ARCH: FULLY FOCUSED

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Austria's Hannes Arch aims to follow up his promising rookie year in the Red Bull Air Race World Series with an even more successful second season. Arch, 40, has worked hard studying the tactics and styles of the top pilots. He concluded that whatever he might lack in racing experience compared to the multiple years' advantage his more established rivals have, he believes he can make up for that in 2008 with an increased race confidence and the right blend of aggressiveness and consistency to fit the specific course. He has also worked hard on his fitness. He has cut the ‘excess baggage’ in his cockpit losing 10 kilos and, to further reduce the dead weight carried around high G-force corners that cost precious fractions of a second, Arch also plans to shed another five kilos by the season opener in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 April.

‘I don't have as much race experience as the other pilots so to make up for that I've tried to glean the best of the others and focus on what I do,’ said Arch, an affable Austrian who splits his time between Hawaii and Austria. ‘I think my background in extreme sports, like BASE jumping, helps a lot.’

While many of the other Red Bull Air Race pilots have had long careers in the military or commercial aviation, Arch stands out as the great adventurer in the 12-pilot field. Aside from BASE jumping he began flying hang gliders at age 16 and later added paragliders to his repertoire, making thousands of flights.

‘I personally think that paragliding and hang gliding, but also BASE jumping, are sports that have more similarities to the Red Bull Air Race than being a commercial pilot and drinking coffee in the cockpit while controlling the systems of a big commercial aircraft,’ says the man with rugged good looks.

Arch showed right away last season that he wasn't going to settle for being just a good rookie. He set his aims higher than that and achieved a spectacular fourth place in his second race in Rio de Janeiro after upsetting the hierarchy by reaching the semi-finals. He also showed flashes of brilliance in many qualifying sessions last year, often clocking a time well inside the top eight and once even taking third. Yet he sometimes struggled in the elimination round. Arch nevertheless ended the season on a high note, taking ninth in the final race in Perth.

‘I analyzed it and came to the conclusion that I didn't do anything wrong except that I didn't get into the right ‏mind-set' for the race,’ he said. ‘Either I was flying too aggressively and had pylon hits or three-second penalties, or I was flying too cautiously to avoid mistakes and got slower times. I think it's just a matter of time to get enough race experience to find out the perfect set-up for the specific race situation.’

Spoken like the supremely confident man he is, Arch has intricate knowledge of the race's history ˜ he was involved in the development of Air Race. It was love at first sight when he helped Hungary's Peter Besenyei make test flights through pylon prototypes in 2003.

‘The first time I saw it I knew that this is what I wanted to do,’ said Arch. ‘I saw it as a fantastic combination of sport and fun factor at the same time. The chance to fly against the best aerobatic pilots in the world is every pilot's dream.’