For aging pilots looking to knock the wrinkles out of their face, there’s nothing better than the Red Bull Air Race.

The aerial motorsport involves flying a tiny plane more than 200 mph mere feet above the ground, pulling double-digit G forces as pilots try to circle the course faster than anyone else. Such things would terrify most people. Not Kirby Chambliss. He calls them “a perfect fit.”

The 56-year-old pilot started flying at 13, turned pro by 21, and was at the controls of Southwest Airlines jets at 24. He was in his late 20s when his boss suggested aerobatic training. After his first flight upside down, Chambliss was hooked. “I was already getting bored with straight, level flying anyway,” he says.

Balazs Gardi/Red Bull Content PoolChambliss is among the 14 pilots competing this weekend at the Red Bull Air Race in Spielberg, Austria—not far from the energy drink company’s hometown—before the insanity crosses the Atlantic to wrap up the 2015 season in Texas and Las Vegas. He is among the world’s best pilots, with five national aerobatic championships. He’s been a regular at the Air Races since 2003, and has won the whole shebang twice.“I raced motocross as a kid, I love speed. I love aerobatics, I love low level display flying, air show flying. So it was a perfect fit for me,” Chambliss says. “I’ve been doing it ever since.” It’s a living, breathing track. It’s constantly changing. Pilot Kirby ChamblissHe flies a Zivko Edge 540, an aerobatic plane he helped develop. It’s the Ferrari of airplanes, a machine as blindingly quick as it is nimble. Chambliss can top 250 mph and roll 500 degrees per second—nearly double the rate of an F16. A symmetrical airfoil make it “just as happy upside down as right side up.”As in Formula 1, the show visits a different city every few weeks. Pilots are sorted into a bracket based on qualifying times, then make three laps of the three-mile course one at a time (for safety’s sake). The best of them do this in about a minute. Everyone gets points based upon where they finish, and the guy with the most points at the end of the season is named champion.The skills that Chambliss, who is currently 12th in the standings, developed as an aerobatic pilot serve him well here. Much like F1, aerial racing requires the utmost precision to negotiate the course as quickly as possible. Consistency is key, and the real racing comes in the turns as pilots attempt to move from one gate to the next as efficiently as possible. There’s little room for error: Hitting one of the inflatable pylons adds three seconds to your time, flying too high above them adds two. Races often are decided by tenths of a second, so that kind of a penalty essentially means you’re cooked.While pilots don’t have to deal with slower competitors getting in their way, they face an equally tricky challenge: The course changes. The gates can be pushed by wind, and when they’re mounted on floating barges (some races are over water, where are fewer things to crash into when flying over water), so they can shift as much as 10 degrees, Chambliss says. “It’s a living, breathing track. It’s constantly changing.” Pilots study the course before taking off, but must be ready to adjust their course—forgive the pun—on the fly.Kirby Chambliss of the United States performs during the qualifying day of the third stage of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Rovinj, Croatia on May 30, 2015. Predrag Vuckovic/Red Bull Content Pool Pilots face another obstacle you’re unlikely to experience: double digit G forces. Making sharp turns of up to 180 degrees or more as quickly as possible can subject competitors to as much as 10 Gs. That’s more than the Apollo astronauts experienced during re-entry. “It’s like a house sitting on your chest,” Chambliss says. It becomes hard to breathe, and if you push it too far, you’ll experience tunnel vision. Keep it up and your vision goes altogether, followed by your hearing. They come back, as does consciousness.Avoiding blackouts at 200 mph is straightforward, Chambliss says. “The only way to build and keep your G tolerance is to pull Gs all the time.” That means spending a lot of time in the air, weight training on the ground, and learning to clench your muscles during a turn. That restricts blood flow away from your eyes, ears, and brain.“If I’m out of the airplane for more than a week, to me it’s almost like starting over.” His personal max? “I’ve pulled 15.7.”Chambliss has struggled this season (in 12th place out of 14), but has no plans to retire anytime soon. When he does retire, he’ll continue flying full-time at his favorite spot: home. His certification and an FAA waiver allow him to fly however he likes over his spread outside Tucson, Arizona. He’s got his own runway, so he can take off, roll over, and enjoy a very special view of the desert anytime he likes.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.