EXOTERIC - Information Worth Sharing: ex·o·ter·ic
-adj
1. Not confined to an inner circle of disciples or initiates.
2. Comprehensible to or suited to the public; popular.
3. Of or relating to the outside; external.

This Sunday I went down to San Diego Bay for the third time to see the Red Bull Air Races. We got there and parked in the Convention Center parking structure ($15 - ouch!), then walked over to the South Embarcadero spectator area. We were there about 20 minutes before the gates opened and surprisingly were about 10th in line. Last year the line waiting for the gates to open went half way around the marina. Once we were let in we got a prime viewing spot on the edge of the water. It was heavy overcast and cold in the morning, but by noon the clouds were gone and sun came out. Perfect weather for the races. The pre-race activities this year were much less than in previous years. A couple of Navy helicopters did some hovering, a Hellcat WWII warbird did a couple of passes, and an F-16 did two passes. The Coast Guard also did a rescue demonstration between rounds.

This year the format of the races changed. They qualify all 15 of the pilots on Saturday, then starting on Sunday they do a Wildcard round to fill out the top 12. All pilots run the course (twice around through the pylons) and race against the clock. The top 12 then becomes the top 8 and they do another run to set the final four. Before the final round, we got to see Chuck Aaron do his amazing helicopter aerobatic routine (see my blog from last year). The final round gives any of the top 4 pilots a chance to win. In previous years it was a bracket elimination format. The nice thing about the new format is that there were more races to watch. The winner was Nicholas Ivanoff of France.

Ivanoff rocketing past the chicane.

The American's didn't do very well this year. Mike Goulian didn't make it out of the wild card round and into the top 12, then Mike Mangold was eliminated out of the top 4. Kirby Chambliss was DQ'ed when he pulled over 12 G's in the first chicane.

This year's attendance was really down from the previous 2 years. I don't know if it was because of the economy, or the fact that it was Mother's Day, but there was only half as many people there as there were last year. Last year it was sold out several days in advance. This season the number of events was also scaled back to just 6. San Diego is the only round in the USA. Last year's Detroit round officially moved across the river to Windsor, Canada.

The racing was amazing as always and I took a bunch of photos and 2 videos.