As someone who was ill after a children's fairground ride, Sophia Money-Coutts was an unlikely passenger on an aerobatic flight high above the capital. But fear itself was not enough to keep her on the ground as one of the pilots in this weekend's Red Bull Air Race took her for a spin.
ABU DHABI // The capital looked like Toytown from 800 metres, but I had little time to admire the view.
"Breathe, breathe, breathe!" my Spanish Red Bull pilot, Sergio Pla Merino, bellowed through the intercom in our helmets as we stormed down towards the sea in our little plane, my head thrown back and my sight blurred.
"You OK?" shouted Sergio once we'd levelled out again.
"Fine," I replied, gripping the bars on either side of me with clammy palms, vaguely trying to remember which side he had said to tug on my emergency parachute should I need it.
Within seconds, Sergio directed the plane straight back up into the morning sunshine. My stomach pitched like a ship in a storm.
Once, when younger, I was sick after riding on the spinning teacups at a fairground. Chances were, going up in a Red Bull plane would induce the same reaction. Perhaps even more violently.
So I had taken no risks with pre-flight food that morning. While waiting for security clearance at Mina Zayed's Red Bull airport, the security guard had offered me a can of the energy drink itself. I declined. I had eaten no breakfast. I had even forgone my morning skinny latte. Pre-flight, I was swallowing nothing that might magically reveal itself mid-air.
Before take-off, I was whisked through the formalities with my flight co-ordinator, Andrea Moeller. "Morning," she said brightly. "Let's just quickly do your medical test."
She handed me a form, which asked whether I suffered from various diseases. High or low blood pressure? Diseases of the stomach or bowel? Seizures? Mental or psychiatric disorders? They all sounded like plausible after-effects of a Red Bull joyride, but beforehand I could not claim to suffer any of them. Blood pressure checked, I signed a disclaimer.
"If we are flying upside-down, completely relax," this ordered, perhaps a tad optimistically. "Please be prepared for your heartbeat and blood pressure to be higher than usual."
From there we moved to the nearby hangar, and there it was: the gleaming two-seater plane that was to carry Sergio and myself up, up and away into the sky. It was tiny. You see bigger cars cruise up and down Sheikh Zayed Road. Was I seriously going to climb into that and let Sergio take me through loop-the-loops and twisting spins?
"Put these on," said Andrea briskly as she handed me blue overalls.
"And here is your emergency parachute," said Sergio, as he talked me through a few safety instructions. "If I say 'Bail out, bail out, bail out' I won't be joking. But we're not going in the sea today," he said.
Was this reassuring? I eyed an ambulance parked next to the hangar.
"Hop in then," he said, as I stepped gingerly into the front bucket seat. The cockpit seemed a trifle small and spartan. Where was the in-flight entertainment? Where was my cup holder? Where were the peanuts?
"There is your sick bag, just in case," Sergio said, pointing to my right as I was strapped into my seat.
He climbed in behind me and we taxied out of the hangar. "You ready?" he asked, and I nodded my helmet. We thundered down the runway and soared out above the sea. "We'll go through those," shouted Sergio, as we wiggled from side to side and dipped through the practice pylons, doubling back and through them again.
In the next 10 minutes, we climbed higher and higher, looped over ourselves and spat out a puffy white trail behind us.
"Look forward," ordered Sergio as he took us through Eskimo rolls.
"Look back," he shouted as the Corniche appeared over my head. "Look left," as we rolled on our side again.
"I'm Maverick," I squealed happily, in reference to the movie Top Gun, as we rolled over and over.
It seemed mere seconds later that he navigated us back down, but we'd been twirling about for 10 minutes.
"We hit 200 knots, or about 400kph," said Sergio once back in the hanger, as I was handed my certificate. "And we went through seven Gs." That's seven on the G-force scale to you and I.
My stomach was still lurching, but driving back to the office afterwards felt like plodding indeed. How I wish my boring, old car was a Red Bull plane.
Red Bull pilots subject themselves to forces of up to 12G, which makes their bodies 12 times heavier than usual. Blood consequently drains from the head into the lower reaches of their body, which can lead to tunnel vision.
"Tense your leg and stomach muscles," instructed my pilot, Sergio Pla Merino, before we took off. This would force the blood back up my body, he explained.
"And remember to breathe," he said, adding that it would help maintain my circulation.
During the flight's most intense moments, my peripheral vision did indeed blacken slightly and blur. I also twisted a neck muscle as my head was thrown back during a particularly steep upwards bank.
But still, it is the roller-coaster ride that beats all others.
smoneycoutts@thenational.ae
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Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
The biog
First Job: Abu Dhabi Department of Petroleum in 1974
Current role: Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding since 2008
Career high: Regularly cited on Forbes list of 100 most powerful Arab Businesswomen
Achievement: Helped establish Al Maskari Medical Centre in 1969 in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region
Future plan: Will now concentrate on her charitable work
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Mica
Director: Ismael Ferroukhi
Stars: Zakaria Inan, Sabrina Ouazani
3 stars
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
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Primera Liga fixtures (all times UAE: 4 GMT)
Friday
Real Sociedad v Villarreal (10.15pm)
Real Betis v Celta Vigo (midnight)
Saturday
Alaves v Barcelona (8.15pm)
Levante v Deportivo La Coruna (10.15pm)
Girona v Malaga (10.15pm)
Las Palmas v Atletico Madrid (12.15am)
Sunday
Espanyol v Leganes (8.15pm)
Eibar v Athletic Bilbao (8.15pm)
Getafe v Sevilla (10.15pm)
Real Madrid v Valencia (10.15pm)
MATCH INFO
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Keep it fun and engaging
Stuart Ritchie, director of wealth advice at AES International, says children cannot learn something overnight, so it helps to have a fun routine that keeps them engaged and interested.
“I explain to my daughter that the money I draw from an ATM or the money on my bank card doesn’t just magically appear – it’s money I have earned from my job. I show her how this works by giving her little chores around the house so she can earn pocket money,” says Mr Ritchie.
His daughter is allowed to spend half of her pocket money, while the other half goes into a bank account. When this money hits a certain milestone, Mr Ritchie rewards his daughter with a small lump sum.
He also recommends books that teach the importance of money management for children, such as The Squirrel Manifesto by Ric Edelman and Jean Edelman.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Key facilities
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- Premier League-standard football pitch
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- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills