Are you an adrenaline junkie? Does watching racecars burn around an oval track give you a rush? Well, that’s like taking in a soapbox derby compared to the Red Bull Air Race. The international challenge pits the most skilled pilots in the world against one another, the clock and physics as they navigate a slalom obstacle course at ludicrous speed. We talked with ace pilot Kirby Chambliss:
Playboy: What’s it like going that fast in an airplane?
Chambliss: It’s a huge rush. Things are just whizzing by and you’re only missing the gates by a few feet. Couple that with the tight turns, throw in the aerobatics and the vertical element and it is a much different contest than an F1 or a NASCAR race. Our track is 3-dimensional. All of a sudden the ground is coming up on your face and you’ve got to pull ten G’s to miss the ground at the last second--it’s pretty exciting stuff. Imagine being just a few feet off the ground when you’re going 260 miles per hour.
(You don’t have to imagine. Take this onboard flight with Chambliss.)
Playboy: Is there room for error?
Chambliss: If you hit a bridge, that will be it for you. The biggest difference between our racing and car racing is that if a person driving an F1 car makes a mistake and hits that soft wall, 95 percent of the time he gets up, throws his helmet at the car and walks away from it. That doesn’t happen in a Red Bull Air Race. You make a big mistake and 95 percent of the time you’re going to die. If you blow an engine in a racecar you pull over to the side of the road. If we blow an engine over water, we’re going to get wet. And we are going to get wet at 85 miles per hour.
Playboy: Has there been a fatality during a Red Bull Air Race?
Chambliss: Not yet. There have been many pylon hits and a couple of close calls. Eventually it will happen, but so far thankfully it hasn’t.
Playboy: What’s your insurance policy like?
Chambliss: I guess it could be worse.
The next race over US soil…err…water, will be September 22 in San Diego when planes take off from the USS Midway.
RSS 2.0
http://www.playboy.com/mt-tb.cgi/2604