Aussie Matt Hall excited about Red Bull Air Race's 2014 return

High performance aircrafts, flying at 300km/h just metres from the ground with thousands of spectators watching below. It’s the F1 of the skies, the Red Bull Air Race World Championships is back in 2014 after a three-year hiatus.

In the field of international pilots Aussie Matt Hall is right there, rubbing shoulders with these masters of the air, flirting with danger for a living.

“The danger is something I definitely think about but there are a lot of rules and procedures and equipment to reduce the risk,” Hall told Yahoo7 Sport.

It hasn’t always gone to plan for the former RAAF top gun. In 2010 Hall clipped the surface of the Detroit River during a race. Luckily his plane escaped any major damage and he was able to navigate the aircraft back onto the runway.

Hall doesn’t count that as luck, however. For him, flying safe is his number one priority and the hours of training pilots like himself put in before their death defying flights above picturesque cities is what keeps him coming back.

“People think of aviation they think of flying an airline, but that’s not us,” Hall said.

“We do a lot of training at low-level back at our own countries, flying around 30 feet off the ground and pulling a lot of G.”

G-force is that measurement of acceleration that is felt by weight. The higher the G, the heavier an individual feels.

The average person experiences a low level of G-force when on a rollercoaster. The amount of G-force race pilots like Hall must withstand is far greater though, and truly remarkable. While sports psychologists can help pilots get in the right frame of mind, nothing but peak physical fitness will do in Hall’s line of work.

“Most people pass out at about 4G. Something like a jet fighter that I used to fly pulls 7.5G and my race plane gets to 14G,” he said.

“At first you feel nauseous but you do get used to it. At 10G I way ten times my normal body weight.”

Despite the toll flying in air races has on his body, Hall wouldn’t have it any other way. Since leaving the defence force where he was a Wing Commander, Hall hasn’t looked back.

“The style of flying, the travel, the new challenge, that all appealed to me,” he said.

The Novocastrian was delighted to fly in front of Australian fans when Perth hosted the air race in 2010. Though no Aussie city is on the itinerary for this Championship, Hall is hoping the race does come back to our shores again at some point.

“Perth was a fantastic environment, the location was spectacular with the racetrack being the Swan River,” Hall explains.

“Everyone thinks it’s an amazing thing to watch.”

Abu Dhabi in March is the first host city for the 2014 Red Bull Air Race World Championships, the first of seven events held throughout next year.

Hall is set to travel there in February in preparation for the race.