Flugtag!

No, I'm not cursing at you in Klingon.
It’s not a typo, nor did I make it up.

Flugtag is a German term, (rough translation: flight day), used by power drink peddler Red Bull to describe a celebration of bird brained humans and their homemade flying contraptions. You’ve probably seen a commercial featuring some zany aviator plunging off a pier while riding on an ACME rocket, or in a giant shoe.

The Twin Cities hosted one of America’s Flugtags yesterday, which meant we were bound and determined to witness the largest gathering of oddly dressed people this side of the San Diego Comic Con.



Unfortunately for us, we were a bit late in getting to the show. I-94 was shut down for resurfacing, detours, accidents and other special events herded us all over town. On our way to the launch pad at Harriet park, we crossed the Mississippi and noticed a number of people watching events from the bridge.



Rather than fight the traffic and the crowds on the ground we decided to stop nearby and backtrack to the bridge, and I’m glad we did - the event planned for about 50,000 people but over 90,000 showed up to watch wannabe wingmen bellyflop on the ole’ Miss. Helicopters hovered overheard, and the river was a parking lot of boats.



We were able to snap a few photos of the events, but our telephoto lens-less camera really didn’t do the spectacle justice from that height.



Attendance wasn’t the only record broken by this year’s year’s Flugtag - the Loon state lived up to it’s nickname when Major Trouble and the Dirty Dixies set a world record for distance, flying a whopping 207 feet.



While I’m glad St. Paul holds the record, the Dixie’s B52 bomber left me uninspired compared to memorable Minnesota flavored theme teams like Prince’s Red Corvette, the flying Cherry Spoon Bridge, or Favre’s Wingmen.

Perhaps if they had painted their craft to look like the state bird they would have won me over. Not only is the Flying Loons a good team name, it works on multiple levels.

Almost forgot: Total Miles Biked: 1493