two Qualifying Rounds on the Saturday and Two Races on Sunday.

Saturday’s Two Qualifying Sessions Gave the Dedicated Crowd a Taste of What to Expect Under Race Conditions and to Determine the Starting Order on Race Day. Qualifying in First Place Meant Flying Last. This Gave the Fastest Pilot the Advantage of Watching His Competitors Fly, Hoping to Pick Up on Their Tactics and Where They Made Mistakes. Under Perfect Conditions, Race Day Sunday Attracted an Estimated Crowd of 300,000 to the Shores Around the Swan River.

The First Race Resulted in the Creation of a Showdown With Peter Besenyei, Who Qualified the Fastest With a Lap Record of 1:18. 38. Kirby Chambliss Qualified Second Fastest While Paul Bonhomme, Only Two Seconds Off the Pace, Finished Third Fastest.

Perth Proved Popular With the Pilots as They Could Watch the All the Action Across the River From the Trw at Langley Park.

“one of the Great Things About Perth is That You Can See the Track From the Trw” Said Goulian. “even Though We’d Always Like to Have the Trw Next to the Track You Can’t Always Do It Logistically So This Makes Perth a Special Event. ” Starting in Reverse Order From Posi-tions Placed in Race One, Dutchman Frank Versteegh Flying a Borrowed Extra 300s From Australian Aerobatic Cham-pion Tom Moon Was First Up in Race Two and Posted an Aggregate Time of 3:02. 46.

Crossing Through the Start Air Gate to Begin Their Hot Laps, Aircraft Were to Fly No Faster Than 200kt, With a Buffer of 20kt Allowed. Any Faster Would Result in a Penalty. Earlier in the Week All the Aircraft Underwent a Speed Check by Performing High Speed Passes Over Red Bull Calibration Equipment at Perth’s Jandakot Airport to Insure Airspeed Indicators Were Calibrated.

Several Large Television Screens Scat-tered Around the River Bank Accompa-nied by Clear Commentary Over the Pa Kept the Crowd on Their Toes as Klaus Schrodt, Nicolas Ivanoff, Alejandro Maclean, Nigel Lamb and Steve Jones Continued to Set Faster Times for the Big Guns to Beat.

Up Next, Michael Goulian, Who Finished Fifth Fastest in Race One, Was Determined to Improve His Position and Make It Onto the Podium.

“the Thing With This Racing Stuff is You Can’t Make a Mistake,” Says Goulian. “it’s One Run of About a Minute and 20 Seconds and You Can’t Make an Error. It’s Not Like if You Have a Bad Corner in Formula One or World Rally Cars Where Somebody Passes You and You Have the Opportunity to Pass Them Back, if You Make a Mistake Here It’s Time That’s Gone That You Can’t Get Back. ” Unfortunately for Goulian His Second Round Saw Him Two and a Half Seconds Slower Than His First Attempt. He Fin-ished With a Combined 2:49. 32 Relegat-ing Him to Sixth Overall on the Day.

The Us’s Mike Mangold Took to the Track Hard, Taking Out Fourth Place for the Round.

For Mangold, His Last Round at Perth Finished Off a Disappointing Year.

“i Made Some Bad Decisions Early on [in the Season] to Bring a New Airplane in Before It Was Fully Developed and It Was a Struggle,” Said Mangold. “it’s the Best I Could Have Done With What I Had So I’m Not Too Disappointed Overall With Today’s Performance. ” of the Final Three Pilots to Come, Paul Bonhomme Came Out Guns Blazing, Recording a Blistering 1:19. 71, Only a Half a Second Slower Than Besenyei’s Lap Record. Bonhomme’s Aggregate Time of 2:40. 37 Was Going to Be Tough to Beat for Chambliss and Besenyei.

With His First Championship in Sight, There Had Been Talk During the Week That Chambliss Would Fly Conservatively for the Points.

“when Peter Turned in a 1:18. 38 in the First Round Today I Thought the Only Way I Could Beat Him Was to Go Out There and Risk Everything, but I Knew It Was Going to Be Hard to Beat Him,” Said Chambliss.

In Chambliss’s Final Flight He Could Only Manage a 1:21. 96, Which Was One and a Half Seconds Slower Than His First Round. Chambliss Would Have to Make Do With a Total Time of 2:42. 24, and Be-ing Second Quickest Behind Bonhomme, as Besenyei Took to the Sky for the Final Flight of the Day, and the World Series.

Besenyei Only Needed a Faultless Flight to Beat Bonhomme and Win the Round.

Posting a Final Time of 1:21. 40, Giving Him a Total of 2:39. 78, This Gave Besenyei First Place Over Bonhomme With Chambliss on the Podium in Third.

It Was Besenyei’s Second Win of the Season After His First Place Finish in Barcelona, Spain, in May.

“victory in the Season Finale Means a Great Deal to Me. Seeing the Hundreds of Thousands of Fans Along the Swan River Was an Incredible Experience, Especially From the Sky,” Said Besenyei Chambliss’s Third Place Handed Him the World Championship, Finishing the Series on 38 Points Ahead of Besenyei (35) and Mike Mangold (30).

“winning the World Series Has Become My Crowning Achievement,” Said Chambliss.

Taking to the Podium for the Presen-tation Ceremony, Besenyei, Bonhomme and Chambliss Were Awarded With Their Trophies While Receiving Warm Applause From the Receptive Crowd and Their Fellow Red Bull Pilots.

For Mike Mangold, the Time Had Come to Hand Over the Championship Trophy to Chambliss – the New 2006 Red Bull Air Race World Series Champion.

“i’m Going to Try to Get It Back Off Kirby Next Year” Said Mangold. “we Think We’ve Got a Handle on What We Need to Do Next Year to Go Faster and We’ll Sure Give It a Try. ”

There’s Always Next Year

the First Round of the 2007 Red Bull Air Race World Series Will Be in Late March Before Returning Again to Perth for the Final Round in Early November. At the Time of Writing, the Exact Schedule for the Series Had Not Been Confirmed.

Perth is to Host the Air Race Until 2008 Thanks to Support From the Western Australian State Government, Which Contributed Approximately $2. 8 Million to the Staging of the Air Race.

Perth Proved Extremely Popular With the Pilots.

“the Infrastructure Here is Fantastic. The Hotel is 200 Yards That Way, the Trw is Just Here, and the Track is Just Over There – It’s So Perfect,” Said Paul Bonhomme. “not to Mention the Beau-tiful Weather and the Friendly People. ” for the Pilots, the End of the Season Means a Short Break Before Gearing Up to Do It All Again. For Michael Goulian, He Will Be Out to Improve on His Fifth Championship Placing.

“during the Off Season, We’ll All Be Training Our Bodies and Will Be Trying to Make the Airplanes Fly Faster,” He Said. “i Will Have a New Airplane for Next Year but at This Stage I’m Not Sure What It Will Be Yet – I Know It Will Definitely Be Faster So Watch Out. “