For weeks, we saw posters and pamphlets for this event all up and down the coastal road. We had no idea what it meant until they set up a display board with footage from the first Flugtag two years ago. Basically, what happens is they build a huge artificial cliff that juts out into the sea. Then people create aircraft with no motors and run them off of the cliff into the water.
No kidding.
The winner is the one whose craft goes the furthest before it hits the water. The prizes are actually pretty good, with first place being a round-the-world air ticket.
The survivors of this stunt get to fly for real. The losers just get five minutes of fame from the crowd watching from the beach and even ferries anchored nearby.
The aircraft that people built ranged from Snoopy on his “Sopwith Camel” doghouse, to a bowling ball with two curtain rods covered in fabric sticking out of it. Most of them used bicycle wheels and then ironing boards for the wings.
Yes, most of them went straight down into the water.
We stopped to watch a few contestants on our way home from church, and it was incredible to see what mankind will do for entertainment.
Seriously, if situations were different and we didn’t have two hot, tired, cranky kids in tow, we might have stayed all afternoon watching people run their aircraft off the cliff and then jump into the water after it.
