Posts Tagged ‘Perth’

The 2010 Red Bull Air Racing World Championship had an inauspicious start this year when in the second race of the series in Perth, Australia the first ever crash in the events 7 year history was recorded.

Adilson Kindlemann of Brazil lost control of his aircraft after rounding a pylon during practice. Kindlemann managed a near wings level impact, but as the aircraft’s fixed landing gear dug into the water, the aircraft flipped, leaving Kindlemann and the aircraft floating upside down in Perth’s Swan River. As you can see, Red Bull rescue crews arrived quickly to the inverted MXS-R aerobatic race plane and Kindlemann was pulled out alive. Amazingly his injuries were minor – but he was unable to fly when his home country hosted a race last weekend.

The crash is recorded here by AVweb –

As can be seen in the picture below the weather was not looking good for the race which was held off Rio de Janiero’s Flamengo Beach in front of huge crowds. Unfortunately the Top 12 round on Sunday had to be cancelled due to the poor weather and the race placings and points were determined by the pilots times in qualification.

Hannes Arch of Austria was declared the winner and Britain’s Nigel Lamb was awarded second place while championship leader Paul Bonhomme was forced to settle with a disappointing third place in the third race of the 2010 season.

This leaves the 2010 World Championship scoreboard after 3 events with Bonhomme narrowly clinging to his lead – see below.

POS	PILOT	NAT	ABU DHABI	PERTH	RIO	PTS
1	Paul Bonhomme	GBR	12	9+1	9	31
2	Nigel Lamb	GBR	10	8	10	28
3	Hannes Arch	AUT	1+1	12	12+1	27
4	Matt Hall	AUS	4	10	8	22
5	Pete McLeod	CAN	7	7	5	19

Fortunately the Brazilian babes were not deterred and on the Saturday it was not only the planes that drew the photographers attention.

The video below shows action from Rio – both the video and pictures come from Redbullairrace

The remaining race schedule is as follows:

• June 5/6 – Windsor, Ontario, Canada
• June 19/20 – New York, NY, USA
• August 7/8 – EuroSpeedway, Lausitz, Germany
• August 19/20 – Budapest, Hungary
• September 4/5 – Lisbon, Portugal

Tickets and information for any of these events can be obtained from the following link:

http://www.redbullairrace.com/cs/Satellite/en_air/Generic/Tickets-and-Hospitality-021242756456959?CategoryName=Red+Bull+Air+Race&p=1238611393596

Thanks to Barbara McMahon of the Guardian for bringing this amusing story of a British man living in Perth, Australia, who put his entire life up for auction on eBay following the break-up of his marriage. He has found that it was not worth as much as he had hoped.

Ian Usher, a 44-year-old salesman, held a seven-day online auction of his home, friends and job. Hoax bids pushed the price beyond A$2m but yesterday an Australian bidder agreed to pay A$399,300 (£192,276), A$100,000 below his target.

Usher, originally from Darlington, Co Durham, insisted yesterday he was “not disappointed” by the outcome.

In the opening hours of the sale 70 bids were registered and the price of his life in Oz stood at A$1.7m (£820,000). “I feel pretty good, shell-shocked really,” he said at the time. “It’s going much better than I’d anticipated.”

Heartbroken after his marriage breakdown two years ago, Usher decided to get rid of everything he owned so that he could start a new life.

The single lot included Usher’s former marital home outside Perth, car and motorbike as well as all the toys necessary to enjoy the Australian lifestyle: a jetski, kite-surfing equipment, a mountain bike and the obligatory barbecue. It also contained a two-week trial run at Usher’s job as a rug shop assistant and an introduction to his friends, offering the successful bidder a ready-made life.

Usher now plans to go travelling with just his wallet, his passport and the clothes on his back: “I’m ready to move on.”

What can we say – going from one extreme to another?!!