Amazing flying at the air race
Saw the air race today. I wasn't planning on going, but it was a chance to catch up with Wendy as well, and I hadn't seen her in way too long.
I'm so glad I went. 100m from the course the sight is incredible as tiny stunt planes flip around at absurd speeds. The slalem bit is just amazing, and was right in front of where I was sitting.
I think the F/A-18 Hornet's acrobatic display was the highlight, though. It did an almost impossibly slow tail-standing flight over the water for perhaps a minute, moving at maybe 40 km/h, which is so far below the aircraft's stall speed of around 170km/h that I just couldn't believe it. It was dead stable with no attitude wobble, and was clearly supported by pure engine power rather than aerodynamic lift. It left a giant frothing wake and a dent in the water below it. The pilot also did some incredibly slow flights right around the crowd; the plane must've been right on stall speed the entire time. I could even see water vapour condensing (think "instant cloud") in the air behind its forward vanes as it pulled into tight turns as shown in the image to the right (sadly not mine), and saw similar but longer-lived condensation (more like a contrail) from wingtip turbulence in other maneuvers. It was so quiet as to be quite surreal when up so close - until the engines were pointed at me, at which point it the noise was sudden and deafening. To top things off, the pilot maxed the engines and departed straight up, flying right toward the rather pretty slice of moon that was faintly visible. The jet went from so close you feel like you could touch it to a tiny barely visible speck in perhaps 10 or 20 seconds.
Wow.
I have video of some of it, but sadly not of the mind-boggling tail stand. I don't think it'd have the same impact on video anyway, but trust me it was astounding to see.
It was another beautiful day to be out in the sun, anyway, with great company and a lovely walk home to top it off. Going windsurfing with Wendy and maybe Clive soon, too, which should be a great deal of fun. Anyone else want to come windsurfing at some point?