Windsor – Race on the Edge of the USA, Canada, and Our Potential



The preparation for the 4th Red Bull Air Race of this year started for our Team much earlier than officially planned. While in Rio, we decided to modify the lower engine cowling, so Antanas arrived in Windsor on May 19, 10 days before the scheduled date, to assemble and ferry the plane to the plant in North Carolina. The task was a bit difficult because of the border between the USA and Canada. On the way from Canada Brad Huelsman – an experienced pilot and our good friend – helped to go through all the formalities. Brad had worked for a long time in Mike Goulian’s Team, and now he works with the young Canadian pilot Pete McLeod as Team Technician. On the way back Antanas went through the border procedures himself.

The new cowling had already been prepared and as soon as the plane arrived they started adjusting it to the plane. Certainly, we were worried about temperature regimes as the sectional area of the hot air outlet from under the cowling became smaller. The first flight results were middling: we could fly with the cowling, but at maximal regimes we were limited in time due to oil temperature increase. Antanas conducted a research and consulted experts, and finally we decided to change the oil cooler for a bigger one and, according to official data, a more effective one.

During test flights we noticed a rather unpleasant magneto faultiness which brought to a spontaneous offset of the ignition dwell angle. Thus we had to change the magneto.

We even had had enough time to paint the cowling so that many people did not notice the change in the appearance of the plane.

We received the new oil cooler already in Canada. Antanas installed it at once and it became clear that we had made the correct decision. The rate of oil temperature increase was reduced and the oil cooler ensured long work at high regimes and during the sufficient time to prepare and run the race.

The track was introduced as the last year’s one, but, according to my feeling, it differed a little and turned to be more difficult than the last year’s one. The Windsor track represents a succession of gates almost without areas where one can make a decision to influence the result. The most difficult track area was a section from Gate 13 to the finish (Gate 15). During the first training flights I could not make this section without penalties. The matter is that Gate 13 was rather close to the chicane and between Gates 13 and 14 it was necessary to make two hard turns: first left and straight away right. When you first turn left the plane screens the chicane from view, during the transposition you don’t have time to have a look, and when in the process of the right turn the first chicane pylon appears in view it’s already late to make corrections. Next, even if you manage to get into the chicane, as a rule your trajectory shifts forward, which makes it a problem to get into the finish gate. Naturally the western wind can make this part extremely difficult. Passing Gate 13 at acute angle towards the chicane helped to solve this problem; however, it was not a panacea against a strong western wind and, besides, it prolonged the trajectory length and, consequently, the track time.



The Windsor race turned to be rather dramatic. For the beginning, during first trial flights after the planes assembly Yoshi Muroya lost the canopy. It was a serious incident considering the high speed. Luckily, the canopy did not hit Yoshi. As the result, the Japanese pilot could not continue participating in the competition as his plane needed repair (the canopy damaged the stabilizer). Hannes offered Yoshi to borrow his last year’s plane which was in Oklahoma in a disassembled state. Yoshi’s Team went to assemble the plane, but they did not have enough time to do the work, ferry the plane, and perform training flights on the track.

The next incident that raised the psychological stress happened to Hannes Arch during one of the first training flights. When making the 270-degree turn from Gate 11 to Gate 12 the plane suffered a wing stall that increased the downward trajectory and the angle of descent. Hannes got out of the tight spot in cold blood, but very close to the water and heading straight to the pylon at a distance allowing no turn. He almost ploughed into the base of the pylon, with a big piece of the fabric remaining on the wing. As it turned out later, the aileron ‘spade’ was broken by the hit. For about 5 seconds Hannes was struggling with the stall caused by the piece of fabric and with the strong heeling moment due to the broken aileron spade.



I would like to mention that starting with the 2010 season quadro gates are not used during the competition, which helped Hannes to get out of a most critical situation. In case classical quadro gates had been used, he would have hit two pylons. I must say that Hannes not only continued the trials and the competition, but came out the winner, which, I suppose, was not at all easy after such a serious psychological trauma.

The next incident that further aggravated the nervous tension happened to Matt Hall during the first Qualifying. On the most difficult track section which I mentioned above, making a tight left turn Matt’s plane suffered an aerodynamic wing stall, dipped and splashed off the top of the water first with left wing, then with the right wing and the right wheel. I must say that Miracle happened when Matt managed to escape… His MX literally took off from the water.



Before the competition a decision was made to exclude Gate 13 from the track. Thus after Gate 12 we were to go straight to the chicane. The decision had been made because of the incident with Matt and an unfavorable wind forecast which luckily did not come true.





I flew the first in the Top 12 series and showed the 8th result. In the Top 8 I got two penalties and finished up the 8th.

Hannes Arch was the first, Paul Bonhomme the second, and Kirby Chambliss the third. The next race will take place in New York on June 19-20.

I would like to thank all of you who follow our competitions.