Red Bull Air Race pilot Matt Hall is a literal top gun of the skies

Things one can learn about Red Bull Air Race pilot Matt Hall by perusing his media guide biography during a wind delay Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:

• He is Australian born, a former top gun in the Royal Australian Air Force, the Australian Fighter Pilot of the Year, 1997.

• He is a third generation aviator; his grandfather flew in World War II. He has flown F/A-18E Super Hornets and F-15E Strike Eagles for the U.S. Air Force via a pilot exchange program.

• He flew combat missions during the Gulf War, earning various decorations.

• He left the RAAF in 2009 to join the Red Bull Air Race flying circus. During the 2015 season, he won twice; stood on the podium in every race but one; finished second in the championship by five points.

He’s like Maverick in “Top Gun,” except he has never flown inverted to throw a middle finger at a Russian pilot flying a fictional MiG-28. At least as far as anybody knows.

Actually, in real life, Matt Hall is more like Sully Sullenberger.

You won’t find this mentioned in the media guide.

During qualifying over Windsor, Ontario, in 2010, Hall’s plane stalled and banked sharply down and left. Both wings made contact with the Detroit River; there were gasps in the hangar and in the announcer’s booth. But in a split second, Hall rescued the plane from a catastrophic fate and put it back on a steady course.

The announcer said Matt Hall’s experience and perhaps his military training allowed him to safely put wheels down.

Hall, 45, talked about that after air racing at LVMS was canceled Saturday by 35 mph wind gusts. Weather permitting, the pilots will try again at noon Sunday in the Red Bull Air Race Championship.

“Getting shot at, there were certain times it wasn’t hairy because you could see it coming early,” he said as stuff banged around in the wind outside his hangar. “In Detroit, that was an extremely fast reaction. I didn’t get a chance to be scared.”

Hall made a sound that one would make after one narrowly avoids disaster.

“You didn’t have time to look at it happening and say ‘Oh, my god, I’m scared.’ So in hindsight, what happened in Detroit was less (frightening) because I was in control — if not good control. Whereas in combat, it doesn’t matter how good you are, they can get you when it’s least expected.”

As the winds of fate would have it, Hall wasn’t going to fly anyway Saturday after his nimble MXS, which can turn on a dime at speeds of 260 mph, developed an issue and the crew decided to study the cause. With Matthias Dolderer of Germany already having clinched the championship, and nary a MiG-28 in sight, the risk just didn’t seem worth taking.

Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.