I think it’s fair to say that as one of the four people who’d ‘missed’ the airside briefing as a result of it having been relocated without warning, the moment the very apologetic American lady, Stefani Paulus, wandered over to take our names, we all initially assumed she was just taking them for the benefit of the person responsible for briefing.
It wasn’t long afterwards that it began to dawn on us that she was actually taking our names to fly in N444TM, an Extra 300L, with current Aero GP and former USAF F-111 pilot Richard “Smokey” Young!
For a few minutes I did actually question whether I fancied the idea of doing it or not. From the research I’d put in before my meetings with the British Aerobatic Team, I knew what this machine was capable of - roll rates up to 420 degrees per second...!
Hurriedly texts were sent to several fellow members of the GAR team, with the overwhelming response being that I simply had to. They were right. How often does such a chance present itself, and had I not done it, how badly would I regret it?!
The chap at the head of the list decided he’d wait till later, having felt rather ill during aeros in a Bulldog only a couple of weeks before.
“So who does want to do it?” Stefani asked.
“I’ll do it!” emerged from my lips. I figured rather than sitting around thinking about it for the next few minutes, or potentially longer - given the way the weather was - I’d take the bull by the horns and just go and get on with it!
And so that’s what happened. Stefani introduced me to Smokey, who walked me out to the aircraft, and who in turn introduced the two members of his support team who looked after the aircraft, briefed those going flying and strapped them in.
Before I knew it the canopy was closing and the head-set sprung into life. I was a tad surprised that they’d not issued me with a sick bag! Slightly disconcertingly it took three or four attempts to get the engine started, but Smokey wasn’t concerned and if he wasn’t, I shouldn’t be either.
“Tower, Four Tango Mike’s ready to taxi”.
The first thing that struck me was just how non-existent the forward vision is. That big old engine and tail-dragger configuration literally made it impossible to see where we were going. We crossed the runway to the holding point as we waited for an aircraft on the base leg to land.
“Are you ready Bubba?” Smokey asked.
“Let’s do it!” I replied.
It wasn’t until we sped down the Silverstone runway that I fully appreciated just how grim conditions were. Some light rain started to pass by me on the canopy.
“There’s a break off to the north. We’ll head for that”, Smokey advised.
“There are four basic manoeuvres that we use,” and before I knew it we were upside down, and then, within what felt like a nanosecond back up the right way!
“That was a roll!” Smokey announced.
“So I gathered!” I laughed.
The expanse of Perspex surrounding my head and shoulders offered the most breath-taking, unobscured view of the Northamptonshire countyside below.
Figuring that that was probably a pre-cursor to what else might follow, I decided I’d keep my stomach muscles in a continual semi-tensed state!
And sure enough, the roll was followed soon after by a loop. My only previous experience of aerobatics had come in my days in the Air Training Corps when 5 AEF at Cambridge still operated the venerable Chipmunk! It doesn’t seem unreasonable to say that the Extra was striking me as being ever so slightly snappier!
I’m fairly certain my Chipmunk flying never extended to ‘vertical lines’, essentially pulling back hard on the stick, climbing vertically to a specified altitude, pushing hard forward on the stick and heading straight back down the other side. My tensing technique was so far serving me well!
As the weather started to close in around us, we just had time for Smokey to show me what ‘spinning’ was all about. I can’t remember exactly how he described doing it, but essentially you force the aircraft to depart from controlled flight. This was something Smokey really seemed to enjoy!
“Round and round and round she goes, where she stops, only Smokey knows!”
I think we went through three full rotations before the aircraft was righted. It was undoubtedly the most bizarre sensation I’ve ever experienced in an aircraft.
Unfortunately with the weather engulfing us we had no option but to return to Silverstone. As we called ‘Final’ the tower passed that the wind was 24kts – pretty strong. We touched down on the runway but were hit by a gust that launched us back into the air.
“Four Tango Mike’s on the go” Smokey informed the tower, as we re-entered the pattern.
The next touchdown was far less eventful and as we taxied in for fuel I glanced at the G-meter that had been reset before we took off. It had topped out at about +5.5G. A drop in the ocean compared to what some of the competitors in the WAC would’ve been experiencing, but I was quite pleased with how I’d held up. I’d not felt ill at any stage, but that might be a testament to how smoothly Smokey flew the aeroplane in the conditions.
It did make me think though, there I’d been with nothing to worry about other than trying to keep my head up, just how do the pilots do it?!?
As we walked back, big grin etched across my face, Smokey said he’d not be doing any more flights during the morning session due to the weather. I’d definitely made the right decision to a) do it and b) do it when I did. It has to go down as one of my biggest aviation highlights so far!
Not having known anything about the prospects of flying when I’d set off that morning, I equally knew nothing of Smokey, but he was kind enough to sit down with me for an impromptu interview.
From conversations on the way to and from the aircraft I knew that Smokey wasn’t taking part in the competition itself.
“No, the World Aerobatic Championships is a great event but that’s not what I do. I’m a racing pilot, I race at the Reno Air Races every year, I race in the Aero GP Series in Europe and I’m an airshow performer and pilot.
“The WAC competition is very, very technical. It requires extremely skilled aerobatic pilots and they’re being graded, kind of like in figure skating. I put on a show. To be honest with you, a lot of the manoeuvres that I do aren’t nearly as technically complex. I do a lot of the more aggressive stuff they do, like snaps and Lomcevaks and other things. I’ll do a lot of the hard manoeuvring but tend to stick to a lot of the less complicated manoeuvres, but I’ll bring them down closer to the ground. I’m a showman and an entertainer!
“For this event I was brought in by Flying Aces who I work with for the Aero GP purely to fly press.”
I wonder how this association began?
“I met Jeff Zaltman, Managing Director of Flying Aces over at the Reno Air Races and he asked me if I was interested.
“You see, I have a unique background. I flew in the US Air Force as an F-111 pilot,” I break in to ask if that brought him to the UK, “Yeah, I was over at Lakenheath, and after my time in the Air Force I went to fly for the airlines. I’ve always enjoyed sport aviation and light aircraft, so I started flying light aircraft and I wanted to compete at Reno.
“I got involved with Formula 1 Air Racing and went to Reno for the first time in 2003, went through the Racing School, got qualified and was named the Rookie of the Year my first year out, and I really got hooked on it.
“After another two years with the airlines, air racing was picking up for me and I tried to get some good sponsors. I had the opportunity to fly for an outfit called Air Combat USA, who run a civilian dog-fighting centre, went to work for them and concentrated on Reno.
“Jeff was looking for someone with experience of air racing as well as the experience of flying aerobatic type aircraft and airshow style aerobatics, so off we went!
“We’ve had a good working relationship ever since. They’re a great outfit to fly for.”
Does the Red Bull series make any appeal?
“I’ve never been involved with the Red Bull Air Races. I prefer to fly against other airplanes rather than against the clock. I like the adrenaline. At Reno we’re out there with seven other airplanes – eight airplanes in the field - we’re 30-50ft above the ground, going 250mph and at Reno the pylons aren’t inflatable; they’re poles with barrels on the end.
“Unfortunately there are fatalities. We had one last year in one of my races. I’m the president of Formula 1 Air Racing in the US, so I’m the liaison with the FAA and I make sure all the pilots are qualified. We had a young lady that was getting ready to race with us in her first year of racing Formula 1 and she was killed during practice. The year before that we lost one of our most experienced pilots in a mid-air collision.
“It’s a high-risk business where we’re really pushing our machines to their limit – it’s a great proving ground for technology – if you take a look at the Formula 1 aeroplanes, the top ones are all composite structures and we’re pushing the metallurgy and engines to the max. We’re taking engines that were designed to be run at 2450 rpm and we’re running them at 4300 rpm. We do that through flow balancing, mass balancing of the moving parts, we’re running all carbon fibre propellers – pushing pitch and mass technology to the limit – it’s a good event!”
And what of Aero GP?
“Over here with Aero GP it’s a bit different – it’s a three-event race. We do the pylon racing – all aerobatic aeroplanes, Extras, Sukhois, CAPs – we do the race, then we do air-to-air combat against each other. We come in from a mutual setup so that nobody has an advantage, we meet in front of the crowd at 100ft, and then we fight to see who can get onto the tail of the other airplane first and track for several seconds. Finally we do a freestyle aerobatic competition against each other, so that’s where I’ll do the competitive aerobatics, but again it’s really an airshow routine rather than a highly difficult one like you’ll see here. We get placed in each event and how you do determines your scoring. Whoever gets the most points in total wins the overall event.”
“I did really well in Constanta, I had a really fast airplane there, but at Al Ain we went with the Extra 300L that you got to fly in, and we really made a conscious decision, Stef and I, to go with a two-seat airplane – it’s less competitive – but we really feel it’s important for the sport to get journalists up, to get sponsors up and to let people see what we’re doing and to see how fast paced it is. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t do well in that one at all, but I’m really glad we did it! I’d much rather be taking you up and showing you how it all works than winning an Aero GP event in a single seat airplane.”
It sounds like Smokey’s got a great life, but is this a full-time job?
“Nearly so. I teach at a community college in the States – Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, California. I teach their aviation classes, ground schools – I don’t flight instruct at all – but I take their aerodynamics, initial pilot training, stuff like that, and that allows me the time to get involved with this.
“The college actually sponsors my Reno airplane. They consider what I do to be great recruiting tool and they give me the time off to do all of the things that I need to do.”
The West Coast might not be too far away in a commercial airliner, but the same cannot be said of an Extra 300. What are the logistics of competing in Europe?
“The aircraft spends part of its time living in the UK at Wickenby, but it’s mainly kept in Croatia, in Zagreb with Aero Standards. They maintain the aircraft year-round in Europe.
“Right now we actually end up being here for about six weeks. I’m hoping we can extend that to two-three months, broken up into two week stints. Our airshow season in California runs roughly from January through to the end of March, and that’s obviously when things are starting to pick up here.”
So there you have it, a record of an opportunity that will stay with me for a very long time.
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