Air Race above Swan Lake

Last weekend, the finals of the world cup air racing 2008 were held in Perth. During the week Jurriaan already heart and saw the practise rounds in his office. So we had to go and look.
We don't know anything about air racing but we got excited quickly. We cycled and watched first from King's Park and later from the shores of South Perth with the beautiful backdrop of the Perth skyline.






Some of the pilots cut it quite close, sometimes too close, as one flew through a pilon.


In between the races the RAAF stunt team, "the Roulettes" gave demonstrations of formation flying with only 3 meters between the individual planes. Only the formation leader apparently navigates, the other five are just trying to keep the 3 metre distance!


Other RAAF pilots gave a demonstration of David and Goliath where a large plane and a small double decker showed their acrobatics.


And a blue glider plane made beautifu patterns with orange smoke coming from its wingtips.


The final blast was a demonstration from the F18 Hornet. It didn't go through the sound barrier but for our ear drums it felt the same. Unbelievable what noise these planes make and very impressive the sheer amount of energy that's handled. The plane left vertically from a few hundred to twenty thousand feet in a matter of seconds.

We were very impressed but we didn't sign up as airforce pilots.