The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Karen and I spent last weekend in San Diego courtesy of TIC170A member Scott Meyers and his wife Denise. Saturday was the Red Bull Air Races; well worth the trip. Check out this YouTube videofrom a camera near our vantage point at the south end of the Embarcadero, near the southern-most pylons.

Red Bull is a different take on air racing, as the competition is against the clock, and requires top-of-the-line aerobatic aircraft and skills. As you see in the video, each aircraft is equipped with telemetry so the announcer knows the speed and g-loads in real time. Typical entry speeds were around 240 mph and g-loads in the first turn were often in the 9+ range. Each aircraft also has real-time in-cockpit video that's shown on LARGE screens in the spectator area.

The course is marked with inflatable pylons (about 4 of which got hit, but were quickly replaced). The racer must turn around the pylons at or below the top. The double pylons must be flown through either in level flight (blue stripe), or in knife edge OPPOSITE the direction of turn (red stripe).




This aircraft came through the pylons wings level and has already rolled to knife edge to make the turn to the next pylon.


TIC170A Past President Duane Shockey, and Scott Meyers, our host for the the weekend. (Thanks Scott and Denise!)


Sightseeing the next day at Torrey Pines, north of San Diego. Yes, the Pacific was really that BLUE that day.

Miles

Ive been addicted to watching the Red Bull Air Races since last year when they started showing them on FSN. They are all set to record on my DVR now !

I think next year I'll try and make it to one of the USA races in person !

Hasta ~

Bob K.
Anchorage, AK

I caught it at Reno back in 2004 as an exhibition show, and it was easily the best part of the Races for me.

Do they still do the spot landing as part of the compulsory maneuvers? Back then, they had the pylons, but also a bunch of compulsory aerobatics, one of which was a high speed climb to 500 ft, then a spot landing on a marked-off section of runway. If the pilot missed the 10-ft section he was docked 5 secs, which was impossible to make up.

after a ride in a 'christen eagle'
several years back,
i admire anyone that can
pull 9 g's
iowa

Holy Cow Miles, what a video I have never been to the Reno races and while I am sure I would enjoy them, they aren't on my hot list of things to do, but these things on that video are fantastic. I'll bet you really enjoyed them. Do you think you could fly that course in your 170 Thanks for sharing them with us.

tripslip38 wrote:Do they still do the spot landing as part of the compulsory maneuvers? Back then, they had the pylons, but also a bunch of compulsory aerobatics, one of which was a high speed climb to 500 ft, then a spot landing on a marked-off section of runway. If the pilot missed the 10-ft section he was docked 5 secs, which was impossible to make up.

The races were at San Diego Harbor, but the aircraft were flying out of Brown Field several miles away, so I don't know what they were doing in the way of landings. As for aerobatics, each contestant usually did a few maneuvers climbing out of the last gate, but it was something different each time. I don't recall the penalty for hitting pylons, but I remember a couple of times the pilot went through the gates too high and were docked 10 seconds.

FSW network is supposed to replay the races several time, so maybe they'll go into more details on the scoring.

Miles

170C wrote:Do you think you could fly that course in your 170 Thanks for sharing them with us.

I have no doubt I could fly the course in the 170, sans the knife-edge stuff though, and definitely not in the 1.5 minutes or less (for TWO laps) that they were running!

Miles

My red one could do it. (I miss you, Joe.)

cessna170bdriver wrote:..

TIC170A Past President Duane Shockey, and Scott Meyers,...STUNNED, ....trying to recover in order to think of something cool to say to a cute blonde girl.

Miles

Scott is slightly faster than Duane.

Gahorn, I'm sure Joe would be tryin' to figure out how to use those big air filled pylons to hold his tent up!

gahorn wrote:

cessna170bdriver wrote:..

TIC170A Past President Duane Shockey, and Scott Meyers,...STUNNED, ....trying to recover in order to think of something cool to say to a cute blonde girl.

Miles

Scott is slightly faster than Duane.

Miles is scoring some nice points on the home front with that comment... that "cute blonde girl" is Karen. Nicely done.

George, was that a typo? I'm not sure what I was faster at, but I'm definitely fatter

Here's a few shots I took ...

We also saw some cool helo stuff...


This camera ship flew sideways along the waterline, shooting all the happy fans... look for us on the highlight reel


Aviators do it in echelon... Miles, Karen, Denise...








This helobatic demo was pretty impressive



Scott

The helo stuff must have been the coolest stuff you guys saw all day right?

The Red Bull and the camera helicopter are BO-105s. Probably 30 years old and one of the first models of helicopters capable of aerobatics.

SierraMike wrote:...
Miles is scoring some nice points on the home front with that comment... that "cute blonde girl" is Karen. Nicely done. ...

Scott

Actually, Scott... I took some clandestine moderator liberties with Mile's post and surreptitiously edited them to poke fun at you and Duane.

(If you look at Mile's original post you'll see I did not alter it...but only faked it in my quote of him.)

Who's the doofus between Miles and Karen?
Did Miles realize that Karen was having him followed by a PI (who is really talented at remaining hidden? ... look at the guy beside the tree.)

gahorn wrote:

SierraMike wrote:...
Miles is scoring some nice points on the home front with that comment... that "cute blonde girl" is Karen. Nicely done. ...

Scott

Actually, Scott... I took some clandestine moderator liberties with Mile's post and surreptitiously edited them to poke fun at you and Duane.

(If you look at Mile's original post you'll see I did not alter it...but only faked it in my quote of him.)

Thanks for that clarification, George.

Miles