Red Bull Pilot Slaloms Wind Farm
A row of 200-foot-high wind turbines arrayed along a mountain ridge in Austria looked like a race course to Red Bull Air Race pilot Hannes Arch, who recently completed a slalom flight through all 14 towers. “When you have a such a wind farm at your front door and fly past it often, it’s no wonder you want to fly through it at some point,” he said.
The experience was different than flying in the controlled conditions of an air race, Arch said. "In the middle of the mountains, you are rising and falling. You can't fly as close to the obstacles, which increases the radius, and, at around 300 km/h, things can get a bit tight. Every second, you have to be perfectly clear in your mind that you have wind turbines in front of you and need to know precisely what you are going to do next." In the end, Arch said, the flight was just as much fun as air racing, "with the added benefit that it's not about the time you clock."
Editorial StaffAVweb
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