Flugtag makes a B'more splash

Where can a one-eyed, one-horned purple people eater, a giant booster shot, and an Oscar Meyer wiener all get together, launch off of a 25-foot ramp and see if they can fly? If you were in the Inner Harbor last Saturday, you know that the answer is at the Red Bull Flugtag.

Teams from all over the country and all over the world competed in the annual Red Bull Flugtag to test their hand-made flying machines and launch them off of a giant platform into the waters of the Harbor.

Flugtag, which means "flying day" in German, is an event that Red Bull has had since 1991, when teams first launched their creations into the air in Vienna, Austria. Since then, over 35 Flugtags have been held all over the world, from Ireland to New York, Poland, and even Ohio.

Among the teams competing was the very flamboyant, exuberant and lively One-Eyed, One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater.

The monster is the brainchild of Bryan Pike, Sr., the captain and pilot of the team's flying machine. Complete with multi-colored eyelashes, huge red lips and an orange smoke-emitting horn, the creature stands out amidst the sea of airplane-like machines.

"It's purple, and it's a people eater!" exclaimed Casey Mulhem, a junior at the University of Delaware, "What can get any better than that?!"

Pike explained that the team theme is based off of a Sheb Wooley song from the '60s. The Gaithersburg native has part-icipated in cardboard boat racing for the last 16 years, but this is his debut at a flying competition.

"This is our first time at the Flugtag, and we couldn't be more excited," he said. "I love crazy things like this."

"I think he's crazy," Bryan Pike, Jr. said of his eccentric father. "He's been doing crazy stuff like this my whole life, and my mom totally hates it."

Pike, Sr. isn't the only one who's insane for flying and crashing into the deep harbor waters. 24 teams competed in the event, all vying for the grand prize: a pilot's training course, valued at $7,500. The team who won the second place prize received $3,000 skydiving lessons, and third place received paragliding lessons valued at $1,200.

A People's Choice award is also given at the event; audience members could text in the name of their favorite team.

Many predictions of who would take flight were made in anticipation of the launches. The team to beat was Safe Busters, a team of Bloomsberg, Penn. high school students and their teacher, Kirk Marshall. As winners of Flugtag New York 2003, they were expected to make a grand comeback.

The team also participated in Flugtag Cleveland in 2004 and placed as runner-up, but was totally knocked out of the competition in 2005.

Other wild and wacky teams included team Wasp, hailing from Sofia, Bulgaria.

"I have my money on the Bulgarian one!" Kate Childers, a junior at the University of Delaware, declared. "That thing is gonna launch!"

Their white, yellow, and black machine was inflated and made out of nylon and plastic. The wind was expected to carry the craft far into the Harbor, and captain Valentin Starvrev was sure of it. He had also hoped to break the record of 195 feet.

Unfortunately, things didn't work out the way Safe Busters and Wasp expected. This year, the panel of judges awarded Victims of Soi-Cumstance first place. The winning team from upstate New York portrayed the Three Stooges and set a new record by soaring 81 feet.

"Where else can you be in your 40s and 50s and do this kind of stuff? We're adolescent boys trapped in middle-aged bodies," said the team's pilot, Dave Sadowsky.

Second place was awarded to Jump the Shark, a team of friends from Atlanta, and third place went to F-10-75, a group of New York City firefighters flying in a giant fireman's hat. The People's Choice Award went to 4-4-0 American Flyer, a half-train, half-plane soaring machine.

"Flugtag was awesome," said Loyola junior Dan Lukasciowitz. "Those wipe-outs were insane!"

"I agree," said fellow junior Chris Sweeney, "The day was just great."

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