Red Bull Flugtag

If you want a good seat, and I mean on the lighthouse portion, get there early and just hunker down. Bring chairs, binoculars and a good camera. You’re in for quite a treat. But, sadly, it only happens every few years and there doesn’t seem to be any sort of schedule.
But if you miss it, sad on you. It’s one of those once-​in-​a-​while events that shouldn’t be missed. Plenty of creativity goes into the ones that sink, and plenty of ingenuity into the ones that fly. A great time to be had, really. If you don’t mind the large gathering of stupid.

I really like the concept of the event. It takes me back to a high school project that I did where we had to build a boat out of paper, wood sticks, and glue and paddle it across the swimming pool.
The event was free to watch but parking was $ 15. I biked here so I didn’t have to worry about any of that. When I walked into the village, it was packed! It was really hard to get a good view with all the tall people around. The other side of the village had a hill where I bet the view was much better. I spend about an hour here to watching some of the launches. Most of them just nose dived off the platform. The commentators were really funny.
World Record Event!
I’m glad I was here to witness the record set at 258 ft.
Tip for the next event.
–Come early
–Bring a hat
–Sunscreen
–Maybe event a stool

My first official event that I could attend and it was great. I took a mess of photos and a couple of video that came out good too.
A lot of effort was taken to plan this event and the announcer and all that took part in this event did a great job! Too bad this doesn’t take place yearly.
Too bad those participating crafts couldn’t be salvaged and displayed after their plunge into the ocean.
These sort of event bring more business in the area for other businesses to thrive for the day.

Flugtag is one of those fun events that I’m glad people don’t take so seriously. Most people, anyway.
Lots of silliness to be had by all. I mean, you have to know that a team that built a giant paper mache duck didn’t expect it was going to take flight. It’s just all in good fun.
And when someone DOES build something that looks like it could go far, it’s exciting. You never know what will happen, and really, who knew a person in a chicken suit would set a new world record for distance?
It’s crowded. It’s GOING TO BE crowded. You have to expect a terrible view and hope for a good one (should the family of four in front of you with the children on their shoulders finally decide to move). Good god, though, did you see Shoreline Park? It looked like the lighthouse was constructed on a foundation of human heads.
And parking? Well, it’s Long Beach. Even on a non-​event day, it’s nuts. We parked in the arena’s structure for $ 10. Better than the closer lots for $ 15 – 20.
Flugtag is up there with Pumpkin Chunkin’ and San Francisco’s Bring Your Own Big Wheel for events that sound crazy, but are truly wonderful to behold.

The event was hyped up in the media but is not at all exciting in reality. Almost all of the «gliders» fell off the ramp like stones. I could probably cannonball further than most of the teams. There were only a couple of good viewing areas but you had to have arrived hours before the event to stake out a spot and wait. Event is free but you will get ripped off by all the paid parking lots. Nothing much else to do but watch the event. No interesting vendors or other entertainment. Food vendors ok but you’re better off eating at one of the local restaurants. You can watch the event from one of the big screens but they don’t have any bleachers or seating areas. Just stand around for hours and watch glider after glider go straight down off the ramp. How exciting. A special thanks to the LBPD air support for sending their helicopter to start circling right at the start of the event so you could not hear any of the commentary on the PA system. For some reason they needed to hover around real low for half the event even though there were scores of cops in and around the event including the water along with the Coast Guard and other agencies. Having finally gone in person I can safely say I will be glad to miss all of the next ones.

Admission: Free. Open to the public
Parking: $ 10
Great time at the Redbull Flugtag held at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach today. Nearly 30 aircraft participants launched themselves off the high flight deck into the cold water below.
There were several creative entries. Some obvious lawn darts going straight into the drink and others that had engineering masterpieces. The Chicken Whisperers of San Francisco broke the previous distance record which was held for 10 years from some other team going over 250 feet. Having a team of aerospace engineers is a great help too. Congrats to them!
It was estimated that over 100,000 people were in attendance. Über crowded. This was a standing room only event. Forget camping out with chairs and umbrellas.
If you must have a chair, I highly suggest arriving about 9am to secure a spot near the prime area in front of the flight deck take off point. There are viewing screens at various locations as well.
Free water refill stations and $ 2 Red Bull were available. A few food stands too but I didn’t eat anything.
A fun time for everyone. Would definitely go. This is craziness and shananigans wrapped tightly in duct tape, pvc pipe, with loose wings screwed on, and thrown off a ledge.
TIP: Bring sunscreen and frozen bottle water

This event is basically about team building a home-​made human-​powered flying machine and attempting to fly 30 feet high into the ocean. This was a pretty fun idea; I saw a video clip and got a laugh from it. There was an event being hosted this past Saturday whereas the last one hosted in this area was 2010. Who knows when they will host it here again? The parking was not too bad since we arrived about an hour before it even started, however trying to find a good view proves to be a major obstacle but is manageable. There were estimated to be over 100,000 people in the crowd!
There were about 20+ teams participating this year where all of them have a unique style and come from different walks of life. Some travel from as far as Alaska and Hawaii, but most or the participants were from SoCal. Nearly all of the teams have a custom and perform some sort of dancing move prior to launching the craft. The crafts were hit and miss. There is one team that is remarkable and managed to break the previous world record for longest record-​setting flight by flying 258 feet. That team is Chicken Whisperers who have an interesting background and wear funky chicken costumes. Nobody takes them serious till the craft launches which makes many people scream and cheer as they witnessed a new world record being set.