A few dudes dressed to the nines as Lego Men - really well made.
Preflight skit.
The Spaceballs Winnebago blasts off.
And the aftermath that ensued...
The fine people at Red Bull (not so much a fine drink though) put on a grand event once in a blue moon called the Flugtag, which means Flight Day in German. The Flugtag is is an event where competitors attempt to fly homemade human-powered flying machines. The flying machines are usually launched off a pier about 30 or so feet into the sea (or suitably sized reservoir of water). Most competitors enter for the entertainment value, and the flying machines rarely fly at all - this was grabbed from wikipedia.com. Thanks.
So it was a really fun event to watch and I'd seen the few odd clips over the past years from previous Flugtags around the world. The first one was in Austria and they hold the record for longest flight at 195 feet. America's record Flugtag distance is holding steady at 155 feet. This one in Portland was insane. Over 80,000 people crammed into the waterfront downtown to watch 31 teams fly their insane-o contraptions off a 30 foot pier.
There were a lot of funny and well-made crafts out there. The one that flew the furthest at 62 feet was Team Yakima who had a bigger than average kids big wheel with a glider attached to it. Everyone else bailed except the pilot who caught a good wind and beat everybody else. The creativity was awesome too. There was an all Lego team (pictured above) that had the whole deal - outfits, rad craft that looked like it was actually made out of lego bricks. They were called Lego my Red Bull. Sorta cheesy, I know, but nevertheless very cool. The Spaceballs people were really awesome with their whole getup. I remember there were some guys in a large red Converse shoe and they called themselves Freeballin'. They had super short basketball shorts so I didn't pay too much attention. Another memorable one was called Greased Lightning. They did the electrifyin' dance from Grease and were quite good. They flew far for most people with 55 feet. Theirs was just a tiny little car with a Wright Bros. style double wingspan. After the pilot ejected from the car, it looked like it was gonna plummet but he pushed his weight down at the last second and flew a couple more feet. It was impressive. I wanted to be in the Flugtag so flippin' badly, but I had surgery recently so it wouldn't have been a fantastic idea. A few other ones were a Back to the Future themed one, a long chopper styled one where this chick took a hard nose dive, a tortilla chip shaped glider with a salsa bowl, a chinese take-out box, a pot of gold from Kells Irish pub, and even a grenade.
Overall, the Flight Day in Portland was a winning success. It was overcast for most of the teams, but the sun came out and after getting home I realized I have a terrible sunburn right on my face, so here's to soothing aloe!
This blog brought to you by:
The New Pornographers - "Myriad Harbor"
Belle & Sebastian - "Waiting for the Moon to Rise"
Josh Rouse - "Sweetie"
