Red Bull Practice Runs

[glennlcasey]

Hi Hi, well i went down to the South Perth foreshore to watch the aircraft doing their practice runs. They were fantastic, and that was only thepractice, i cant wait to see the full race


     
     
     
     
     
     
     

[Hagar]

Excellent. That does look rather good.

[alrot]

No more shot of FSX here  ;D that is awsome,you can see the blades of the plane engine as well the chop,amazing shots ,that must be a hell of a cam ,I wish I could afford one...


Alex

[glennlcasey]

yeah i bought myself a new camera. ( i accidentally lost the battery charger to the old one, and couldnt find another anywhere) The camera is a CANON S3I5. bought for $650 australian. got panoramic view, and a whole bunch of features, quick saving times, so you can shoot a whole bucket load of photos. Well worth paying the little bit extra.

[Rifleman]

This looks like disaster just waiting to happen.....even if those towers are just air-filled material, hitting one at such a low alt would surely not have much hope of a safe recovery ?

I love flying and aerobatics, but then there's just too many toes over the line at times............

Sir Douglas Bader comes to mind........look what low level did to him........ ..........even a perfect pilot can't see or control an errant down-draught....

[C]

This looks like disaster just waiting to happen.....even if those towers are just air-filled material, hitting one at such a low alt would surely not have much hope of a safe recovery ?

I love flying and aerobatics, but then there's just too many toes over the line at times............

All the pilots are very experienced aerobatic display pilots, and I'm sure they take all the same care as they do during  an aerobatic display or competition.

The pylons are very collapsible, and have been designed to be flown through if it happens.

[mrjake2002]

You're so bloody lucky! I went to Longleat this year (8 hour drive in our old van) abd they cancelled it :-/

Great shots! Have fun on the day!!

[Hagar]

Sir Douglas Bader comes to mind........look what low level did to him........ ..........even a perfect pilot can't see or control an errant down-draught....

I agree to a certain extent but doubt very much if this would be allowed in the UK if they didn't comply with stringent safety requirements. These pilots are highly experienced professionals & the best in the business. http://www.redbullairrace.com/pilots.php?PHPSESSID=eb9942f742a0aba9563e42416de17917
One accident & I suspect that will be the end of it.

With the greatest of respect to Pilot Officer Douglas Bader (as he was at the time of the accident) he was a typical young fighter pilot of the period showing off & disobeying direct orders. The story goes that he was goaded into it by remarks made by civilian pilots. How many times has this been the cause of a disaster?

[Woodlouse2002]

This looks like disaster just waiting to happen.....even if those towers are just air-filled material, hitting one at such a low alt would surely not have much hope of a safe recovery ?

I love flying and aerobatics, but then there's just too many toes over the line at times............

Sir Douglas Bader comes to mind........look what low level did to him........ ..........even a perfect pilot can't see or control an errant down-draught....

When the pillars are hit they just tear off. Like cutting ribbons with your wings. They do it quite often and isn't really a danger at all.

[Hagar]

Indeed Woody.

A slalom in the sky with pilots speeding through the Red Bull Air Race course at over 400 kph? It's extremely exciting but also very risky. That is why it is so important that the obstacles can deal with impact without any adverse consequence to the plane or pilot. One question that's always asked is: what happens when a plane hits a pylon?

The 'Air Gates', as the pylons are called, have been painstakingly developed by the Innsbruck based company Bellutti Protection Systems. Martin Jehart and his team have designed air gates that disintegrate when a plane collides with them. They are made from a very light and fragile spinnaker material which rips immediately when touched by an aircraft wing or propeller, so that they simply collapse without any damage or danger to the airplane. Within four minutes an air gate can be replaced by a new one.

Despite their fragility the air gates are also very resilient and can withstand wind-speeds of up to 54 kph without being blown over. This is achieved by making the pylons cone-shaped - at their base they measure five metres across and at their tip 75 centimetres.  

The air gates stand 20 metres high and the distance between each pair is approximately 10 to 14 metres.  

http://www.redbullairrace.com/content1.php?seite2=gates

[eno]

Yup Longleat ...... all we saw fly was the helicopter  :(

[cspyro21]

Yup Longleat ...... all we saw fly was the helicopter  :(

Didn't you see the Red Bull Matadors flying Eno? (Or, rather, being blown around all over the place)

Looks like a great race is going to be held there Glenno, that last photo is brilliant

[C]

With the greatest of respect to Pilot Officer Douglas Bader (as he was at the time of the accident) he was a typical young fighter pilot of the period showing off & disobeying direct orders. The story goes that he was goaded into it by remarks made by civilian pilots. How many times has this been the cause of a disaster?

I wouldn't call him typical (if it had not been for WWII no one would have heard of him, and to be fair, apart from developing inferior tactics during the Battle of Britain under the supervision of a leader, Leigh-Mallory, who obviously, looking at later events had political support, and getting shot down over France, he didn't do that much), and I suspect in the modern air force he would find himself in a very different environment. Flight Safety as a way of life didn't really exist in the 30s.

[Woodlouse2002]

Bader was a display pilot also. He just got too cocky for his own good.

[C]

Bader was a display pilot also. He just got too cocky for his own good.

Again, I'm not sure that display pilots existed in the RAF as they do now.