«Flugtag»??? It’s a surprisingly difficult word to pronounce and I’m still uncertain as to whether I’m pronouncing it properly. Only after this weekend did I find out that the word is of German origin and means«air show». The Red Bull Flugtag is a national event sponsored by Red Bull that took place on 9÷21÷13 in several of the major cities across the U.S. Participants dress in funky attire, do a pre-launch group dance, and fly their homemade flight vehicle that isn’t powered by engines(I won’t call it a plane b/c some of them are not) from a launchpad over water. These flight vehicles are pushed over the ledge by teammates. Afterwards, anything goes. Some of them may go a decent distance(~40 feet which is a great by flugtag standards) and some of them don’t fly very far… say ~1 foot and nosedive straight into the water below. So what happened at the DC event? Plane crash after crash, teams doing the Harlem Shake, and high school participants getting a failing grade for their science project after failing to launch their flight vehicle. It was a day of LOTS of mishaps but it’s meant to be that way: a day when you let go of the seriousness from your daily lives and mindlessly enjoy the event. For all the silliness, all participants have put a lot of sweat and effort into this event. Some of these flight devices took over 6 months to produce and cost over $ 7k to make only be to destroyed in 5 seconds after launch. While the novelty of the event made it exciting to watch, Red Bull needs to plan the event better for next year. There were far too many people, the viewing area was inadequate to accommodate all viewers, safety was questionable, and better enforcement of policies(people cutting in line & smoking while waiting in line for a bus) were necessary. Overall, this event was entertaining and I would recommend that you see this at least once in your lifetime. Add a couple of bottles of beer to the mix and the whole thing gets exponentially more entertaining. Can’t argue with that right?
