Testing … 1, 2, 3

Issue of team isolation is a hot topic

One of the questions I always get asked by people, is ‘when will you bring your race plane to Australia?’ The short answer is, I wish I could tell you! As an Aussie team competing in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship, one of the largest hurdles we face is the logistics around when and where we can access our Zivko Edge 540 V3 racer. Since we received the plane from the Zivko Aeronautics factory, it has never been to Australia. Instead it has spent a lifetime travelling the world as a piece of race freight with the air race series, or in a hangar in another country.

This brings us to the hottest topic among the air race teams right now – testing. Our first race of 2019 occurred in Abu Dhabi in early February and at the time of writing this our second race is at a yet to be determined location in Europe, some time later. No matter what, it’s a big gap. But then there will be seven races in close proximity to each other – so the competition is about to get intense! While a long gap between the first two races makes it seem like there will be significant downtime, for the teams the gap between races is disappearing quickly. The time between the first two races this year allows us an opportunity to test the aircraft and work on modifications of the plane.