Back in Japan

Photo: Taro Imahara

Photo: Taro Imahara

Photo: Taro Imahara


Amongst Yoshi's commitments in Japan was staging the 2009 Skyleisure Japan in Fukushima at his home airport, Fukushima Sky Park.

In the photo Yoshi introduces the TV Tokyo team to Mr Saito, the head of the Fukushima Sky Park Flying Club.

TV Tokyo together with many local Fukushima media reps were there to record and broadcast the 2 day event. The main atractions were Jurgis Kairys' and Yoshi' solo flights and the "Air Bandits" formation team of TC Robert Fry in lead with a Yak 50 and wing men Jurgis and Yoshi.

Not so Coveted award!

Yoshi receives Air Gators award! To the most deserving pilot of the season, the Air Gators present their special award each year! This season Yoshi was a narrow winner of the most Pylon hits (14) award for 2009. "This is the one trophy that we WON'T be trying for next year" says Yoshi and paid tribute to his coach Steve Jones for selling him his special pylon attractive aircraft.

Great Day!

Barcelona Wild Card, Top 12 and Super 8!

A fantastic result for Team Muroya on the final day of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship 2009.

Yoshi was at last able to find that consistent groove that he has been looking for. Long appraisal of yesterdays videos last night and a recheck of our recordings of other teams flights this morning confirmed a way that he could improve his lines through the track.

The hard work paid off and Yoshi finished top in the Wild Card round and then through into the Super 8. A clean run in the top eight left him with his best placing of 6th for the season.

An ecstatic Yoshi said; "I managed to meet my goals for this race placing 7th or better. I have been working on a plan of improving bit by bit and it has worked as planned. We now look forward to improving our plane over the off season and getting plenty of practice in as well to keep up my G tolerance to a high level".

Airgators and their job

There is a news article about the air gates and the men that keep them up on the Red Bull Air Race newsroom. It is very interesting for avid air race followers.

Pit Lane walk photos

Barcelona Qualifying

Go here for the news from Red Bull Air Race Newsroom

For Team Muroya:

Qualification Round 1.

A good time through the track but 3 penalties through 3 of the turning gates. Not exactly in the rules as we see but this has been clarified with the judges between rounds.

Qualification Round 2

Yoshi went into this round with the intention of getting a clean run but with an average time. He admitted to slightly misjudging the onshore wind while concentrating too hard on the next gate, the quadro and unfortunately took out the right hand start pylon.

Obviously room for improvement in consistency but the times through the track are ok considering our plane.

After racing the press and the enthusiastic Spanish fans are having a great time meeting the pilots in the pit lane at the Red Bull Air Race runway at Sabadell.

Barcelona Training

A mixed bag today for Team Muroya. 3rd Training was OK but the wind in 4th training was causing a few people problems. The southerly sea breeze came in and even with making an allowance for it, Yoshi's turn was a bit too loose causing him to take out two pylons in the quatro. We are studying the videos and looking for ways to improve the lines through the course and thereby the times in qualifying.

Training underway in Barcelona

The pilots are getting the feel for he track after 2 runs yesterday and now into the 3rd training flights.

Also yeasterday afternoon, Patrick Paris visited the Red Bull Air Race runway at Sabadell to say hello to his rookies from Red Bull Air Race training camps last year.
Patrick is the 1998 Aerobatics World Champion and is in charge of training any new Red Bull Air Race pilots.