(sorry for stealing your topic title Scudley) :P

mmmm... always been a fan of the air races.... and if you look at the planes, they are in fact very low-tech... all of the controls are manually operated, the pilots say electronic controls are too slow for what they are doing.... plus the added weight.... these guys take nuts to a whole 'nother level

http://www.hulu.com/watch/99692/red-bull-air-race-san-diego-...
(man video showed up in preview... not in post.... oh well)

(sorry for the long vid... but its the only good quality example out there) (first flight gets going at 6:24 if ya wanna just see a run... )

All in all very cool stuff!

Those guys are on the edge all the time. Very fast planes.

Pelican meets airplane at 200mph was the highlite. I wonder how many kiteboarders have come in contact with birds when getting big air.