A lazy day at home watching some TV and doing sparse chunks of housework saw me switching onto the Red Bull Air Race World Series which was on this weekend in Perth. I’ve seen some footage of these planes before but this was a longer viewing.

Over three hundred thousand people turned up to the Swan River in Perth (it must have been everyone who lives in Perth!) to watch the planes twist, turn, spin and generally do a number of impressive flights through a course on the river itself.

Some of the pilots pulled over 11Gs in the turns, as well as hitting over 300km/h just metres above the water. Fast, dangerous, and very exciting. It doesn’t really make the most exciting television since the pilots just do two time trials runs where other sports — such as F1, or football, or other “one event” sports — often have a bit more give and take. Obviously you couldn’t have all the planes on the course at once but I wonder if there’s a way they can make the whole thing more exciting than just a series of time trials.