Pilot Dario Costa soars down Kitzbühel's legendary Streif at 350kph
Experience the thrill of Kitzbühel like never before! Italy's Dario Costa takes alpine skiing to new heights with a jaw-dropping, world-first flight over one of the most legendary downhill courses.
Dario Costa has once again performed a feat the world has never seen before. Ahead of the famous Kitzbühel weekend of FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup races, in a display of nerve and skill, he flew his Zivko Edge 540 plane tight to every challenging twist and turn of downhill skiing's most notorious course, the Streif. Combining with the legendary Daron Rahlves, winner of the 2003 Hahnenkamm downhill race, the duo fly down the track at triple-digit speeds, giving fans of skiing, aviation and everyone else in between a unique perspective on an already-thrilling spectacle. Hit play on the video above to witness the ultimate Hahnenkamm race preview.
01
What is The Streif?
These are the key data points you need to know about the Streif: it's 3,312m long, it boasts an altitude drop of 860m from the start hut at 1,665m above sea level to the finish and has a maximum gradient of an almost unbelievable 85 percent!
Quiet rightly the Kitzbühel course is the most difficult and feared on the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup calendar and through famed sections like Mousetrap, Alte Schneise, Hausbergkante and the final finish jump, every single run down this incredible ribbon of snow is a test like no other for even the most experienced racers - both physically and mentally.
Before the world's best downhillers tackle the icy piste as part of the 85th Hahnenkamm Races on this weekend Costa visited the Streif in the only way a former Red Bull Air Race pilot can – by flying almost within touching distance of the snow at speeds of up to 350kph and surprising none other than American Daron Rahlves during his own course check.
For decades, the legendary Hahnenkamm races in Kitzbühel have captivated sports fans worldwide with the sheer spectacle it delivers of athletes pushing the limits of human ability. With famously big jumps, barely believable cambers and breathtaking speeds, the Streif demands absolute precision and top performance from skiers who tackle in in slightly different formation in both downhill and Super-G.
The spectacular course isn't only a very special challenge for the ski stars. Snaking down the vertiginous, tree-lined sides of a freezing Austrian mountain, it is a long, long way from what you would deem flyable space. That didn't deter Costa from planning a truly unprecedented flying course preview of the Streif however.
And we don't mean just a simple flyover: this was more like a full air racing-style attack of the actual course layout complete with top speeds of over 350kph, F1-beating centrifugal forces of over 10G and not one, but two incredibly difficult dives to fly under the Red Bull arch at the edge of the famous Hausbergkante drop away and then the Audi arch in the finish arena.
Dario Costa's plane
Aeroplane
Zivko Edge 540
Specification
Aerobatic aircraft, tailwheel aeroplane
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03
How did Dario Costa prepare to fly down Kitzbühel?
No pilot has ever attempted to fly down a ski racing course before, let alone the Streif. It was a world first that will remembered for a long time to come, but how did the 44-year-old Costa prepare for a flight like this?
"Records can be broken, but world-firsts are remembered forever," says the Italian. "The particular difficulty of this flight lay in the fact that there's no data that could have been analysed in advance. With no empirical data, no matter how well you prepare, there's always a big question mark as to whether it is even feasible.
With a gradient of up to 85 percent, this was a completely new dimension. It was an enormous challenge for me as a pilot
"An additional challenge was obtaining all the necessary authorisation. The Flying Bulls had to submit a comprehensive risk assessment, ballistic calculations, the flight path strategy and my documentation of the preparations on site, as well as many other details, to the responsible authorities."
Similar to the ski stars racing this weekend, Costa has again shown that you can bend the rules of physics and push the boundaries of what is possible. Just like the racers you'll see visualising their runs on the TV broadcast, Costa had to do something very similar to get the steep, snaking course and the precise manoeuvres needed to fly it safely fully locked-in.
"It was a real challenge to do. First of all, I had to memorise the course, just like I would for a Red Bull Air Race. In contrast to a Red Bull Air Race course however, which is designed so that you fly in at a speed of 370kph don't have to reduce this during the manoeuvres, I had to adjust the power for every section of the Streif in order to stay within the course, not hit any obstacles and not exceed the g-force limits for the aircraft. It took a lot of work."
You have no experience because no one has ever done anything like this before
That's understating things just a little. The reality of flying down a narrow, tree-lined ski run on a steep mountainside is that if Costa had miscalculated and flown too fast in the turns, his radius would have been too large and the centrifugal forces too powerful for him to stay on the course, risking a devastating crash. Then, on the other hand if his speed was too low, he would stall in the bends because of a lack of g-force and risk simply dropping out of the sky.
The challenge then for the Salzburg-based pilot was to fly each section at the ideal speed in order to make it to the finish line and create this unique course preview. "A project like this course preview is extremely demanding. You have no experience, because no one has ever attempted something like this before," emphasises Costa. "The manoeuvres were very difficult – and not just because of the physical steepness of the course. For example, the two arches that I flew under were extremely low and put me even closer to the floor. There was also the serious challenge of the lack of depth perception, as almost everything on the Streif was white. And with a gradient of up to 85 percent, this was also a completely new dimension. All in all, it was an enormous challenge for me as a pilot."
04
Who is Dario Costa?
About Dario Costa
Age
44; born on May 9, 1980
Profession
Professional racing and stunt pilot, aerobatic pilot, flight instructor and paradrop pilot
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Obsessed with flight since childhood, Italian Dario Costa made his first flight as a pilot aged just 16 and was already teaching pilot theory courses at L'Aeroclub di Bologna by 21 years old. It was chance viewing of a Red Bull Air Race video in 2003 that changed the course of his life however. From that moment on he dedicated himself to aerobatic flying and in 2013 he took over the role of Flight Operations Manager for Red Bull Air Race and development pilot on the Extra 330LX and Zivko Edge 540 acrobatic planes he uses to this day.
In 2018, 15 years after watching that fateful video, Costa's obsession became a reality. He made his debut in Red Bull Air Race's Challenger Class, becoming the first Italian pilot ever to do so and claiming his first podium place in only his second race.
In recent years, Costa has dedicated himself to breaking new ground and setting new flight records. Most notable of these was 2021's Tunnel Pass project which saw him set five records as he became the first person ever to fly a plane through a tunnel at the dual Çatalca Tunnels on Turkey's Northern Marmara Highway. Watch the record-breaking flight below:
2 minTunnel PassRace and stunt pilot Dario Costa of Italy sets a new world record with a 245kph flight outside Istanbul, Turkey.
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