Red Bull Flying too Dangerous? 

One of my flight instructors tried to teach me that if I ever had to do a go around that I would lose face and bring discredit to my reputation as a pilot. Once I had to land in incredibly difficult circumstances and did not one but two go arounds. When I got the plane safely on the ground I was visibly shaken. Several pilots who were watching me trying to land actually congratulated me on my landing. Don't ever let your flight instructor tell you that you will "lose face" because of a go around!

Hello Kelsey - I see that others have mentioned this, but just to reiterate - for the helipad landing that plane was modified by Mike Patey who has an impressive history as a pilot and a builder, and who has a great RU-vid channel as well. The efforts taken to make that plane safe (safer...) for this stunt were absolutely incriedible - stripping extra weight, shifting the CG to a more preferred locaiton, reinforcing the tail structure in case there was a tail strike, etc., and etc.. And the time spent by the Red Bull pilot to train for this was equally as impressive. On the day they shot this the airspace around that location was closed, the beaches and surrounding areas were closed down to the public, and several emergency rescue crews were already stationed in the water and on land in case of a bad outcome. It was quite an undertaking.

In the 1980s my sister lived on a cattle ranch in Australia. She came back with a story from one of her friends. He was a bush pilot making deliveries to ranches hundreds of miles apart. Tools, medical supplies, payroll, people. One day he got a call from a new ranch to deliver some machinery parts. When he arrive he saw the windsock on the edge of a fenced off area near the house. The fence keeps the animals out. It looked small to him, but he said (as every Aussie would) "If anyone else can do it, I can do it!" So he came in low and slow on the diagonal, barely cleared the fence, bounced hard and skidded to a stop just short of the far fence. The rancher came out and told him, "That was some pretty flying. I've never had anyone land a plane on me helipad before."

Kelsey's utter modesty and cheeky one-liners are why he's one of the best real pilots on YT. "A place for me to go nappy when I get tired." Never stop being you.

Mike Patey designed a carbon fiber keel on that plane to absorb an impact to keep the plane's tail section intact just in case the fuselage struck the edge of the landing pad structure.

Mike Patey of Utah, a plane builder and racer, moded this Carbon Cub for RedBull. He moved the fuel tank into the belly to lower the CG and added a metal and carbon fiber "keel" on the underside of the plane just forward of the tail wheel. Also added larger brakes and super light ties, and all bolts, and tail wheel strut were changed too titanium....Nice mods when money is no object! Love your channel. mark in SC

Drinking Red Bull is dangerous.

A while ago I took my little girl for a walk along the river near our house. We decided to take a seat on a bench to have a snack and drink overlooking said river, and over the other side is the extended center line for a local airfield (can’t really call it an airport). Almost as soon as we sit a plane comes out of the field. “Oh that’s cool” I say and then we proceed to watch a display of acrobatic flying which probably lasted about 15-20 minutes. She wasn’t even 3 yet and for the whole time never once took her eyes off the plane or uttered a single word. I don’t know the names of the tricks or whatever but it was upside down, free falling, forward loops and backward too. For some reason despite it being a beautiful day, I don’t recall another person walking past us. She’s been obsessed with planes and helicopters since.

Asking an airline pilot if he can do this type of flying is like asking a trucker if he could race a rally car. He could probably do it, but not like the professionals that train for that particular style of flying Wow, this comment blew up. Thanks for 1.3k likes!

Your ending of the video reminded me of a joke a read af few months ago about an 747 pilot and a f-16 pilot showing off to each other. The joke goes like this. A 747 is flying on route, when a f-16 pulls up along side. He contacts the airliner on the radio and decides he wants to show off. He ask the pilots of the 747 if they want to see something cool, to which the pilots answer yes. He then proceed roll his airplane inverted before diving very low and then shoots up again past the pilots. After his little acrobatic maneuver he contacts the pilots if they liked the show. The captain of the 747 then says "Yes, that was very cool but watch this". The fighter pilot eager to see the captain move the large plane waits eagerly, but nothing happens. After 15 minutes the captain comes back on the radio and the fighter pilot asks why he didn't do anything. The captain the responds, "I just got up stretched my legs and went to the bathroom, then I had a cup of coffee on my way back, but cool stunts you did earlier. "

I'll never forget having to do a go around at ATL. Plane in front didn't clear the runway after we touched down. I was in a 787, man when the pilot hit those throttles you could feel that power like nothing else... It was exhilarating how hard it pushed you back and the angle we took back off was amazing!!!! Alot of people thought they were gonna die but not me, better than any roller coaster I've ever been on!

Mike Patey has a behind the scenes video about the heli-pad landing. Definitely worth watching. The plane was specially prepped, and the pilot had an experienced spotter on the pad. So it was as safe as it could possibly be.

just keep in mind you are seeing the final product- much like the big fight scense in a movie - not the thousands of hours it took to get to it.

Kelsey and his innuendos this morning 🤣 it got more than a giggle out of me

The second display going through the hanger is called barnstorming. My great grandpa did it, my grandpa did it and so have I. Its fun and as long as the barn or in this case hanger is big enough.

An additional factor in shooting the tunnel is wind, or the lack thereof. The plane is flying through what is in essence ideal completely static air

Passenger: "Excuse me! That's a helicopter pad!" Redbull pilot: "Not a problem"

Mr Kelsey you’re absolutely my favorite aviation channel because of your humility.Most airplane pilots have an air of superiority they try to convey that you don’t.Good work!

Having watched the Mike Patey videos both of the build of the aeroplane used for the landing on the heli pad, the preparation/practice landings (on the ground), plus the precautions taken on the day (they abandoned the first day due to the winds being too high), I know that the risks were very well managed. It was still an amazing feat.

I used to fly a lot in airliners as a kid in the 80s, 90s and early 00s. Nowadays I don’t fly as much. I’ve experienced a variety of turbulence, rocky landings but never a go-around. Call me crazy, but that is something I look forward to experience as a passenger. With your info on how stable approaches are a must now, maybe they,ll become more common.

While in the AirForce, I watched an A-10 with the original test pilot "Col Thompson" fly through a tab-V hanger in england as part of a demonstration flight back in the 70's.

"I'll take my nice four engine plane that's has snacks, a bathroom, and place to go nappy when I get tired." Love the humor

Mike Patey was involved with the reengineering and modifications of the plane as well as in charge of the ground planning. There was a huge amount of testing before it was ever attempted. Finally, the pilot is also a Red Bull air racer. Watch the Mike Patey video about it. Dude is awesome.

My best friend in college was heading out for a Red Flag exercise and we crunched the numbers. Given the speeds and distances in the canyons, it would not be physiologically possible to react in time to save the plane if he screwed up. So the assumption was that he wouldn't screw up which, of course, he didn't. The reason a single prop engine pulls left is the torque from the propeller blades going through the air all at the same angle.

The nap nook is an important feature to consider. I'd like to see the Redbull guys do this in a 747!😂 Nice job, my Sunday morning is complete now, thank you!

Kelsey, we just love you! You bring a unique personality to aviation RU-vid, and give tons of really detailed, interesting and instructive information. I love how even though you fly the Queen you don't have a huge ego. Like I said, we love you!!!

The (wind) sheer humbleness of this channel is amazing! I know u have over a million subs but cant tell u enough how good this channel makes me feel, aviation or not. Just pure joy and education! Thank you sir for spreading happiness ❤

@14:37 lol. Keep making these videos. I appreciate how you break down the flights. I thought the Piper-cub one was the hardest but having heard about the team work aspect I can agree, that one had the least room for error.

I think Paul and Steve actually did the hangar fly through 11 times for the cameras. They are both renowned for their smooth accurate flying, thankfully.

My son did his first solo this week! I showed him this and his reaction to the 1st minute...'ummm...no.' His CFI has thrown him around enough to know what's safe and what's not! 😂 CFI will be getting a nice Christmas bonus from this mother..🤣

Great video! Always nice to hear your take on things and explaining incidents! Have a great week

One of the really interesting things I noticed in the second clip is the front to back alignment of the 2 planes. They are offset, so even if one of the planes were to go off course towards the other they can essentially overlap the wings without hitting each other. It gives them quite a bit of extra space to work with.

Also, Mike Patey is an incredible engineer, too. He did a series about building that plane and all the modifications and reasonings for the design changes. Quite interesting and if I dare say fascinating. Mike’s attitude toward taking a risk is to cover all likely senecios and even ones most of use wouldn’t imagine.

Hey, Kelsey! My father was a crop duster pilot, who, as they say, augered in. I was 2 years old, so never got the chance to know him. The risk factors he had to deal with were immense. By all accounts, he was a very proficient pilot. The 'outfit' (year was 1957) he flew for had goals that exceeded the 'safe flying' envelope. Meaning they put an excess quantity of spray on/in his plane, resulting in non negligible performance. They were trying (at his expense!) to get more bang for their buck. So, he gave notice that he would be quitting. He crashed on his last day of work. But, he did survive the crash. Until the inevitable fire occurred, which caused his death as extricating himself was impossible with the broken bones he likely had. I was the baby of the family, being 7 years younger than My sister and 9 years younger than my brother. It sickens me that these idiots caused me to never know my father. My brother became an Air Force check pilot and carried on with flying for a career. But not in the pressure packed world of dusting crops, he flew for a regional carrier so his 'away' time was less. Now, for myself at 68 yrs old, I love 'good' aviation channels, which are few and far between. Your channel is one that I enjoy, bcuz we have similar mentalities. Thanks Sorry, tldr

From what they explain in the hanger video, it isn't as simple as just flying low. The "air cushion" effect from flying that low is intensified the moment they enter the hanger because the air is more confined and a different temperature than outside the hanger. They said the temperature could actually swing quite far from ambient which made it the most unpredictable element to the stunt. The hanger one is definitely the scariest for me because they are so close and it was completely unpredictable how the planes would react the moment they entered the hanger.

Entertaining video Kelsey. These Red Bull Air Racers or Stunt pilots are incredible to watch. Can’t imagine pulling off any of these stunts, or anything similar, in a B748.

I'm a private pilot. I'll address this and paragliding. All of my training (and instincts) had a great to do with ... STAYING AWAY FROM BUILDINGS AND MOUNTAINS.

They definitely do unsafe things, but they also do a lot to mitigate the dangers involved. I'm glad they do things like this so we can get people interested in aviation

Happy Holidays. Keep up the Great Flying Channel. When I was a did I would have loved this Channel. I had Flying Magazine and it got me through my Hours alive.

What I noticed is that the tail dragger touched down EXACTLY on the edge of the platform. Had it come down even a smidgen earlier, the tail dragger could have been ripped off and possibly the entire tail section, or at least bent severely out of shape. That also likely would have put the airplane out of control and could have fallen off the building. And without a working tail, he wouldn't be able to recover.

Paul Bohnomme, one of the barn fliers, is a commercial airline pilot for BA. I think he actually flew 747s. He is also a multiple Red Bull Air Race champion.

I'd be curious to hear about whatever "roof effect" and "wall effect" there are when going through a tunnel, analogous to ground effect. And also curious to hear if the team simulated these things in a simulator during their preparation.

Your reasoning is always very interesting. Love your videos Kelsey, thanks for taking the time and trouble to film them.

Fine evaluation of the Red Bull flyers! A great deal of info and a lot of fun. Bright spot in my day. Thanks

You can tell by the look in the pilots eyes (very wide eyed) on his first attempts that he very well knows the danger he could face if something went wrong. Hard to just watch. He has more guts than I ever would to try something like this.

Although the sparkles in his eyes and the little smile on his face made me believe he would loooove to fly these manouvers, I had to realize, that the lack of free snacks is the deal braker 🤣🤣🤣

Actually, in the first clip with the STOL Cub, there were no go arounds. All the "failed attempts" were test flights, he never intended to land on any of these approaches. When he hit the ground and bounced, that was because of a sudden gust of wind. The goal was to just fly over and get a feel for it. They only tried to actually land on one attempt, the one that worked. Pretty cool.

I'm glad you ended this video the way you did. You understand and respect the flying world that you live in. The flying that I do, most people would consider crazy.... but I admit that I would be completely lost in the flying that you do. What needs to be said about Red Bull stuff is that the pilots involved understand the risks they are taking and that they do everything they can to minimize or eliminate the risks to others.

In fact Mike Patey who built this aircraft to pull this stunt was in constant communication with the pilot monitoring wind speed and I think other real time informations.

I was fortunate enough to meet the Red Bull sky acrobatic team. They are crazy, the skydiver (I want to say his name was JT, TJ, something like that) decided to jump form the Red Bull helicopter even after the airshow was temporarily suspended due to weather. A updraft caused him to get entangled in his parachute lines. He managed to get free and pull his reserve chute at the last min. He was ok but it was scary to watch.

"Stabilized approach." You are right about knowing how to correct an unestablished approach shows good airmanship. In almost 20 years at LAX I saw several "recoveries". The two standouts were a Continental DC-10 doing a falling leaf on short final onto the one of the 25 Complex runways. The most impressive was a JAL 747 doing a 360 on short-final to 24R for spacing. An aircraft that size doing a 360 over Inglewood at less than 1000' was impressive! I wish we had cell phones back then to capture those events.

I worked the Red Bull Carbon Cub into my airport on its trip back to Washington after getting back to the states. Pretty cool.

Love how you are just humble and not cocky like some guys. Keep up the good work.

It's the rotation of the propeller. It typically caused the right wing to stall first at low speed. The Corsair required an aero antistall strip for it to be certified for carrier landings in WW-II.

You’re too modest, CAPTAIN!!! Congratulations again. Huzzah! PS - your closing line about snacks and naps was hysterical!

Hi Kelsey - just love your humble commentary about your own skill set and your ability or not to do these types of flying stunts. However as a sailor I prefer to keep the blue side down 😊

Kelsey, watching these videos remind me of the 1970's with DOD at Selfridge AF Base after my Army combat tour (2/502 Inf 101st Airborne) ... many I worked with were ex-pilots and told so many great stories. I was wounded and when I came home there was a "Hiccup" that caused me to have to fly to Camp Eagle up north for a day and back south to fly home the next. At Phu Bai airfield near Hue they had me walk out to a C-130 with a group of guys going home after their tours and it was full, they had me climb into the cock pit up front. There was a seat next to the flight engineer, and they had me sit next to him ... he started explaining the gauges, reasons for this and that (lonely guy?) ... keeping mind this is a combat zone ... he was telling me; "watch this" ... we were above the clouds and at about 180 knots, we started to fall like a rock for what seemed a long time, and then they leveled off and there was the runway(?) ... seems that plane almost stalls at that speed and they were avoiding ground fire coming in like that. I looked around the cabin and no one seemed stressed or anyway out of normal ... just flying every day with people shooting at you. You mentioned you flew with VN War experienced pilot, I'm guessing he told you a few. Thanks again ... airbrush_ken at yahoo-dot-com

not a pilot but have had fun in Mircosoft Flight Sim for many years. In the new one its a free download to try and land on the helipad. Thus far I haven't been able to do it. Respect to all the pilots.

I think I recall that for the second stunt (the two planes flying through the hanger) that one pilot focuses on using ground markings to be exactly in the right place, and the other pilot focuses on keeping exactly the right distance between the two planes.

Kelsey, I don't think you give yourself enough credit for what you do. You often refer to yourself getting in trouble in flight school or having to retake exams. But who HASN'T made mistakes when learning to fly? When we are learning, we experience new situations that we've never had to deal with before and nobody can expect a rookie pilot to know everything. You fly the queen of the skies now, let's face it - you're a PROFESSIONAL pilot! Give yourself more credit for your skills and your experience. Love the videos, hope you're doing excellent!

I think you're a pretty amazing pilot Kelsey. When you take your own life in your hands it's one thing but.. when you take others lives in your hands that to me is a whole other level. I always appreciate you being humble, and that's why I'll say the you're a pretty amazing pilot part for/to you. 👍✈

Steve Patey just posted about the helipad landing on his channel. It's amazing how much prep went into it. He built the airplane and specially modified it for STOL. Patey has built some very impressive airplanes over the years.

@MikePatey 's plane on the Helipad was a great breakdown. Thanks Kelsey!

As far as landing on the helipad... You never mentioned that the plane was specifically prepared by the aviation genius Mike Patey for this attempt and much engineering and calculations were done to see if it can be done in relative safety. Patey has an in-depth video on his RU-vid channel detailing all the work done preparing and practicing for this. It's not like some guy jumped in a stock Carbon Cub and decided one day to land on the Burj al Arab on a whim.

I know some of the people (the Patey family) in the Dubai landing, fun to see them on this channel. 😂 They (and my channel) are all about safety while doing off-airport stuff. Admittedly, a helipad is *very* off airport, but having seen the immense amount of work that went into prepping this, and having seen the plane several times, it really was very well thought out. Back country pilots spend an enormous amount of time fine tuning how to hit a landing spot. Way more than the jet pilots. So that demonstration wasn't very sketchy at all. One thing I'll add. You said the plane wasn't really designed for that kind of thing. In fact, that plane was explicitly designed and built for that day.

Another very entertaining video, thank you!

All 3 are just sick, sick SICK! AMAZING

Reminds me that because one can do something isn't the same that one should.

For the helipad landing: i have watched Mike's video on the modifications and he has overengeneered every pert of it. The pilot has also done many hours of practice in the plane in safe places in different wind conditions

tailwheel planes have an especially exaggerated left turning tendency on takeoff due to p factor and gyroscopic precession. When the tail comes off the ground, the resultant force from the prop is thrust essentially from the right side of it instead of in the middle

I like the way you think and operate! Proud of you!

Regarding pilot trust, I have been riding motorcycles since before I could drive. I'm now 60. No wrecks. I never ride close to someone, just because you can't really trust what they might do. That is, with the exception of my one friend, who I've ridden with for years. We'll ride through turns, inches apart, or sometimes, handlebars barely touching. I know what he will do, and he likewise, and together we can ride safely in a fashion that looks cool and maybe dangerous. But trust like that takes time and practice to form. Same for these Red Bull guys.

Where are you flying these days, Kelsey? Take us with you, please!

Mike paety has several videos on how much work went into the burge helo pad landing, the tunnel landing also took lots of training, even strobe glasses for the lights.

Actually, that plane was specifically designed to do that stunt.

Red bull always push the limits of aviation law

BTW, if you want to see the supreme masters of close formation flying, check out the French Connection. They (not surprisingly) met their end flying their display routine, but only because they decided to use a slightly lower minimum altitude to satisfy the needs of a camera crew. Just so happened that they collided for the first time ever that day, and they were too low to recover.

That looks like Mike Patey (0:48) on the radar gun and radio. I think the pilot was getting air speed information while attempting the STOL landing. That wind sock was showing a cross wind but with a head wind those planes stop on a dime....and give you change!

Kelsey at minimum, makes me feel secure around planes. Luv it. luv that.

I was doing flight training on a windy day and my instructor said “Woah, windsock on Viagra.” That saying has stayed with me ever since! 😂

Flying those little airplanes through the hangar or whatever that building was is basically just like flying a larger model helicopter indoors (and at full horizontal speed). It's enough space for the craft to fly, but the error margin before crashing into anything is so low that it's a near-impossible thing to do without damaging anything or in the case of real planes, killing someone.

Very cool seeing Mike Patey working with RedBull on this video✌️

The engineering, the plane, the pilot, the team coordination, the deployed safety and rescue teams, and second by second metering of every conceivable wind, weather, and air flow parameter were extreme to safely perform the stunt. Check out Mike Patey's builds and behind the scenes.

Along with the skills of the pilots, lets us not forget the skills of the designers and builders of the aircraft themselves. As well as those who maintain them.

This is just bush flying with helmets

Formation flying does take skill and trust, as you mentioned, but it also takes constant communication. For some of those formations, we get to hear some of the radio calls between the pilots as they keep each other informed about what is happening next.

Thank you for this video. In my view the last one was the most risk of death. One sneeze…. . I think he started to the left in order to line him up to the centre of the target tunnel.

I really think that what Red Bull does is get people interested in aviation. They know how dangerous what they do is but the spectacle is the end product and that is what they produce. I feel holding these guys to the same standards as regular pilots is foolish as they are clearly something entirely unique.

There's another aspect to aerobatics and precision flying like this you didn't mention. All these guys have been blessed with above average hand-eye coordination, reaction time, depth perception, etc., most pilots can't even practice enough to attain the skill level they have naturally.

This was a fun video to watch! ❤

These guys are incredible.

This is a legend out of Butte, MT: One night many years ago the guys were drinking at the bar and telling stories and the one pilot reckoned he could fly his airplane between the church steeple and the structure next to it. His buddies told him it was impossible even if he was sober, and he took it as a challenge. The drunk pilot got his plane in the air and, to everyone’s surprise, safely flew between the two. Someone later measured the width of the gap and he had less than six inches of clearance from his wingtips.

I watched an interview with a military performance group pilot, and the interviewer asked him how bad things would be if they bumped wings, and he said, "honestly, we bump wings all the time. you can't avoid it when you're flying that close. but the thing is, as long as you're going the same speed and the same direction, it's no worse than bumping in a parking lot."

One of the things I would be curious about is the fluid dynamics of flying through the tunnel. I would imagine that flying through would create some wierd pressure/vacuum differentials and maybe some turbulence.

4:57 The light explanation was a gem for me. I need a whole video on it

I've been to the Red Bull Air Races at Spielberg and the crowd was a bit unnerved by the stuff the helicopter was doing between the races. I think it's only a matter of time until someone's hurt on the ground and we're discussing if this stuff is borderline reckless.

My man, thanks for giving such an objective, in-depth look at this. I've jumped with a few of the Red Bull guys, and sometimes the comments in aviation groups about these events make me want to hit my head on a wall. This was a great, neutral look!

Love these videos

These guys are good. Your flying something way different and you're great at what you do. My late brother says it's like flying a bus and a sportscar, you have different roles. Now, if you were to take that 747 over a big loop or a hammerhead stall, it might be ....interesting, but that's not what it's made for. If we tried to put a full cargo plane worth of stuff in the little sportscar plane, it wouldn't get off the ground. My brother flew tail draggers and he did some of the barn-storming maneuvers while he still had his ticket. He loved the Taylorcraft and he literally cried when they took his license due to medical issues. Seeing any of the tail-wheel planes reminds me of him so much.

I remember a helicopter pilot who was discharged from the Army after two tours of duty in Vietnam and got a job with a police department in California. He was doing air surveillance of a car involved in a robbery and when the car entered a tunnel this pilot flew the helicopter in after the suspects. The driver had stopped the car and was trying to turn around when this former Huey pilot entered the tunnel blocking the way. State police asked him about what he did and he just smiled saying "When you've flown in combat and do Hammer-stalls or full loops in a Huey this is super easy." He was told to NEVER do it again and retired from the police department after 10 years.