Since we'd returned to Australia, Phil had told me several times that on Sunday after church we were going to the Botanical Gardens next door to watch the Flugtag. I know...what? It turns out it was a very popular event...60,000 people were in the Gardens to watch the first Red Bull Flugtag in Sydney.
Red Bull's definition of Flugtag: (floog-tag) n. 1. Flying Day 2. A human powered attempt at flight
In a nutshell it was a competition of teams that built human-powered "airplanes" and tried to fly them off a 6 m ramp sitting on top of a barge anchored in the harbor. Apparently Red Bull has been doing these competitions around the world since 1991. But this was their first time in Sydney. Over 35 teams entered "airplanes" they had built to try to win. Each were judged on 1. distance 2. creativity of their machine and 3. pre-flight performance.
The winner with an impressive 14.5 m flight was a crew of mullet-wearing fisherman who "reeled in a victory" (hee hee) with their giant Flying Flounder. No, I am not making this stuff up. Check out www.redbullflugtag.com.au to see some video of the competition.
The dates and locations for the 2008 US Red Bull Flugtag competitions in case you're interested are:
Tampa Bay 7/19/08
Portland 8/2/08 (Wendy???)
Chicago 9/6/08
[Disclaimer: No, I'm not on the payroll or anything. Haven't even tried the stuff. My resident expert (Phil) claims, "It tastes how sweat socks smell." Just thought you might like a good laugh. I know we did.]
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4 years ago
2 comments:
Sandra, I really enjoy reading your blog. Tonight i read to myself and then again to drew both this blog and the one before. I needed a good laugh. Your style of writing is very easy and enjoyable for me to read. Thanks for sharing your stories. i have seen the redbull commercials with the flying machines on them and both my husband and i have commented on them. It's great that you were able to experience that. it sounds like a lot of fun.
ps. we have a blog on here also. we're new but we have privacy settings on. I would be more than happy to add you, i would just need your e-mails to send you invites.
I saw this event on the news the other day and thought of you! I wondered if you were watching waterside:) It looks very interesting!
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