Flugtag Entries Take Energetic Drop Into Drink

Tag : tape foil

Richard Robards of Tallahassee stood outside the Tampa ConventionCenter on Saturday in a purple shower cap and a white bath towel -and no one batted an eye.
It helped that the 31-year-old mechanical engineer and his buddieswere tending to a homemade rubber ducky they hoped could fly.
The giant quacker was one of 35 homemade aircraft that tried tocatch air in the Red Bull Flugtag, or "flying day" competition. Themakers of the energy drink have sponsored more than 40 Flugtagsworldwide since 1991. Saturday's was the first in the United Statesthis year, with two more planned for Portland, Ore., and Chicago.
Competitors traveled from Texas, Massachusetts, New York, NewJersey, Virginia, Tennessee and other parts of Florida. There werethe Flintstones, with a purple pterodactyl that spewed smoke fromits nostrils. Tennessee icons Jack Daniels, Elvis Presley and DavyCrockett tried out an orange glider. The Fantastic Four, with anot-so-Invisible Woman and the Silver Surfer, made do with asurfboard on wheels.
"I've never seen anything like it," said Travis Hicks, 21, ofClintwood, Va., who was suited up as Mr. Fantastic with poolnoodles as his stretchy arms.
Tampa police estimated 100,000 people packed around the conventioncenter to watch the contraptions of cardboard, PVC pipe, aluminumfoil, feathers and duct tape scoot off a 22-foot-tall ramp into theHillsborough River. The shoreline was jammed with spectators, mostjockeying to see the outcome on a giant television screen.
Each team hoped its creation would go up-tiddly-up-up like thecrafts in "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines." Mostwent down-tiddly-down-down with a nosedive or belly flop.
That included the duck, which Robards said was inspired by his6-year-old daughter. He took the river splash in stride.
"I grew up in St. Louis, Mo., and we've got the muddy Mississippi.This is nothing," Robards said.
A craft fashioned after a Cuban sandwich couldn't cut the mustard.Neither could a group of students from the University of Tampa, whoinserted flimsy wings into a minaret while spoofing the Spartans ofthe movie "300." "This is Tampa!" they yelled.
The Tampa Bay Derby Darlins made a respectable showing with aflying roller skate, taking home a winged trophy as the people'schoice.
The top prize - a pilot's training course - went to Team TampaBaywatch, a group of former lifeguards from Busch Gardens andAdventure Island. They wheeled a boat up the ramp that arched intothe water as pilot Keith Humphrey, 38, soared free in a hangglider.
"I almost landed on those boats," said Humphrey, a sales managerfor the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. He sailed 109 feet,the greatest distance of the day.
Humphrey said he had never flown a glider before. "I know how to gostraight and down, but not to the right or left. The crosswind gotme, and I stalled," he said.
Air Gilligan won the second prize of skydiving lessons. The friendsfrom a telecommunications consulting firm imagined what wouldhappen if the castaways from "Gilligan's Island" tried to fly home.
Pilot Josh Anderson, 31, was Gilligan, with married friends posingas the Skipper and Ginger, the movie star. The team also includedthe Professor and Mary Ann, who sported a black pigtailed wig, abuxom gingham top and a mustache and beard.
"I was the only one who would do it," said Rick Valderrama, 37, whodressed as the country girl.
Snagging third place and paragliding lessons was The Little EngineThat Could, a team of Bay County firefighters. They extinguished a"smoking" cardboard house and pretended to do CPR before sailingabout 21 feet in their fire engine with wings.
The craft weighed 218 pounds, plus the 150-pound pilot, "whichequaled sinking like a rock," firefighter Matt Lopez said.
The river's visibility reminded pilot Dusty Neel, 24, of entering aburning house. "I couldn't see anything," he said.
Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 orvkalfrin@tampatrib.com.