It’s been 13 years since Matt Hall last joined the ADF in the Hunter skies but that’s about to change when he dons his Red Bull suit for the RAAF Newcastle Williamtown Air Show this month. 

In the lead up to the show that is expected to attract up to 100,000 spectators, the Red Bull Air Race world champion and former RAAF top gun fighter pilot sat down with journalist Rebecca Riddle to answer some very fast questions.

What is the highest you’ve ever flown?  

The highest I’ve ever flown is 55,000 ft in an F-18 Hornet.

Typically, airlines fly at about 35,000 ft, or if you’re on an international flight, creep their way up to 41,000.  

What is it like at that height?  

You have to be basically supersonic to be up that high in a fighter.

You need to be going at the speed of sound to be up there for the wings to generate enough lift because you’re not in space but it’s getting “space-like”.

At that height you can see the curvature of the earth and in the middle of the day you look up and you can see the stars because it’s dark above you.

It’s about a 0.4 pressurisation, so I’m breathing oxygen in the aircraft but my body feels like it’s at 20,000 ft when I’m actually at 55,000.  

What is the coolest trick you can do?   

It’s funny I can do these amazing things where I get the plane to turn on a dime where I can get it to tumble end over end, and all these crazy things also push my body to the limit, but the thing that everyone comments on is when I make the plane hover, so I basically turn it into a helicopter and I just sit there hovering in space, which is actually quite relaxing for me because there’s nothing going on in the aircraft with my body. And that’s the thing that most people tend to talk about.

It’s almost like gliding.

I basically just pull the plane up and I’m just hanging on the power of the engine in the plane, just sit still in space pointing straight up like a rocket there hovering like a helicopter hanging on the propeller.   

Do you do any other thrill-seeking sports?  

No, I don’t because I’m actually a very boring person.

People look at what I do and think I must be an adrenaline junkie, I’m not a thrill seeker because I hate adrenaline.

If I get adrenaline, it means I’ve lost control of the situation and I’m a control freak.

I think to do what I do, you have to be a control freak. You need to be in charge of every single thing that’s going on to make sure nothing goes wrong. So, if I get adrenaline (and I’ve had it a couple of times in an aircraft), it means I’m no longer sure of what the outcome is going to be, which is not a good thing in aviation.  

Matt recalls the time he was flying in a group of four and competitiveness took over.  

“That’s when I hit the water. I definitely had adrenaline when I hit the water and that came from pushing too hard. I was shot at in combat as well. Typically, if you have an emergency situation (depending on how big and how long the emergency is) you’ll get adrenaline. I’ve had a couple of engine failures too, and you definitely get adrenaline in that situation because you’re dealing with a plane that’s no longer functioning correctly. I don’t like the lack of control that comes with adrenaline.  

Are you a control freak?  

I’m learning to relax a little bit and wind back a bit, to try and enjoy just being a bit more relaxed. Part of the problem is I don’t have enough time to be controlling everything in my life anymore.  

Do you have a flying face?

I definitely have a flying face, when you’re doing G-stuff you can’t help the flying face, it’s not pretty.

How do you relax?  

Every morning I do my own calisthenics set up, just 20 minutes of breathing and stretching, and that alone gives me a good base level of fitness.

When I have time, I enjoy stand-up paddle boarding, bike riding, and mountain biking. Mountain biking is probably the closest I get to an adrenaline sport because I tend to push that pretty hard.   

What I’ve discovered in life is I get the most enjoyment when I’m completely immersed, which is, you know, being in the zone, you know, flow state and all those things that everyone talks about and that, that comes from when you have to focus on not making an error.

So mountain biking, stand up paddle boarding, – it’s not adrenaline but you have to be conscious of exactly where you’re going and what you’re doing and what the waves are doing around you the whole time so they’re the things I do for relaxation because it stops me worrying about what’s coming up, what’s happening in the bank account, what’s happening with the staff, all that sort of stuff.  

Is there anything else that you would like to achieve?  

There are always more things, and time is ticking.   

I’m still keen to defend my title as Air Race World Champion but the longer it goes the chances of me being able to do that are slipping away; because I’m getting older and it hurts more. The reward for effort is starting to wind back.  

I also want to turn this airfield into something amazing for public transport as well as adventure.  

And I always wanted to go to space.

I talked with NASA 20 years ago about trying to achieve that, but it wasn’t possible for me to be an astronaut pilot based on politics and Australia not being involved in it.

There’s now civilian ways to do it.

I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question, but it’s becoming more of a challenge as time goes on.

But I work on a principle that you never know unless you try and fail, so don’t make a decision that you can’t do it, find out you can’t do it by failing.  

What do you want to be remembered for Matt Hall?  

I would say for making a difference, not just in aviation, which I think I already have, but more than that, for making a difference to people in general.  

I get a lot of satisfaction these days out of giving motivational talks, it’s the most satisfying thing I do, more satisfying than flying these days.

Flying is a means of me getting in front of people, getting their attention, but the lesson comes from when I stand up and talk to people and encourage them to not be scared to fight.

Everyone’s told they can’t do stuff by people that bring them down, and then people don’t try because they’re scared of failure and they’re scared of the people that told them they can’t do it, scared of them pointing their finger at them saying ‘I told you you couldn’t do it’.

Whereas I work on a principle that the more people that tell me I can’t do something, the more motivated I am to prove them wrong.  

You talk a lot about mindset and visualisation. Can you explain that?  

If I’m doing a low-level display I’ll walk my mind through the track to the point where I’ll do it with correct orientation. I’ll do it outside, so I’ve got the sun on me in the right orientation.

If I’m doing a show that’s east-west based with a crowd line, I’ll walk east west so I’ve got the sun, I’ve got all the surroundings and I’m visualising. I’m walking it, and I’ll know where the dam wall is, where the road is, where the trees are.. I’m seeing it all as if I’m doing it, to the point where I’ll be doing the G-train (acceleration) and my heart rate comes up.

I’ll start sweating while I’m walking through either the track or the display. 

I’ll also visualise anything else in life that I think is important because you do better when you go into something with knowledge of what’s going to happen.

Even if it’s only been from your imagination, you’re then not surprised at anything that happens because you’ve thought it through in such detail.  

I still do it every single flight. 

I think people in sport stop themselves from succeeding because they can’t believe they could be standing on a podium, so it doesn’t come true. They sacrifice their potential, and they choke in the final, all that sort of stuff, because they can’t believe they will actually be successful.  

It’s something I do, and it sounds egotistic but it’s not, it’s just part of the process. I visualise standing on a podium, spraying champagne and hearing the national anthem and tearing up, and I go through that emotion so that as I’m competing, I’m on the road to that, as opposed to getting there and going, ‘oh, I can’t wait until this is over’. 

I have total belief I am going to win. 

Matt Hall, are you a perfectionist?  

I am. I get frustrated by people that aren’t.  

No matter what I fly; I fly helicopters, I used to fly hang gliders, I would have already prepared it and I know exactly what’s going to happen.

I know the altitudes, I’ve looked at the winds, and I’m going to try and do it perfectly.  

What about the things you can’t control?  

Part of doing it perfectly is having a plan, but then you’ve got to execute on what you see. 

I’ve planned it, I’ve looked at the weather and the winds and all that sort of stuff, but once you get airborne, it’s now real and you don’t care about the things you can’t control, that’s another part of being a pilot really. 

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