Kirby Chambliss
Gentlemen,
Kirby Chambliss has been a friend of mine for over 20 years. He lives about an hour south of Scottsdale and has a runway at his house. Pretty cool set up. During the years I was AZ Unlimited Champion ('88, '89, '90) he was coming up in the sport and he made it all the way to the top, winning the United States National Championship 3 times. We never flew against one another as he made it to the Unlimited ranks the year after I retired. Kirby owns two Edge 540 aircraft. One is set up for aerobatics and the other is his Red Bull Air Race plane. He won the Red Bull Air Race Series Championship a couple years ago as well. His day job is airline captain for Southwest Airlines but he spends more time out on the Red Bull race circuit than in a 737 these days. The Edge 540 is a blast to fly. It weighs about 1000 lbs and has a 330 to 350 hp Lycoming 540 C.I. air cooled flat six engine. Roll rate is about 500 degrees a second and it will pull (and push) 15 Gs. With all that, it lands like a Piper Cub. He also loves fast cars and that gives me an idea for an Arizona GT event. How about a 1 hour drive to Kirby's house to check out his race planes and ask him a few questions. If there is any interest, I'll set it up when he's in town.
Photos below are of my best friend Rory Moore's brand new Red Bull Race/Aerobatic plane. I took him to Texas to pick it up after it was built and snapped the photo of in the air from my Cirrus. I was surprised to see something I didn't expect painted on both sides of the nose cowling. If members in San Diego would like a tour of Rory's plane I'll arrange that.
Chip
