Qualifying Rounds of the Red Bull Air Race 2010 in Perth

I attended the Red Bull Air Race in Perth today thanks to the generous hospitality of a couple of blokes I spend a lot of money with for work. They didn't skimp on the tickets and purchased Race Club tickets which entitled us to all the drinks and food we could eat along with seating in a grandstand. And we were right up close to the planes near the chicanes just after the start/finish gate.

It was a beautiful day full of sunshine and reached 26.7°C. The hosties did a wonderful job and you couldn't fault the hospitality. Red Bull puts on a great package. Managed to grab a few videos and nearly two hundred photos. That was nothing compared with the one-legged Japanese tourist who sat next to me. His camera was capable of taking 5-8 shots per second and boy did he take some photos.


Hannes Arch's 2nd Qualifying round Red Bull Air Race Perth 2010 over the Swan River on April 17th. Quality commentary from the Red Bull commentary team.


Matt Hall's 1st Qualifying round Red Bull Air Race Perth 2010 over the Swan River on April 17th.


Matt Hall's 2nd Qualifying round Red Bull Air Race Perth 2010 over the Swan River on April 17th.


Peter Besenyei's 1st Qualifying round Red Bull Air Race Perth 2010 over the Swan River on April 17th.


Peter Besenyei's 2nd Qualifying round Red Bull Air Race Perth 2010 over the Swan River on April 17th.

Dorky looking bloke in the stands.

Red Bull Air Race control tower.

Red Bull Air Race commentary team at work.

Red Bull Air Race advertising.

Japanese tourist with a serious camera.

Starting the second lap.

Paul Bonhomme's smoke is definitely on.

Nigel Lamb successfully advertising for Breitling.

Nice shot through the start gate.

Nice rounding of the chicane.

Just missed the competitor in the Red Bull Air Race.

I think the race stewards can see the smoke quite clearly.

Approaching starting gate on second lap.

Appears to be heading straight for the pylon.

This pilot has the best job.

Qualifying results.

Excellent vantage point.

Not sure what this plane was but his jet engine made for a great display.

The Roulettes in action.

The Roulettes in formation above Perth.

Mirror image formation by The Roulettes.

Red Bull Air Race 2008

The finals of the Red Bull Air Race 2008 were held over the Swan River yesterday. The Boy and I went down to enjoy the afternoon of racing. Our intention was to catch a bus near to the event and walk from the Vic Park transfer station. I parked the car near a bus station and found out that the next bus, on this busy road, was half an hour away. With an event expected to draw 100,000 to 150,000 spectators you would expect a bit more public transport to be available. So we parked nearer the event and walked.

It was a rather warm 26 degrees and some people had been there since early in the morning, probably to obtain a good spot. One of those must have been the people we decided to set up camp in front of because, beer in hand, he proceeded to yell abuse at me with all sorts of expletives. No consideration for the Boy. Arsehole. We found a better vantage point a little bit further away.

It was a good afternoons racing. We saw the Red Bull Air Race 2008 champion, Hannes Arch from Austria, competing. Paul Bonhomme went on to win the event and Nigel Lamb finished second. Of course I have some photos and videos of the event.

Whoops.

Made it through ok.

Pull her up for a Cuban!

Big crowd in attendance on the South Perth foreshore.

Roulettes in flying formation


Following the air race was a demonstration by the Roulettes and then the most exciting part of the day - a flypast by an FA-18 fighter jet. The FA-18 blew them all away. So loud and so fast.


FA18 flypast video


FA18 zips by


Paul Bonhomme's winning run at the Perth event of the Red Bull Air Race 2008.


Nigel Lamb’s second place run at the Perth event of the Red Bull Air Race 2008.


Hannes Arch's quarter final run at the Perth event of the Red Bull Air Race 2008. Could have been the semi final. I can't remember.

Christmas Party 2007

We had our Christmas party the other day. The intention was to head to Rottnest Island for the day, have a snorkel, eat a BBQ lunch and then play beach cricket before heading back. But the forecast was for strong winds and big waves so it was decided that we should go up the Swan River in a more pedestrian, and non-gut-churning, manner.

Our boats - Jazz IV and West End II.

The fun, young people went on the West End II whilst us serious, oldie-types were on the Jazz IV.

Emergency training craft.

I was kind of hoping that there would be no need for us to require emergency evacuation training.

Fremantle Maritime Museum.

Worth a look, the museum is. It's situated right at the end of the harbour.

The other boat.

Just cruising up the harbour in Fremantle.

Container ship.

Fremantle is quite a busy port when it comes to container ships.

Million dollar houses with million dollar views.

I guess you could say this is Millionaire's Row, or at least one of them, in Perth. Some fabulous house dotted the shoreline. Looks a bit Mediterranean, doesn't it?

Scene along the Swan River.

Not a bad spot actually.

Crowded marina.

At the moment I believe it is quite difficult to obtain a mooring position in Perth due to the number of boat owners. This marina is called the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club.

Someone out for a cruise.

This looks like a private boat and I'm sure I saw this at Rottnest on our trip last year.

Swans and five cygnets.

Quite unusual for such a large brood of cygnets to survive so these guys were doing well.

The cricket match.

It's traditional to play cricket during the Christmas party. There were a few internationals who had never played before and the fact that the equipment was kid's sized made it even more difficult.

One for your dog sign.

Charming man.

Don't forget your beer when you go for a swim.

Someone had a bet about pushing this guy into the water. He lost his beer during the incident and the skipper made him go back and fetch it as there is no littering allowed in the river. I was planning to have a swim but there were lots of blowfish and jellyfish in the water. A sting ray also went underneath our boat at one stage.

Cruise ship in town.

On the way back to base I noticed that there was a cruise ship in town. Might go on one of these one day.

Japanese Navy in town.

The Japanese Navy also made an appearance in town. Fremantle is a well known stopover point for American warships so I was a little surprised to see this.

They're just good friends.

Really, they're just good friends.

All in all it was a good day. I don't think that anybody threw up which would make it three less than last year, although none of those three came this year, and it wasn't too rough. Lunch was BBQ'ed chicken or steak with a nice array of salad and there was even some beer left over at the end of the day! Obviously not hot enough. Or maybe we spent too much time playing cricket too far away from the boat. I'd have preferred to have gone snorkelling on Rottnest but it was a good decision not to head over there in the end as it would have been too choppy. There were a few cases of sunburn on the following Monday.

Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth

Yu-Jin and I attended the Red Bull Air Race held above, only just, the Swan River yesterday. It features daredevil pilots racing at up to 400 km/h only 15m above the water and carrying out loops, knife maneouvres and perhaps a few barrel rolls afterwards if you're lucky.

We had a reasonably good spot although we were in the sun. Bringing a tent next time would be a good idea. There were two formation flying displays prior to the elimination round whereby the 12 pilots who had qualified would be cut down to eight who would then be matched in quarter finals, semi finals and the grand final.

Yu-Jin lost interest before the elimination round was finished. Following that I let him play on the playground where he met one of his classmates. He then joined some boys playing football. We then had an ice cream each as it was approaching 30 degrees.

Back to racing by this time for the quarter finals. The two men who could still win the world championship, Paul Bonhomme and Mike Mangold, were paired against each other. Mangold won this duel, after trailing by 0.05 seconds at the last marker, and went on to take third place and the world championship on countback.

Time to go home. I didn't have intentions to stay the whole day anyway and could watch the rest on television. Luckily it was being beamed live to the eastern states and so was on a two hour delay to Perth.

Red Bull Air Race 2007 held above the Swan River in Perth.

Red Bull Air Race 2007 Low Flying by one of the Red Bull team, probably Peter Bensenyei.

Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth knife edge+manoeuvre between the quad pylons.

Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth Red Bull Plane between pylons.

Plenty of dunnies on hand.

Interested spectators with a decent view in South Perth.




Michael Goulian in the Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth elimination round.




Mike Mangold in the Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth elimination round.




Mike Mangold vs Paul Bonhomme in the Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth quarter final.




Paul Bonhomme vs Mike Mangold in the Red Bull Air Race 2007 Perth quarter final.

Results