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Red Bull Air Races

ScottSchmidt

ScottSchmidt

Well Known Member
Red Bull - Monument Valley 2007

This report is a little late but my brother took some great shots with his Nikon that I thought I would share with you. His fisheye really makes for some nice in-flight shots. We took off Friday afternoon from Salt Lake City and headed for Vernal UT. to meet up with another friend and his new 206. From Vernal we flew to Bluff UT. where we stayed for the night and then took a free shuttle the next day. This was a first class operation. The money they spend to put these races on is incredible considering they only sold 5000 seats. I was very impressed. I will try to make the San Diego race if schedule permits.

Bluff UT. is a great flying destination to get away from it all. The San Juan River runs right through the town. There are only a couple of hotels/motels. Since we had 8 of us and I called for rooms on short notice we stayed at the Recapture Lodge www.recapturelodge.com and the Desert Rose Inn www.desertroseinn.com . Both were great, the Desert Rose is a little newer.

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Next morning, we walked across the street to the funniest little outdoor shack where we ate breakfast burritos. It was definitely one those peace and love kinda places, then onto the 30 minute shuttle ride. We arrived to the races where you just picked out a spot on the side of the sandy hill and set up your chairs or blankets. They did a great job keeping the action going between the races and the Red Bull skydiving team.

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Here is a sequence of this guys most terrifying moments in a plane (I hope). He barely missed the ground, and then went almost straight through the pylon. Look as his left wheel pant is ripped off. He was then pointed straight at the crowd but was able to pull up and miss everyone. He was DQed. In a post race interview he said he looked down for one second to check his propeller control. He felt it surging. Hitting the ground would have been a bigger surge. :eek: :eek:

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All photos were taken by Todd Schmidt
 
Pretty incredible how tight they turn these planes at 200+mph.

We made it out of the races easy thanks to the shuttle bus. Hopped back in the plane and headed for home. 1.5 hour flight across 80% of Utah and we were home and back into bed Saturday night.

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Incredible shots Scott! Man, Louise wants us to eventually live farther west than Texas, and with pictures like you post, I'm not going to take much convincing!

Paul
 
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Pictures

I take no credit for these pictures. Luckily my brother Todd Schmidt joined us for this trip and he took all these shots.

He will be coming to Oshkosh this year too so I will have some great shots to post. He has the Nikon D100 with lots of lenses.
 
WOW!

Awesome!! Every time I see a race on TV it just kinda takes my breath away. I found their schedule online and saw that they were going to be in San Diego... and found myself doing a happy dance for the wife. (Kind of like Snoopy - white boy - not pretty!). Then I realized that I will be in ALASKA on vacation that week. Imagine the luck! Oh well... maybe Frisco or San Diego - NEXT year if they do either.

Scott - are those video screens I see in the back of the front seats?? In-flight movies?!!

Thanks all for sharing!

DJ
 
Phyrcooler said:
Scott - are those video screens I see in the back of the front seats?? In-flight movies?!!

Thanks all for sharing!

DJ
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Yup. I have a flip up DVD player in the front that feeds the screens in the back. Took a 2 year old flying the other day for a 1.5 hour flight and we watched "Cars" the whole time. She never made a sound and apparently has not stopped talking about the flight. I get some **** from people but it is fun to have, they hardly weigh anything. I'll be ordering this series now for my "Baby Eagles" once it is out on DVD. http://www.andysairplanes.com/

Sometime I will be adding a couple of cameras on the ouside that will be displayed on them during flight. I would love to have a camera looking forward, and maybe one pointing down or back at the cabin off the wing. Not sure yet.

By the way, I know the dance you are talking about. You need to go see Evan Almighty. He is a master of that dance too. :D
 
ScottSchmidt said:
Yup. I have a flip up DVD player in the front that feeds the screens in the back. Took a 2 year old flying the other day for a 1.5 hour flight and we watched "Cars" the whole time. She never made a sound and apparently has not stopped talking about the flight. I get some **** from people but it is fun to have, they hardly weigh anything. I'll be ordering this series now for my "Baby Eagles" once it is out on DVD. http://www.andysairplanes.com/

Sometime I will be adding a couple of cameras on the ouside that will be displayed on them during flight. I would love to have a camera looking forward, and maybe one pointing down or back at the cabin off the wing. Not sure yet.
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Very very cool... and not to take this thread off topic... ok... too late... but it sounds like those "andysairplanes" might be a good thing to promote here. Lets capture their imagination while they are young so we can get their heads up in the clouds! Make it part of the "Project Pilot" program! :D

DJ
 
Can't believe nobody's asked this yet, but do they really allow spectator planes to fly through the pylons after the event? And does your friend's 206 really have a smoke system?

I'm thinking it HAS to be a Photoshop job, but if it is, it's a REAL good one.
 
Ironflight said:
Incredible shots Scott! Man, Louise wants us to eventually live farther west than Texas, and with pictures like you post, I'm not going to take much convincing!

Paul
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You could go to work for Morton-Thiokol. I think they're somewhere in Utah.
 
jrsites said:
Can't believe nobody's asked this yet, but do they really allow spectator planes to fly through the pylons after the event? And does your friend's 206 really have a smoke system?

I'm thinking it HAS to be a Photoshop job, but if it is, it's a REAL good one.
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It is just a good photoshop job by my brother. We took that shot while flying formation down to the races.

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Scott,

Nice write-up. You DO realize how painful your writeups are, for those of us still building right?! ;) Just kidding. If you ever want to fly into the bay area, let me know. We can get you setup with everything you need! ;)

Here is a nice contrast. Here are pictures I took of the Red Bull Race in 2005 in the San Francisco Bay.

http://www.jline.com/log/photos/aviation/y2005/y2005_1008_fleet_week/index.html

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Alcatraz in the background...

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Jae
 
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RV7Factory said:
I'd say!!! The shadow on the ground is quite impressive.
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That's what caused me to wonder if perhaps it was real. Most people who do Photochops wouldn't take the time to add the shadow in, especially in that kind of realistic detail. If it weren't for the smoke from the 206, I would've insisted it was real.
 
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