I first heard of the Red Bull air race two years ago and was fascinated by it. Primarily due to never seeing such maneuvers which are carried out by the pilots.

Over the years I’ve been watching adverts year after year. This year I was too late to get the tickets but decided to try and watch it for free anyway. After all, what did I have to lose except £5 on travel costs?

I left from Barking station with two friends of mine, Hashim & Kulvir. Within a hour we arrived at North Greenwich at The 02. From there due to the absence of a ticket we decided to walk along the river. We finally found a suitable spot and started recording. After some time we noticed that there was nothing considerable happening except the few side acts.

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

The main race itself got extremely boring after a short while. The aeroplanes would come, do the same maneuvers and then repeat twice again.

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

After a brief discussion we decided to cross the river and if the show failed to impress us, we would simply visit the other various landmarks London has to offer. We started walking in the direction of Woolwich (big mistake) in the hope of finding a bridge or a crossing point. Neither of us have ever been on that side of the river so we we’re walking in the dark. Some roads were blocked off by police so we couldn’t access them either. After four miles of trekking we finally managed to cross via the ferry service! We then had to track back the same distance until we were parallel with The O2 once again. By this point my friends were exhausted and we had lost the will to carry on. We found the local DLR service and came home.

Overall I think it was a waste of a day. But at least I know now what exactly the Red Bull air race has to offer. My advice for anyone thinking of visiting would be to stay at home and save yourself the £15-188 it will cost. The highly edit the promo videos in order to make it seem appealing. In reality its as boring watching the paint dry.