“Fly-off” Competition is the First Since 2011

Those of us in aviation understand that for all the seriousness involved with defying gravity in machines that sometimes don’t look like they should be doing such things, the underlying element that animates us is that at its most basic level, flying is fun!

From DaVinci to the Wright brothers to Chuck Yeager to Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins, the part of the human spirit that seems the most satisfying (to this writer) is the desire to throw off the shackles that keep us Earth-bound and fly through the air as freely as the birds do. Why? Because it’s fun!  And it’s freedom!

Imagine that, for just a little while, we might leave behind all the trappings and technologies of modern aviation – the engines, the fuels, the advanced avionics and navigation and procedures and radio calls and worrying about passengers and their comforts and getting them someplace on time and in one piece?

What if we could simply use our imaginations to come up with any sort of zany contraption that we think might be able to go just even ten feet through the air without having to think about breaking our bones or worse?

And what if, while doing such an outlandish thing, we might entertain thousands of people who not only share in the fun of seeing those imaginative contrivances fly, or attempt to? And have a helluva fun time ourselves while doing it?

That essentially captures the spirit of the Red Bull Flugtag event which, in case you don’t understand German, means Fly Day or Flying Day. And the Flugtag event is exactly how it’s described above: Fun-loving teams come up with their own innovative idea of a whimsical, odd, preposterous, ridiculous gizmo that, with just a dash – a small dash – of seriousness, or not, maybe flies a little, and have fun building it. And also come up with their own special “theme” complete with costumes and some sort of performance that usually involves music and dancing to send it off.

Then, all the teams get together in a place where they see which team’s “flying machine” goes the furthest, or looks the funniest or most ridiculous, as they soar off a platform high above water. Where a flight of maybe 5 seconds is about the best you’ll get, and where hitting the water from around 25 feet surrounded by your teammates and your machine will bruise at most your ego, or not. And all this with thousands, no- tens of thousands of people watching, partying, and enjoying the spectacle. And you’ll probably end up on TV. Certainly on the Red Bull YouTube channel and throughout the social media universe. Oh, and there are judges and prizes too.

That’s the Red Bull Flugtag. It will be returning for the first time since 2011 to the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. It will be held on Saturday November 9, 2024, outside the Convention Center on the specially-built platform over the Convention Center Marina.

FMI: www.redbull.com