Red Bull racer

Matt’s father who was also a pilot took Matt flying at an early age on flights in an Auster and later in a glider at the Warkworth Gliding Club in the Hunter Valley. By the age of 15, Matt was soloing in gliders. A power licence was completed at Warnervale and he then joined the RAAF. Included in Matt’s aviation experience is time flying ultra-lights and hang gliders.

Recently Matt has quoted his hobbies as being, ‘anything with my family, flying anything that can sustain flight, powered or unpowered.’

Having completed the RAAF’s pilot training course at RAAF Base Pearce on the PC-9 with one of the highest marks recorded, Matt was posted to fly the F/A-18 Hornet.

As he was posted to fly fast jets, this necessitated first a conversion course on the MB326 Macchi at then 25 Squadron at RAAF Pearce prior to going to RAAF Base Williamtown to do both the Introductory Fighter Course on the Macchi and then the Operational Conversion Course on the F/A-18 Hornet.

Matt subsequently served in 77 and 3 Squadrons at RAAF Base Williamtown. He then completed a Fighter Combat Instructors (FCI) course before instructing future fighter pilots on the F/A-18 Hornet at No 2 OCU.

Matt then served on an exchange tour with the USAF flying the F-15E Strike Eagle that included a tour of duty in the Middle East as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). With all this experience and after 3 years with the USAF, 2005 saw Matt return to Williamtown to be the course director of the FCI Course.

Although Matt had an aerobatic rating before he joined the RAAF, he hadn’t pursued it much until he was posted to the USA. With the Americans love of showmanship and high octane experiences, there were lots of opportunities in competition aerobatics whilst there. As Matt put it, ‘with the type of flying I was doing, it mixed perfectly with competition [aerobatics] (a fighter pilot habit!),’ competition aerobatics therefore came naturally to him. I suspect that as a fighter pilot, he really wanted to fly without a ‘back-seater’ as the Strike Eagle is a 2 seat jet!

Whilst in the USA, Matt purchased a Giles 202, which he brought back to Australia with the intention of competition flying and displays. After returning home and in 2006, he also found there were shares going in a CAC CA-18 Mk 21 (P-51) Mustang. The temptation was too much for the fighter pilot in Matt and he became a part owner and the conversion on to the type was complete in September 2006.

This is the aircraft that Matt showed off in all its glory at the recent Defence Force Air Show at Amberley held in October 2008 in both solo handling display and as the leader of a flypast of fighters past and present. A great sight.

The period from late 2006 to the present has been a very busy time for him.

Matt was Executive Officer (XO) of No 3 Squadron when they deployed to Perth to perform flypasts and aerobatic displays supporting the inaugural Perth Red Bull Air Race. Although he wasn’t directly involved in the F/A-18 activities, the other activities of the weekend didn’t go unnoticed; like the main event, the Red Bull!

Captivated by it, and a visit to the Red Bull web site, Matt applied to be a Red Bull pilot in 2007. As Matt puts it, ‘They talked to me in Perth at the 2007 race and offered me a position in a team of potential future race pilots, who would be coached in Europe by former World Aerobatic Pilot, Patrick Paris. I spent the majority of the first half of 2008 on leave from the RAAF while I trained with Patrick and 4 other pilots from around the world on a Red Bull Air Race Extra 300S, in Spain, Germany and Czech Republic. I competed in the World Aerobatics Cup, and the European Aerobatic Competition, gaining the necessary qualifications to be invited to a Rookie Camp. I went to the Rookie camp in September, once again flying my trusty steed the [Extra] 300S, which worked out well. At the training camp were a number of current race pilots, along with the Red Bull Air Race directors.

As part of this exposure to the World aerobatic scene Matt competed in the 2008 World Aerobatics Cup. According to the 2008 World Aerobatics Cup web site, Matt listed his results in competition aerobatics as, US East Coast Sportsman Champion 2003, Australian NSW Intermediate Champion 2005, Australian Advanced Champion 2006, Australian 4 Minute Freestyle Champion 2007, Australian Unlimited 2nd Place 2007 and US National 4 Minute Freestyle 5th 2007.

The best thing was that he listed his favourite food as ‘Meat Pie’. A true Aussie! Or a hangover from the pie van at 2OCU!

Matt finished a creditable eighth with another 2009 rookie Matthias Dolderer finishing 2nd.

The Red Bull Air Race season for 2009 kicks off in Abu Dhabi in April this year but at the time of writing, the remainder of the program hasn’t been announced.

Matt will be racing a brand new MXS from MXR Technologies of the USA. This aircraft is a relative to the Giles that Matt owns in Australia.

The MXS has been a maturing type in the Red Bull Air Race over the last year with its greatest success being two out of the four finalists in the Perth round being the MXS. There were only two racing; Nigel Lamb (UK) and Alexandro Maclean (ESP). Nigel finished second. There will be more around this year with a number of last year’s race pilots opting to change to the MXS.

Matt has recently been undergoing his indoctrination into the Red Bull with meetings in Austria and training on the MXS in the US.

With the timetable of the Red Bull, Matt will be planning to still base himself in the Newcastle area and commute to the race venues. A tall order considering the distances involved but Matt is going to see how it works and maybe have to move to Europe in the future. He is expecting around 8 races for this season.

As to Matt’s chances in his rookie year, he sees himself being okay in the racing, but how good will everyone else be? There are 3 other rookies this year, Matthias Dolderer from Germany, Yoshihide Muroya from Japan and Pete McLeod from Canada not to mention the experienced race pilots already well versed in the intricacies of the Red Bull race circuit, aircraft and what is involved to place well.

The Brit, Paul Bonhomme observing Hall’s daily impressive precision flying before the race was quoted as saying in Perth “I’ve been watching Matt fly here in some of the displays, and because he’s an Australian, I think he should have to do the whole race upside down.”

Even Red Bull’s veteran pilot and one of its founders Peter Besenyei, recently was seen keeping a wary eye on the new crop of rookies and its unlikely that the new group will be getting the sort of help that the 2008 winner Hannes Arch received in his first year going onto win overall a year later.

“I’ve been watching Matt fly here in some of the displays, and because he’s an Australian, I think he should have to do the whole race upside down!”

Peter Besenyei along with Red Bull’s Aviation Director Hans Moeller and Race Director, Aussie Drew Searle all rated Matt’s capabilities highly as early as day 2 in the September training camp in Spain. It was during this camp that Matt gained the coveted Super Licence.

What Matt does have on his side is his secret weapon; weight, or lack of it! As Matt explained to me in Perth last year, the performance of the modern race aircraft are so close that any performance edge that can be gained is invaluable. Better watch that appetite for meat pies though.

Increase the power to WEIGHT ratio by decreasing the weight, and some extra performance maybe gained. MXR list the MXS as having a weight of 590kg and 350 horsepower.

Matt suspects that some of the race pilots might be watching him as he is nearly 10kgs lighter than the lightest 2008 race pilot. That’s a lot of weight saving elsewhere in a high performance aircraft considering the controversy surrounding a couple of teams last year in their attempts to reduce weight with wheel sizes as an example.

Apart from the aircraft, Matt lists his main priority goals as safety followed by team development and then results. Matt is very much goal orientated. He is being ably assisted by a support team that includes technician Dennis Sawyer who has worked with Mike Mangold for the last two seasons and is himself a previous US Advanced National Aerobatics Champion. Dennis lives in Florida and will be preparing the MXS in North Carolina prior to the first race.

The Team Co-coordinator is Damien Kinsey. Damien and Matt are partners in the Mustang based at Caboolture in Queensland. It was Damien who came up with the plan early on for Matt’s entry into the Red Bull. Part of his responsibilities will be the administration for the team including travel and of course these days that all important web site where Australian race fans will be able to follow Matt’s progress.

The Team is now officially the Matt Hall Racing Team with a race number 95.

The training schedule in the mean time includes a mix of aerobic and weight exercise 5 days a week and at least 3 training flights a week in the Giles including three styles of flying, classic, airshow and low level race simulation just to stay current. The whole schedule is being aimed at getting the best out of the MXS at 30 feet above the ground in the race course.

It will only be a matter of time before Australian Red Bull Air Race fans are greeted by an Australian in the world famous race on home turf.