We’re 50ft above the water and dive-bombing what looks like a pair of enormous floating traffic cones at almost 230mph. Our mission isn’t to fly around them but to slip deftly through a 33ft gap that is starting to look tighter than a gnat’s crotch.

The 300bhp engine is already screaming at maximum revs and the altimeter has suffered meltdown. I know the aircraft’s wingspan is 26ft, meaning that to clear it safely Darius Pavri, the Australian pilot, will have to perform a split-second 90-degree tilt to have any chance of making it. “Don’t touch the controls, mate,” comes the message over the intercom.

Who’s he kidding? I’ve had my eyes shut for the past five seconds and touching the auxiliary joystick between my legs is the last thing on my mind.

The last thing I see as we soar towards the gap is a flock of seagulls flying above us. The masts of moored yachts are at eye level and the red-and-white traffic cones - which are in fact huge inflatable pylons - fill my vision. I am convinced of one thing: we are going to crash into them.

Welcome, then, to the Red Bull Air Race, the most insane event since Monty Python’s Flying Circus took off, and from where I am sitting during a test run on the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia, a good deal less funny and more dangerous.

The premise of the series is fairly simple: 12 of the world’s best aerobatic stunt pilots race each other around a variety of courses across the world from Abu Dhabi to San Diego. This week the circus will be landing in Europe for five races including a meeting in London scheduled for the first weekend in August. It’s the aerial equivalent of Formula One, except errors of judgment won’t find you parked safely in a gravel trap.

The leader after three races this year is Paul Bonhomme, an unassuming 43-year-old Brit. In real life he is an airline pilot flying Boeing 747s, but you can tell that looping the loop is his real passion. “I started cleaning aircraft at a hangar when I was a teenager and had a pilot’s licence when I was 17,” he says. “It’s no more dangerous than any other sport. These are the best pilots in the world who have managed to master a very fast aircraft.”

Bonhomme has been flying in air shows since 1986 but rates the Red Bull race as the most demanding of the lot. “Because of the competition you can’t back off if you want to stand any chance of winning. The pressure is always on, people take risks but it is always a calculated one.”

The races consist of a number of challenges over a 3½mile course aimed at testing the pilot’s control of the plane. Pilots must navigate a low-level aerial racetrack made up of 65ft air-filled pylons. There are several manoeuvres to master and all must be done at maximum speed since the pilots are competing against the clock: this means threading a plane with a 26ft wingspan through a gap of 33ft at 230mph while withstanding forces of up to 10g. Easy.

Crashes are not uncommon, but the organisers insist that since the pylons are filled only with air the chances of injury are slim. “We wanted to make a gate for the planes to fly through but it had to be safe and made of something it could hit without any problem,” says a spokesman for the race organisation. “The team then carried out experiments using an aeroplane wing attached to the roof of a sports car. Test pilots were used to deliberately crash into pylons to ensure they were safe.”

There have been many crashes but no injuries since the series was launched in 2003, but from where I am sitting in one of the Extra 300 planes this is little comfort. The Extra is designed exactly for this kind of high manoeuvrability. Tipping the scales at just 1,100lb, the lightweight mix includes carbon fibre fuselage and wings, with an aluminium propeller helping to keep the front end light.

To help keep weight down further, the cockpit has fewer dials than most cars. There is, however, a “stall button” that will kickstart the six-cylinder engine into life should it cut out halfway through a manoeuvre. “It’s just like stalling at the traffic lights,” enthuses Pavri. “You just have to hit the button and the system fires up again, no problem.”

As he says this the pylons flash by on either side of the canopy and suddenly we’re climbing sharply in a massive loop. I know this because the onboard computer shows the aircraft’s position relative to the horizon. As Pavri lets me help pull the stick back, the ripples of the water give way to blue sky and the meter used to measure gravity force starts to spin. “There you go, mate – you’re pulling five big ones,” says Pavri. The gruelling effects of gravity mean my body now weighs five times more than normal, making the joystick handle like a lead pencil.

The gravitational forces race pilots will experience during competition are beyond the point where most people will have passed out. I remember fuzzily that, because so much of the flying is done at such a low level, ejector seats would be useless. Instead the pilots carry buoyancy aids and an emergency air bottle for ditching at sea. There’s a parachute too but trying to deploy it at 50ft would be pointless.

We hit the top of the loop upside down, provoking a feeling of weightless-ness. The five-point harness stops my helmet slamming against the glass canopy before we’re catapulted earth-bound at a rate of 260mph. As the second gate appears on the nose, Pavri takes full control and we sink to about 30ft above the water. The closing speed looks too fast; it’s impossible to make any kind of judgment and there’s an optical illusion, suggesting the wingspan is much wider than the gap.

We blast through the space at what feels like full speed in a crosswind of 16 knots. “Bonza!” screams Pavri. “How was that for you?” Er. Terrifying.
The 12 pilots doing battle in the skies for this year’s trophy include Russians, Americans and these three British daredevils

The Brits winging it

PAUL BONHOMME

Age 43
Hobbies Motorcycling, mountain-biking
Current position 1st (last year, 2nd)
Team The Matadors

If you wondered what airline pilots did on their days off, just ask Bonhomme. The 43-year-old, who flies long haul, is leading the series. He lives in Cambridge with his girlfriend and comes from a line of aviators: his father was a pilot in the British Army Air Corps and his mother was an air stewardess.

NIGEL LAMB
Age 51
Hobbies Scuba diving, racketball
Current position 9th (last year, 9th)
Team Breitling

Lamb has worked with Bruce Willis in his role as a stuntman, but two inflatable pylons. Last year he had a rollercoaster ride, winning in Porto but finishing 12th in Istanbul and crashing heavily into a pylon in Monument Valley. Jones lives near Cirencester with his wife, also a pilot.

STEVE JONES

Age 48
Hobbies Vintage car racing
Current position (last year, 5th)
Team The Matadors

Jones flies Boeing 747s when he isn’t screaming between says the Red Bull race series is the most adrenaline-pumping stunt he has done. When he is not in the air (he has displayed many vintage fighters including the Spitfire, Hurricane and P51 Mustang) he likes deep sea scuba diving.