YOUNG GUNS AIMING HIGH

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There are no cheering crowds, no cameras recording every split second of their flights, and no points at stake in Red Bull Air Race World Championship. Yet six of the best young pilots from around the world have nevertheless been flying with style and skill through Air Gates set up in a windswept wheat field outside Madrid to try to earn something even more valuable - a ‘super licence’ that would make them eligible to compete in a future Red Bull Air Race. They have been busy impressing the small crowd of spectators as they go through the paces at the Qualification Camp on the lonely track, learning quickly in the training that doubles as a try-out for a possible seat in the Red Bull Air Race.

‘I've been pleasantly surprised with everyone's skill,’ said Aviation Director Heinz Moeller, who has been closely watching the pilots from Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany and Japan fly through the low-altitude course with precision and panache near Casarrubios, about 40 km southwest of Madrid. ‘I had expected they would all be flying safe. But I've been really impressed with the high quality of their performance.’

Matthias Dolderer of Germany and Francois Le Vot of France are the ‘oldest’ at 38 while Pete McLeod of Canada is the youngest at 24. Also working hard on perfecting ˜ and also demonstrating ˜ their flying skills this week are: Matt Hall of Australia (37), Sami Kontio of Finland (36) and Yoshihide Muroya of Japan (35).

There are no guarantees they will participate in next year's World Championship. That will be decided at a later date if any (or many) will be the next rookies in the 2009 World Championship. But the chances seem good after South Africa's Glen Dell emerged from an earlier camp to become the 2008 rookie after Austria's Hannes Arch and Russia's Sergey Rakhmanin advanced as well from qualification camps to win spots as rookies in 2007. Moeller said this third generation of pilots ˜ who have been groomed and trained in eight training camps over the last year ˜ have all made major investments of time and effort preparing for a spot in the Red Bull Air Race. And it shows.

‘We've got a great group of pilots here,’ said Race Director Drew Searle, who has joined Moeller and a handful of others including Hungary's Peter Besenyei and Germany's Klaus Schrodt in monitoring, studying and critiquing the flights. ‘They're obviously very talented and they've clearly been working hard all year. I wasn't expecting them to fly as well as they did. I'm very pleased. Certainly, if any of these guys are selected and come in the race I think some would do really well and with some track time could themselves in the middle of the pack. It's well within their potential.’

The cautious and at times slightly wobbly first runs through the Quadro or chicane by some of the pilots served as a stirring reminder for those watching in the fields south of the Casarrubios aeropuerto full of rabbits and tumbleweed just how difficult the precision manoeuvres actually are. The imperfect first attempts make those watching realise the Red Bull Air Race pilots often make it almost look easy as they nail their runs through the race tracks. But all six pilots were mastering the various segments long before they had completed their multiple sets of 15 minute sessions on the track during the day full of training ˜ all of it untimed.

‘Learning to go through the Air Gates is totally different than aerial aerobatics,’ said Muroya, who believes winning a seat would help spark a boom in interest for the race across Asia. ‘It's very low and there are these objects there. That would never happen higher up. It felt strange at first but I got more and more comfortable with it.’

McLeod and Hall flew the track with surprising aplomb that belied their lack of experience through Air Gates. ‘I knew it was going to be difficult and a challenge to fly in the track ˜ and it is but at the same time it's also a whole lot of fun too,’ said McLeod, who has been co-piloting airplanes across remote parts of northern Canada since he was a small child and got his pilot's license at age 16.

Australia's Hall, a Royal Air Force fighter pilot and fighter combat instructor, has had a similarly enjoyable experience flying through the 20-metre high Air Gates. ‘I've found it to be more comfortable than I expected,’ he said. ‘It probably has something to do with my training in the Air Force. I've spent thousands of hours at 100 feet and 500 knots. So being at 150 knots at 50 feet is not too dramatic for me, although it is very different flying so close past things. I don't do that in jets. The obstacles are something new to deal with. I thought I might enjoy this kind of flying. And I really, really am enjoying it. It's a lot of fun.’

Finland's Kontio said it took a few runs to get comfortable in the chicane ˜ three pylons set up about 150 metres apart ˜ but once he got this line right he almost didn't want to stop flying. ‘The chicane was the hardest at first but I really started enjoying it once I found the line. I didn't rush myself and once I got the line and the angles down, I felt very comfortable.’

Germany's Dolderer, who has flown the media flights at some races in the past, has been eager to break into the race since 2002. Like Muroya of Japan, he comes from a large country crazy about motor sport and is confident his focused preparation over the years will bear fruit. ‘I've got a great feeling in the track and it's gone well,’ he said. ‘The race is the epitome of sports for me: it's about flying, about speed, about challenges, adrenaline, precision, aggressiveness and also caution. It's got it all.’

Le Vot, a captain in the French Air Force with plenty of low level flying experience at speeds of Mach 2 in Mirage 2000 and Alpha jets, said the thousands of hours in fighter jets flying 10 times the speed as his borrowed Edge is unfortunately of only limited value.

‘The flight aims are completely different,’ he said, speaking superb English. ‘In the Mirage 2000 the main goal is to protect an area. It's more like a chess game, a matter of tactics. It's not as much piloting. Here the main thing required is piloting skills.’

Fascinating as it is, Le Vot said he has a lot to learn about the style of flying. ‘The first thing you learn when starting to fly is to stay away from obstacles and away from the ground. Here you're intentionally trying to fly as close as you can. It's different. But it's a lot of fun.’