Jay Honeck wrote:
Anyone else planning to attend?

We saw the Red Bull Air Races in Reno, back in '04, and were blown away
by them. Rather than race against other planes, these are timed races
over a closed (very difficult, often bizarre) course. See
http://www.redbullairrace.com/news.php?lang=en for videos and race
course descriptions.

Detroit is their only Midwestern appearance, and we've got our hotel
rooms and tickets reserved. We're planning to meet several other folks
who are flying in from throughout the Midwest, and anticipate a great
weekend. (Keeping our fingers crossed for good weather!)

I'd be interested in the opinions of those who have seen both
head-to-head racing (ala the Reno Air Races) and Red Bull-style closed
course races. I personally have enjoyed both styles, but the Red Bull
style has the advantage of keeping the action right in front of the
audience.

Regarding difficulty, Dudley, you've been involved in this sort of thing
over the years -- which, in your opinion, is the more difficult style of
race?

Both are difficult but I'd give the edge to the Red Bull pilots, in my
opinion, some of the finest in the world.
Handling a heavy prop fighter flat out at low altitude is extremely
difficult as that relates to rolling in on the pylons. The airspeeds are
well above corner velocity for each type so turn rate and radius are g
limited on the pilot's ability to take it or the limit load factor
whichever occurs first. Structurally the airplane can be over g'd easily
so it's a trade off with what you can take pilot wise against the max g
available out to the limit load factor.
Done correctly, normal racing turns are extremely smooth and led with
great finesse. In this respect it's quite similar to Indy racing.
I've never done the Red Bull, but we have several RB pilots in our
workgroup. Just from watching their films, considering the sensitivity
of their aircraft vs where they put their airplanes on the course and
what they do to position them there, these pilots have my greatest respect.

--
Dudley Henriques