Yep! 
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Hi,
There is another point that seems to have been overlooked, and from what I see in some videos, some do not follow this rule: the Vertical Turn.
I haven’t been able to find a rule in the publicly available documents, but I know that the complete regulations are only given to the teams.
I know that certain constraints apply to this Vertical Turn and that it cannot be performed just as a regular turn.
I think it would be good to refer to AIR RACE X (since the Red Bull Air Race no longer exists and has been “replaced” by this new format).
There, we can indeed find a rule concerning the Vertical Turn :
Hi @DeelLav,
Vertical turns were often mandated by nearby track limits. When no such track limits were present, pilots generally preferred horizontal or shallow climbing turns, as these allowed higher energy retention and faster trajectories.
In real Red Bull Air Race courses, vertical maneuvers were therefore a design constraint, not a stylistic choice, introduced to keep aircraft within defined airspace and away from spectators.
This distinction is important when evaluating current flying techniques, as removing or relaxing track limits naturally drives pilots toward flatter, more energy-efficient turns that were not always available in real-world RBAR layouts.
On circuits such as Budapest, for example, it is possible to fly almost level turns across areas that would never have been allowed in real Red Bull Air Race events. In reality, such trajectories were forbidden because they would have involved flying directly over spectator areas along the riverbanks.
New RBAR Track Record Videos on the Channel!
I’ve uploaded new videos showcasing RBAR track records across multiple circuits.
These runs are not just about lap times — they focus on line selection, energy management, and flying technique.
You can use them to:
study the best racing lines
understand where time is really gained or lost
identify possible improvements for future RBAR add-on updates
(for example: track limits to properly enforce vertical turns where required)
Leaderboard gaps are extremely small, often just a few hundredths — and at this level, details make the difference.
Check them out on the channel and feel free to share your thoughts, alternative lines, or insights.
Let’s push RBAR competition forward — smoke on 
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Sub 49! (48.905)
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Glad to find this thread - just about to jump into RBAR - I usually don’t like the things-to-do stuff, but lately have become addicted to fast, nimble stick flown aircraft and the only way to know how good you are is something like this.
Using a Moza AB9, VKB Rudder Pedals hydraulically dampened (■■■■ they work well), STECs throttle and Quest 3 VR. Will be jumping into it tonight and sure I will be sorely embarrassed by my first outing!
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Welcome @JPVann9916
That’s exactly the spirit of this group 
The whole idea is to push each other to improve, because with RBAR you really can get faster with technique, not just retries.
Don’t worry about the first runs, everyone starts there. What makes RBAR great is that it rewards clean lines, energy management, and precision, and you’ll see progress very quickly once you start refining those details.
That’s a serious setup by the way, the Moza AB9 with damped VKB pedals is perfect for this kind of flying. Looking forward to seeing your first times, and even more to seeing how they evolve after a few sessions.
Jump in, post your laps, ask questions, and share techniques, that’s exactly why this community exists. Smoke on!
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Good job!! Well done!!
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Hi @ITALynx11,
Thanks for the link to your YouTube Virtual Air Racing channel!
It’s really nice to finally enjoy your precision and learn from your technique. I’m pretty sure many pilots will find it helpful as well.
I also noticed that you already broke my recent record in Budapest. Congratulations, well done, sir!
I see that you pass the 7th double gate at an even sharper angle than I do (by the way, I’m curious how many failed attempts you usually have per successful race… 
I have a lot! 
This echoes the idea of races with a limited number of attempts). That turn clearly gives you a solid advantage, as I’m flying it in a more conservative way. Still, the final time difference between us is only 0.135 seconds. Hmm… And you know what - what about taking the turn after the 4th double gate not to the right, but over the top? To me, a vertical maneuver looks more efficient there. Otherwise, you have to make several quick roll corrections and lose a few fractions of a second. My previous record, the one you just beat, was done exactly this way. I would upload the video, but it’s on another PC, so I’ll do it later. But from what I see in your track, it feels like if I flew the 7th gate the same way you do, the time could be even better. However, I might be wrong, of course.
And thanks to everyone guys, for sharing videos!
I truly believe this kind of openness helps all of us get better. Smoke on! 
S!
By the way,
if one wants those yellow race ribbons to turn off, it is the same keybinding you use to turn off visual nav aids - Toggle Visual Assistances Display (Alt+V by default).
Thanks for your detailed response.
From my side, I had the impression that the vertical turn was fairly common in RBAR and not just an exceptional constraint imposed by the course layout.
Moreover, when looking at the trajectories in the simulation, this notion of a vertical turn is clearly present, which aligns with what I originally thought. That’s mainly why I was curious about how it is applied and interpreted today.
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate the feedback and congrats on your Budapest run as well. Being only 0.135s apart really shows how close the competition already is.
Regarding attempts… yes, quite a few 
That’s also why the idea of limited attempts makes sense. With unlimited retries, we all tend to experiment more aggressively, sometimes beyond what would be viable in a real race.
Good point about the 4th double gate. In real RBAR, vertical turns were usually flown only when track limits forced them; otherwise, flatter or shallow climbing turns were preferred to preserve energy. Your vertical approach there definitely makes sense.
For the 7th gate, flying it sharper is a clear risk/reward choice. It can gain time, but it leaves less margin. Combining your vertical line at gate 4 with a sharper 7th gate could indeed be interesting.
Looking forward to your video, sharing this kind of analysis really helps everyone improve, grow the community, and attract more racers to RBAR.
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Hi @DeelLav
That’s a fair point.
Vertical turns were definitely a distinctive feature of RBAR, but as I mentioned in a previous post, in real races they were often the result of course design and track limits, rather than the default choice. Whenever the layout allowed it, pilots generally preferred flatter or shallow climbing turns to preserve energy.
In the sim, the concept of a vertical turn is clearly present, but without the same surrounding constraints, alternative lines naturally emerge. That’s why track limits matter — not to remove vertical turns, but to make them a consequence of the course, just as they were in real RBAR.
Hello everyone, glad to join the RBAR community on FS2024 as a former member of VARS on DCS.
I’m getting familiar with the aircraft and the flight model, and I finally got under 49’ at Abu Dhabi.
I’m amazed by your lap time @AiMPRON what a lap! I honestly don’t know how you managed that.
Not sure I can still find another 0.5 second, though
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Here we are 
Hi @Nematome,
welcome to the party! 
Thank you! 48.8 is a great time too! In my 48.3, I found out a few timing mistakes, so the time can be improved further… My runs are also really inconsistent… I play DCS too! Currently member of a formation team, I didn’t know there are air races in dcs!
Hi everyone,
Almost every day I see the leaderboard changing, with the top spots constantly swapping places, and honestly, it’s getting harder and harder to compete! I feel like we’re all slowly approaching a kind of “theoretical limit”, and every new improvement is no longer just another attempt to beat a personal best, but the result of more and more careful trajectory analysis. 
Today I also did my own homework and worked through my mistakes, and here are my current results:
(for now I’m only racing on these three tracks… How you manage to race on all of them at once is a mystery to me 
).
Catching up to your times was really not easy, you definitely made me sweat! 
Over the past few days when I had a chance to fly, I was already starting to feel like I’d hit my own ceiling. But today I finally managed to break through and claw back a few tenths of a second. In Budapest it’s been a step-by-step fight, literally down to hundredths of a second. Pulling away like before just doesn’t seem possible anymore.
Well, now it’s your turn, guys!
I’m sure you won’t keep me waiting for long before I’m pushed off the top spot again, haha. 
So, smoke on!
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My videos seem to have had the effect I was hoping for, and it clearly shows in the improved lap times, you’ve all done a great job, well done.
Honestly, I was also hoping to attract new pilots, but for now the names on the leaderboard are mostly the same. That said, this actually confirms something important: we are getting very close to the theoretical limit.
At this level, I’m increasingly convinced that many of the current times are not consistently repeatable. They are extreme laps, flown right on the edge, where beyond technique you also need a bit of luck in the most critical gate transitions.
For this reason, I believe the next step should be working toward a different competitive format, where consistency makes the real difference, not a single perfect lap achieved after endless attempts. A format with limited attempts would completely change the approach, rewarding precision and risk management rather than all-in flying.
I’m on vacation right now, but when I’m back I’ll try to push my own times lower as well. In the meantime, it’s really great to see how much everyone has improved.
Well done, everyone. Smoke on 
1 Like