In Hungary, Michael Goulian joined the ranks of Red Bull Air Race winners – and there couldn’t be a more popular victor.
“What’s it like out there on track in the Red Bull Air Race? It’s an almost out-of-body experience,” says Michael Goulian, the man from Massachusetts and pilot of aeroplane number 99, who took his maiden air race victory in Budapest.
Mikey’s family own one of the largest flight-training schools in the USA, so his ascent into the cockpit isn’t exactly a surprise. He laughs off the rumour that he learned to fly before he could walk, and insists he took his first lessons when he was 15, before going solo on his 16th birthday.
“We did that really early in the morning, before my Mom arrived at the aerodrome,” he admits. “I didn’t want her freaking out.”
He made up for it later, taking her up as his first passenger when he finally obtained his private pilot’s certificate. “I thought it was a nice experience, but she was petrified. It’s a fun fact that, despite being around aircraft and knowing the business inside out, my Mom is a kinda nervous flyer.”
Mikey soon progressed to aerobatics, and later set up his own aerobatic training centre at the flight school. Meanwhile, his own career was littered with awards and salutations: three times on the US Aerobatics Team; a US National Champion; honoured by the International Council of Airshows. He also had an eye on being a commercial pilot, but decided early on that flying airliners really wasn’t for him.
“A lot of people ask why I’m not an airline pilot,” he says. “It’s a simple answer: I didn’t like it!
“If I took off in a jet on a four-hour trip, you can guarantee that 45 minutes later I’d be looking out of the window wondering. ‘Are we there yet? Can this thing go any faster?’ I did it for plenty of hours (including a stint flying night freight), but I was always thinking about doing something else. I just didn’t want to be that sort of pilot, which is why I made a conscious decision to stop doing it and start doing this. Everything in life, I believe, is about being in the right place at the right time.”
Never short on enthusiasm, Goulian’s fervour actually seems to go up a notch when the subject swings around to racing. Being able to do this, he says, is a blessing.
“Oh yeah. When I was growing up, no one dreamed of being able to earn a living flying small, highly-manoeuvrable race or aerobatic planes – but somehow I’ve been doing it for over 20 years, and I still feel super-passionate about it,” says Goulian. “I think the reason that it still has this hold is because I feel lucky. It’s not a right for me to be here, it’s a privilege. Flying in the Red Bull Air Race and owning a beautiful aeroplane is a privilege that isn’t afforded to many people, so it’s up to me to give it 100 per cent of my effort all of the time to make sure I’m not wasting what I’ve been allowed. I think a lot of the guys feel the same way and that’s why we do it well.”
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