This weekend, in collaboration with Red Bull's Air Race World Championship, I had the chance to experience a crazy adventure in Abu Dhabi.
I arrived in the morning and parked at Al Bateen Executive Airport. As soon as I got out of my car, I saw a plane taking off, going really fast and high, that’s when it hit me. This was really happening.
I’m not going to lie, I was extremely nervous, but when I arrived on site, I was impressed with how professional everyone was. These guys knew what they were doing, so even though I was scared, I felt safe right away.
I went in, tried the special suit and helmet on, and then got briefed on the safety measures as well as the next steps. It was finally my turn and I met with my pilot, an experienced and kind Lithuanian who made me feel comfortable almost instantly.
"The feeling was unbelievable"
We finally took off and it was an amazing feeling. I was holding on for dear life but at the same time, it was such a great moment. The view over Abu Dhabi was just unbelievable! We flew for around five minutes until we made it to the gates, and that’s when we really started to play around.
The pilot initially began nice and easy to see how I reacted, and for me, it felt so natural. It was like going on a roller coaster in the middle of the sky. He told me we went up to 6Gs, but I honestly felt very good. We tried a few maneuvers for five minutes and got the adrenaline going.
The feeling was unbelievable, it felt like being in a real-life video game!
Finally, we flew back to the airport and that’s when I realized how much I wasn’t trained for this since I was completely out of it after just 15 minutes and had a headache for the rest of the afternoon!
Having said that, I would definitely do it again, without a single doubt! It was such an awesome - and addictive - feeling!