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happy world pilots’ day to the only men to ever exist😚 (oh and also to me and all my other pilot friends:3)

#red bull air race #matt hall #paul bonhomme #hannes arch #martin šonka #pete mcleod

Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (and one woman) at the Red Bull Air Race in Budapest July 1-2

What a great weekend experience. I’ve never been to an air race before. Maybe just a 4th of July air show by the Blue Angels fighter jets at Jones Beach on Long Island,NY. It was exciting because I had media passes for me and my host,who is an amateur pilot, himself. But having media passes meant I could do a walk-through of the Hangars to see the planes and interview the pilots and their teams the day before the race, and the morning of the Qualifying rounds. I’m not all that familiar with racing--of cars OR planes--but I knew I wanted to interview the American pilots for my article in the Citrus County Chronicle. It just so happens that both Americans were in the Round of 8, and one of them, Kirby Chambliss (second from left in the bottom photo), won the race. He was the oldest competitor at age 57, and although he has won two World Championships and has been on the podium 10 out of 11 seasons, he has not had a win in awhile.

Michael Goulian, the other American pilot in the Master Class race, won in Budapest in 2009, and was confident with the course. He also got to the Round of 8, the last round before the final four, but had to stop due to exceeding the G-force limit. Got to interview him briefly ahead of the competition--a nice, outgoing guy from Plymouth, MA, who says he learned to fly a plane before learning to drive a car.

Chambliss is a Texan who lives in Arizona now, in a house with a runway on the property. I guess you need that when you are a professional racing pilot. He was flying at the age of 13 and was the youngest commercial pilot at Southwest Airlines at age 24, and was captain by age 28. He began aerobatics at age 26 and says he has flown his plane so much that the controls and wings are just extensions of his own arms.

I asked him how he likes traveling around the world to compete, and he said that racing is just done between the sky and the ground, and while he loves racing, he does not enjoy the hassle of traveling.

I made this video of my pre-competition interview with him at the Hangar walk through.

Sitting on the Buda side of the Danube a short way south of the Parliament building across the way, and being part of the media was amazing. Red Bull does an amazing job of getting things done--whether it is media portfolios, rooms and seating for working, refreshments, tours of every aspect of the race, including a look at a pylon up close, and the control center. As we sat watching the different rounds, and the flying demonstrations--including one by a key founder of the race, Hungarian pilot Peter Beresnyei--young women dressed like old timey “stewardesses”--the pre-flight attendant days--walked around handing out ice cream cones and Magnolia bars. A mini-fridge held all kinds of Red Bull drinks and bottled water. I learned on the last day that they even had a buffet of snack foods for the media in the hotel housing the Media Centre.

Red Bull uploaded photos every day, with quality videos of every pilot, and recaps of the entire final race.

The excitement in the air was similar to other major athletic competitions I’ve attended -- Superbowl and the U.S. Open--or special events with major celebrities. People are having a good time, they enjoy seeing the international crowd, and being in a beautiful city that adds a level of coolness of its own to the mix.

Photos above include: Top: a promo photo of Red Bull Air Race in Budapest with three planes--Peter Beresnyei, Yoshi Murayo and Petr Kopfstein--flying behind the Liberty or Freedom Statue on Gellert Hill--Photo: JoregMitter/RedBull Conten Pool; Second: Kirby Chambliss flying in the fourth round of the air race--photo by Armin Walcher/RedBull Content Pool; Michael Goulian flying during the finals--photo: Joreg Mitter/Red Bull Content Pool; and the press conference top three Master Class pilots -- Pete McLeod (CAN)-2nd place, Kirby Chambliss (USA), 1st place, and Yoshihide Muroya (JPN)-3rd place, with Floria Bergér(GER) winner of the Challenger Cup--photo: Diane Dobry.

And the one woman pilot mentioned in the headline? Mélanie Astles of France who became the first female pilot in the Red Bull Air Race in 2016 as a Challenger-level pilot. She is a five-time French Aerobatic Champion who has earned top ten rankings at the World and European aerobatics. She won second place last year in Indianapolis.

Was going to try to go to the Formula 1 Grand Prix here at the end of July, but this air race was just so exciting and time consuming. I can’t imagine how a Formula 1 race would be. Maybe next “show and tell” trip to Hungary.