TV Steward System Makes Air Race Safer, Fairer

E365 -- A new state-of-the-art Television Steward System (TVSS) has helped make this the safest and fairest season yet in the Red Bull Air Race World Series while at the same time has also made it more competitive. Even the 12 pilots - many of whom have felt the sting of an increase in the number of time penalties assessed - are singing the praises of the TVSS.

Pilot grumbling in the past about penalty calls has evaporated into thin air this season and they have generally welcomed the stricter enforcement of the regulations. The consensus among pilots is: "It’s fine as long as the rules are applied evenly to everyone."

It has also led to cleaner flying through the low-altitude obstacle courses and opened up the competition as top pilots, no less immune to penalties, are now focussing on flying cleaner to prevent their championship ambitions from being dashed by a costly penalty at the wrong time.

"We wanted to find a way to keep the dynamics of the high-speed sport moving forward quickly without any undue interruption but at the same time come up with a system to help clamp down on infractions such as flying too high or too low," said Red Bull Air Race Aviation Director Heinz Moeller.

"In the past there was only visual judging," said Red Bull Air Race TV Steward Dirk Eckhardt. "Pilots sometimes tried to take advantage of that. It just wasn’t always easy to make the right call. So we spent a year developing a system that incorporates the use of instant replays from the Red Bull Air Race TV feed as well as an on-screen marking system to assist the work of visual judging. The stewards are set up at strategic points along the course and in the Race Tower to help make very quick recommendations to the Head Steward and Race Director."

In essence there are seven officials in total working behind the scenes to monitor various critical sections of the course and make recommendations with the help of the TV images. The officials include: two outside Stewards out on the course, Roman Buehler (Switzerland) and Hans Vogtmann (Germany); the Head Steward Assistant currently assigned by the host country; TV Steward Supporter Falk Kotulla (Germany) and TV Steward Dirk Eckhardt (Germany).

Depending on location and race track design there might be even more outside stewards in place. Their recommendations go to Head Steward Stanislav Bajzik (Czech Republic), who also has the authority to request a quick review of any flight path, and ultimately to the Race Director Drew Searle (Australia) or Bernd Piff (Austria), one of whom controls each race.

Film sequences can be instantly replayed in slow motion to see whether the pilots were flying at the prescribed altitude. Depending on the course, the minimum altitude as marked on the Air Gates is usually about 10 metres above the surface and a maximum permitted height is about 20 metres. If the Fuselage Reference Point (generally speaking the pilot’s helmet) is below that, the pilot will be disqualified.

If the so-called FRP is judged to be above the top of the Air Gate, the pilots are given a 3-second penalty. They can also face 3-second penalties for incorrect knife and 10 seconds for touching a pylon. Armed with the ability to quickly check the flight path, officials have not been bashful about handing out penalties.

"There are about 23 pylon passes on each track that have to be judged," said Eckhardt. "That works out to be about one pylon being passed every three seconds in each run. If you add it all up, with 12 pilots and four days of flying on each race weekend, there are a total of about 1,700 gates that the pilots have to fly through and they all have to be judged.

"In the past, the eye might have seen something but it was difficult to review it quickly enough to make fast decisions to keep the sport moving forward. That’s changed now. We have significantly reduced the margin for error and yet also made the race more exciting."

The new system has achieved remarkable respect from the pilots almost instantly this season. Even though defending champion Mike Mangold was given a three-second penalty in the semi-finals in Detroit for an incorrect knife, wrong side in a close but accurate call, the American immediately accepted the ruling that dashed his hopes of reaching the final without even a trace of doubt. "The judges have the video review so there was no way getting away with it," said Mangold. "I did it. It was a mistake."

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