If you like airplanes, speed and lots of noise, the Red Bull Air Race is the coolest thing! For those of you new to the Air Race, it is an obstacle course set up for small propeller planes to navigate. It is a professional race with 12 full time pilots competing for the title each year and the race is held in 9 different cities around the world including Abu Dhabi, San Diego, Detroit, Rotterdam, London, Budapest, Porto, Perth and somewhere in Spain that hadn’t been determined yet. It is usually flown along a river.
In the picture, you can see the plane on the left as it flys through the inflated pylons that line the course. That is Fisherman’s Bastion and Matyas Church on the hill. It was awesome! The planes leave a smoke trail as they fly (I think so it is easier to follow them!) and this plane was on the second part of his circuit. That is why there seems to be a lot of smoke. It actually blew away pretty quickly. I took the kids down on Tuesday for the preliminary races. 
It was great because it was a workday so there were no crowds at all. On Wednesday, we went down again with Mike. There were tons of spectators! It was St. Istvan Day, the Hungarian National Holiday, so everyone had the day off. The weather was stunning. We managed to find a bit of wall to sit on which made it easier than standing for 2 hours! The show started with several special flying exhibitions first. Malev Airlines flew a jet down the river, there was a helicopter trailing a huge Hungarian flag and then there was a team of precision jet pilots (like the Blue Angels). They were the coolest, doing all kinds of loops, dives and fly-bys. Then the Red Bull planes competed. We stayed for the first complete round of the competition on Tuesday and well as Wednesday before the kids had had enough. It was great and I think Auckland should seriously consider bidding to host an air race. I know we don’t have a river, but the Harbour would be a perfect venue! I’ll drop John Banks a note.
