Need for speed

With an almost impossible task ahead of him, Brit Paul Bonhomme entered the Perth race in second place overall, nine points adrift of Austrian Hannes Arch who would have to finish almost out of the points not to be crowned the 2008 champion.

Hannes, in only his second year in the series, has had a spectacular 2008, being right on the heels of the consistent Bonhomme, throughout the year. That was until the Porto round in Portugal when Paul scored zero points for having over ‘g’ed his aircraft, a result that was very out of character after the rest of the year’s performance that has seen six podium finishes including four wins, compared to Hannes’ s seven podiums and two wins.

The most likely outcome was to be a battle between Kirby Chambliss and Bonhomme for second overall. Again, with Perth being the last round, the result came down to simple mathematics.

Good Gyrations

Nothing beats the exhilaration of flying the highly manoeuvrable aerobatic Extras, Edges and MXSs around the course of pylons in the fastest time.

The aircraft used in the race series are modified versions of the Edge 540, Extra 300 and the new all composite MXS.

Each pilot then has his own modifications and improvements carried out, with extensive aerodynamic and engine tweaks to gain the required performance through the varying courses. Some are more successful than others.

The current race fleet is made up of one Extra 300SR, nine Edge 540s and two MXSs. The smooth flowing lines of the MXS are certainly a pleasure to the eye compared to the somewhat angular lines and flat sides of the Edge. And you know what they say about if it looks fast, then it probably flies that way.

It was very obvious in the tight turning Perth course that this aircraft could be a force for the future.

As well as the performance improvements, each aircraft is fitted with telemetry equipment to capture HD video and aircraft data that is relayed to the ground in real time so that the judges in the ‘race tower’ can monitor for rule infringements.

Unlike the narrow course of the previous race over the river Douro in Porto, which required more straight-line speed, the Perth course over the Swan River offers more room for a turning course incorporating chicanes, knife edge gates and tight turns connecting them together.

The Perth ‘amphitheatre’ venue offers the spectacle of the temporary runway in Langley Park beside the city to the north, the Swan River race track and the Sir James Mitchell Park to the south providing room for many hundreds of thousand spectators.

This year saw a course almost identical to that used in 2007 requiring two laps consisting of a chicane first up after the start gate, two wings level gates (blue bands), then a half Cuban to reverse direction back through another wings level gate, and then through two right wing low knife edge gates (red bands) before crossing the start finish line. It was a course that required speeds up to 200kt and g forces of up to 9g around the turns, with energy management the key to fast times.

Following training and practice on the Thursday and Friday, the racers enter qualifying on the Saturday with the top eight pilots progressing onto the race day on Sunday. The next four pilots fight it out on race day in the one point round, the fastest scoring the one point on offer.

Red Bull Raafie

Next year Australian Matt Hall could be poised to enter the Red Bull Air Race circus. Matt is a current F/A-18 Hornetpilot with the RAAF, and first attended the race in 2006 when he was executive officer of 3 Squadron which conducted an F/A-18 flying display that year.

Matt was captivated by the race and concept and after checking the Red Bull Air Race website on how to become an air race pilot, applied. To his surprise, the organisers contacted him and the journey began.

Although Matt was a highly qualified pilot, he lacked the international aerobatics experience. This training was organised by the Red Bull organisation and Matt quickly rose through the world aerobatic rankings.

He is a rare talent, highly regarded for his flying ability in the RAAF as a Fighter Combat Instructor (FCI) on the F/A-18.

As recently as September this year, Matt participated in the Red Bull training camp in Spain where he was granted the coveted ‘Super Licence’ which allows him to be eligible for selection for future Red Bull competition seasons.

In October, Matt displayed his capabilities at the annual Defence Force Airshow held this year at Amberley, putting his Giles aerobatic aircraft through a spirited display and later flying the P-51 Mustang leading a fly-past of fighters.

During Red Bull 2008, Matt was in attendance putting on a daily display in the Attitude Aerobatics Extra 300, a display that was praised by many of those attending.

He even tempted Red Bull’s aviation expert and race director, Australian Drew Searle, on race day prior to his aerobatic display over race radio: “Those pylons look tempting, can I come in?” “Negative, not yet! Cleared for your show, smoke ON. ” Still, although Matt is qualified to compete in the air race, he has to wait to hear whether there is room in the program next year before he gets the nod.

If Matt does have the right to fly next year, he has to select an aircraft, an engineer and support crew in the three to four months before the first race.

Good luck, Matt.

Cleared Into The Track

There is camaraderie between the pilots, an example being when Hannes Arch helped to push Paul Bonhomme’s aircraft back into the hangar after test flying, despite the two being contenders for the championship crown.

The Perth course was its usual twisting style with the sole change from 2007 being the substitution of two knife edge gates instead of the quattro. The usual Perth wind variations came into play with the wind changing direction 180 degrees between the two training and practice days.

This made for some interesting conditions with many gates being taken out during this period from aircraft drifting into them. The most spectacular was when Hannes collided with Gate 8 head-on, shattering it into a thousand pieces with the propeller with some pieces wrapped around the leading edge.

A quick ‘speed to height’, a bit of slip, and the offending piece of nylon was gone.

After the first practice, Hannes laid down the gauntlet with a blistering pace that was a clear four seconds faster than his nearest rival.

Coming into this round, Hannes led Paul Bonhomme by nine points, meaning that Hannes only had to qualify in the round of eight, thereby collecting a minimum of two points to make it impossible for Paul to win overall.

Unperturbed, Paul put in some blistering flying on race day to win the Perth round, with Nigel Lamb in the improving MXS finishing second and Kirby Chambliss third.

The most unfortunate was defending champion Mike Mangold, who failed to make the round of eight after qualifying on Saturday. Mike did, however, achieve the one point on offer in the one point fly-off on race day.

Sunday finished with Hannes performing the aviation equivalent of ‘donuts’, taxiing the Edge 540 around in circles with the smoke on, back at the temporary runway in Langley Park.

The whole race program was ably supported by a number of other acts that included displays by Nanchangs from Fighter Combat International at Jandakot, a Harvard and Christian Eagle aerobatics display, a RAAF F/A-18 Hornet, the RAAF Roulettes, and the most interesting Blue Angel, AA’s own Rob Grimstead flying his Fournier RF-4 powered glider aerobatic display.