It’s been a busy season for Paul Bonhomme, and even when he’s not at a Red Bull Air Race, the world champion pilot is still flying about all over the place.
From the Red Bull Air Race in New York, Paul’s been to awards ceremonies and performed crowd-pleasing displays at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Here are a few things he’s had to say lately…
“I was totally, totally honoured by it…
You look at the names on there – it goes back to 1930, and I’m the 60th recipient. And that’s a nice round number. And my birthday is the same as Sir Henry Segrave, after whom the trophy is named.”
Paul, on receiving the Segrave Trophy, presented annually to the outstanding Briton in the field of transportation
“Wade and Nigel put it in there on Sunday morning…
If you join the RAC club, you can stay there. One of the guests who staggered in late on Saturday night, obviously having had a good time in London, was overheard to say, ‘I’m sure that wasn’t there last night.’”
Paul’s Air Race plane, moved into his hotel lobby by his team co-ordinator Nigel Warren and engineer Wade Hammond for the awards, causes some to do a double take!
“Sir Stirling Moss was there…
Ken Wallis [autogyro pioneer and the oldest pilot to set a world flight record at the age of 89]… Andy Green was there, the World Land Speed Record holder and a previous winner.”
Paul rubs shoulders with some other big names at the Segrave Awards
“I think one of them is sick…
It did look lopsided, but I guess that’s the safest way of operating it.”
Paul comments on there being only eight fighting fit Royal Air Force Red Arrows in their aerial display team at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, instead of the usual nine aircraft
“The flying of an aeroplane is the same, whether it's a 747 or a smaller plane…
You plan what you’re going to do, you make sure you’re current on the aeroplane and you manage the flight so you won’t get into any scrapes you don’t want to get into. With something like a Spitfire of a Mustang, you fly gentle, smooth aerobatics. You don’t want to wear the thing out. You look after the engine… because it’s a priceless bit of equipment. The main difference is that a Spitfire is for graceful, gentle aerobatics where you’re showing off the aeroplane. Flying something like this is far more aggressive – you’re not showing off the aeroplane, you’re trying to simply go as fast as you can.
Paul explains the subtle differences between a Mustang, in which he displayed at Goodwood, a Second World War Spitfire and a 215-tonne Jumbo Jet airliner
“What we need is a high-performance two-seater…
The two-seaters are not the same as my Air Race plane. It’s like going from a saloon car into a single-seater. This weights 540kg with 350bhp – the best two-seater will weigh another 150kg with 50bhp less – and then on top of that you put in an extra person. There’s a massive performance difference. I’d like to get a real two-seat race aeroplane and tune it without the rules and regs to get the correct performance – and that would be great fun to take people up in. It might upset a few people, though!
Paul laments that he can’t share his Air Racing experience with some of his fans
See what else was going on at the Goodwood Festival of Speed by clicking here…
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