I, like most everyone else who was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, believe that it is the most beautiful city on Earth. Its sheer cliffs and lush vegetation are only matched in the U.S. by places like Yosemite Valley where development is restricted in order to preserve their beauty. Rio has amazing beaches, warm ocean currents, and waves that host surfing championships…all just across the street from a bustling metropolis with a huge and diverse population and widely-exported culture.

Rio’s usually unbeatable weather brings tourists from all over the world to enjoy the city’s beaches, explore the Brazilian coastal jungles, or go sailing. But from May 7-9, Rio was visited by some of the best aerobatic race pilots in the world as it hosted its second Red Bull Air Race.

Racing…Red Bull Style

In this worldwide air racing championship, some of the top aerobatic pilots on the planet are hand-picked to compete against the clock and each other around a course of inflatable pylons. In each city, the course is arranged differently, taking into account airspace restrictions, the safety of the pilots, and features on water or land to give the race a postcard backdrop and allow large crowds to gather and watch.

The pilots must snap their agile airplanes through zig-zagging paths, and must pass each pylon at a certain height. As if that were not challenging enough, some pylons must be passed in a knife-edge attitude, and some at wings-level. Some wings-levels pylons are placed in turns, forcing the pilots to roll level to go by the pylon and then roll-in again to get back into the turn, all within about a second. It’s some of the most intense flying you’ll ever see.

Race rules limit the speed at which a pilot can go through the start gate, but once past that first gate, the throttles are jammed forward. Each turn bleeds off a little speed and each racer does everything he can in order to bleed off as little speed as possible as the airplane is yanked through the course. And with the top pilots’ time often less than one second apart, every little bit counts.

Like Formula 1 auto racing, Red Bull airplanes receive new features as they become available throughout the year – sometimes whole new engines. So pilots must frequently re-learn the airplane to get the most from their continuously tweaked race-planes.

Those airplanes, originally designed and built for aerobatics, are extensively modified for racing. Aerobatic airplanes are designed to have enough drag to not gain too much speed during dives. Their ability to fly fast at all is a product of engines with enough thrust for vertical climbs. For racing, drag must be reduced as much as possible.

Most aerobatics are performed at fairly slow speeds, driving the design of engine cooling components and other systems that must work well even when there’s not much airflow blowing by them. In Red Bull air racing, however, this all changes. The plentiful and continuous airflow allows for air-intake scoops that are much smaller with less drag. Control surfaces, aileron mass balances, antennae, landing gear, canopies, and many other features are all tweaked for drag reduction. The airplanes sport raked wingtips or even blended winglets, features typically found on wide-body airliners.

A Weekend in Rio

During the first week of May, pilots familiarized themselves with the new course. They flew at the foot of Sugar Loaf Mountain, within view of the Urca and Botafogo and Flamengo beaches. Rio’s famous statue, Christ the Redeemer, looked down from Corcovado Mountain just a couple of miles away, while the downtown skyline peeked from behind the nearby marina, and the city of Niteroi watched from across the bay.

Airline pilots taking off from Santos Dumont airport quickly maneuvered their heavy jets away from the race course, which was in line with (and just a mile or two upwind from) one of Brazil’s busiest runways. After some unusually thick haze burned off each morning, race pilots developed their techniques for flying through the course in the least amount of time. The occasional pylon strike, visible as the easily-torn cone safely deflated on impact, indicated that the pilots were discovering their boundaries and pushing hard.

On Saturday, under beautiful blue skies, the pilots flew on qualifying runs. Only the top ten pilots (out of a total of 15) would make it to the elimination rounds on Sunday. Each pilot had multiple qualifying flights, and times gradually decreased as experience was gained.

But more was at stake than just qualifying into Sunday’s race. The best time from Saturday’s flying would also earn the pilot one World Championship Point. Each pilot earns points after the race for finishing first through eleventh, and these points accumulate over the year until there is a World Champion at the end. With the top pilots usually only a couple of points apart, any precious extra points – such as from the Saturday qualifying times – can make a big difference.

The pilots’ times around the course were neck-and-neck. Peter Besenyei, an aerobatic champion from Hungary (who helped to create this form of air racing) and American pilot Kirby Chambliss flew their prominently-sponsored Red Bull aircraft. They initially started off with times of over one minute and 23 seconds, but Chambliss was eventually able to bring his time down to 1:22.88. Australian Matt Hall was the first to break through 1:22 and bring his time down to 1:21.98. Another favorite was the 2009 World Champion and 2010 points leader, British pilot Paul Bonhomme, who had also won the previous air race at Rio in 2007. He eventually managed a lap time of 1:21.62.

Bonhomme’s compatriot, Nigel Lamb, was initially almost one second behind the leaders, but then announced to the crowd that on his last qualifying flight, he would shave one full second off his time. To everyone’s amazement, he did just that, achieving a time of 1:21.17.

But just as Lamb was getting ready to earn that day’s championship point and to start Sunday at the number one position, Hannes Arch flew a lap at 1:20.44, putting the Austrian aerobat well in the lead and earning him the championship point.

Brazilian fans were disappointed not to be able to cheer on fellow countryman Adilson Kindlemann who was unable to compete due to an accident during the April race in Perth, Australia. While Kindlemann was not seriously injured in his Perth accident, his MXS-R racer was heavily damaged. With Kindlemann out, American Michael Goulian added Brazilian yellow to his green Edge 540 and picked up a local sponsorship from Brazil’s largest company, Petrobras.

Over 400,000 people made it to the beach that sunny Saturday, more than had ever watched Red Bull Air Race qualifying flights. As pilots rested and airplanes were refueled between each series of flights, other aerial attractions kept the huge crowd entertained, including Brazilian Air Force AMX fighter-bombers and sleek F-5s. Brazilian aerobat Francis Barros dazzled the crowd in his Extra and Brazilian telephony provider, Oi, sponsored a flight of five warbirds – a Beech 18, a Grumman Albatross, and three T-6 Texans.

Race Day Rain

On Sunday, Race Day, the haze that had spared the air race on Saturday came back with a vengeance and a light drizzle accompanied it. But the rain gradually died down, and visibility improved to the point where flying could get started.

Race day typically starts with a “Wild-Card” session, where the pilots who failed to qualify on Saturday get one last chance to make it into the race. The top two pilots from the Wild-Card flights join the top ten from Qualifying to complete the twelve-plane field for the elimination rounds. Japan’s Yoshihide Muroya and Peter Besenyei, managed the best times – just as the rain started again.

As can often happen at tropical latitudes, the rain quickly worsened, and the air race was again halted and pilots in the air were sent back to the race airport. Soon the rain was so intense that the race pylons could not even be seen from the closest points on land a few hundred feet away. The wind picked up, getting increasingly faster and the pylons had to be deflated. Eventually the decision was made to cancel Sunday’s races.

So on Mother’s Day, Mother Nature reminded us who’s in charge, especially when it comes to aerial events like this one. The race in Rio was only the second Red Bull Air Race to be cancelled due to weather. Qualifying times from Saturday were used for determining the winners, so Hannes Arch came in first, followed by Nigel Lamb, with Paul Bonhomme in third.

Arch’s second-consecutive victory (he won the previous race in Perth) also cut Paul Bonhomme’s championship lead to three points. Bonhomme has 31 points after collecting nine points for his second-consecutive third place finish while Lamb is second with 28 points for his two second-place finishes in three races this year. Arch stands third with 27 points after collecting a maximum 13 points in Rio.