You haven’t seen a crazy sport until you’ve seen these guys race.

Unofficially called Formula 1 for the skies, these top level pilots (largely former fighter pilots) race through the track at over 200 MPH, and pull upwards of 12G’s in the tightest turns. At this stop on the tour they’re flying down the Detroit River, alternating between the airspace of Detroit and Windsor. It’s an incredible display of both speed and skill, where inches and degrees both count towards winning this race. They’re held all over the world, and if one is in your locale I highly recommend it.

Often too there will be mini shows included. Of note this year was the Canadian Navy conducting a demonstration of their training planes over the city and the US Navy sending a pair of F-18′s for a flyby.

This event was a test for my photography skills. You really have to fine tune your camera settings to get the effect that you want. In this case, I was going for images that showed the speed that these planes displayed. Shoot with too fast of a shutter speed, and both the plane and propeller would ‘stop’. Shoot with a slower shutter speed and pan the camera with the plane, however, then you can capture the coveted blurred background and propeller but with the plane in sharp focus. It’s not quite as easy as it sounds because it’s all too easy to add blur to the plane as well when you’re trying to catch it.

Even with all of that, I was quite happy with, well, at least several of the images that I got. The only bad part is I’ll have to wait a year to get a second chance.

Red Bull Air Race homepage

Transportation