Part 2 at Abu Dhabi

[dobar]

As promised, I've dug a few more shots up from the run through the Red Bull Air Race course set up in Abu Dhabi. I don't have many more but I'll keep trying to take some more as and when I fly the course.


In the intermission as I get ready for my run, the camera ship, a BO-117 helicopter owned by RBAR came along for a promo-shoot as I flew across the city. You can just see my concentrated face behind the visor!


Flicking through the first slalom at 220kts just after starting the run. It's very difficult to trim the aircraft as speed will reduce greatly once you start navigating the gates so you either have to multi-task by trimming the aircraft as you go, which isn't easy as you're not level for long and you need all the focus on flying, or adjust the flying style as you progress, putting more and more back pressure on the stick when you turn and fly straight through the pylons.


Yep, we're aiming for that gate! It's very close to the half-cuban so you need to dive steeply into it and pull out at the last moment to make it work. The half-cuban also needs to be very tight, I think I was pulling about 10G and climbing only 900ft in it to get round quickly!


Into the quaddro after slalom 2, effectively making this Gate 4 and Gate 10 on the second run. It may seem early to be on the knife-edge but trust me, I was less than half a second away from going through the gate. At these speeds, things do go by quickly but they do also seem slow when you concentrate hard!

That's all for now, on the next run, my race engineer has promised to go out with his camera and get some shots from the beach!

[Smutley]

Wonderful post Tom, but I must admit that some of those angles have put me right off my tea.

[dobar]

Yep, it does that! This certainly is a wild ride, especially having a wing-tip about 6 feet from the water in some turns!

[Smutley]

I prefer my wingtips at 35000.

[dobar]

Now where's the adventure in that then Simon? You'd enjoy it down here really, you can see the amazed look on the faces of the spectators as you go past!

[Smutley]

I wouldn't be able to see the amazed look, owing to the fact that I'd have my eyes shut at the time.

[peer01]

I fell of my chair looking at your pics Nice ones

[yankeesji]

Crazy great shots!

[adamb]

Nice shots.Maybe i feel a little queazy,need some fresh air.

Adam

[bumpkin]

WOW

Now where did I put my spare underwear?