Event has teams grasping for air

Ahhh, what people will do all for the thrill of, well, getting a thrill.

Take Flügtag, for example. Twenty-year-old Jason Doss and his childhood pals from Medical Lake High were so drawn to this obscure sport, they decided to enter this year’s Red Bull Flügtag competition on July 31 in Portland.

Here’s how it works: Doss and friends must design a human-powered flying machine. They will launch it off a 30-foot ramp, glide as far as possible, and touch down in the Willamette River. At least that’s the plan.

“We avoid the question of ‘why?’ and go directly to ‘do,’ ” said Doss, a pre-pharmacy student at Washington State University.

Of the 27 crews entered this year, the craft that travels the farthest will win a first-place prize of a pilot’s training course, valued at $7,500. Last year’s winner, When Pigs Fly, soared 66 feet off the Santa Monica Pier, pleasing 50,000 spectators.

Flügtag, which translates to “flying day” in German, was first staged in Vienna, Austria, in 1991. It made its way to the U.S. shores just three years ago in San Francisco. Doss and his friends said they discovered the wild, wacky world of Flügtag through TV.

“Of course, they only show people crashing and burning,” crew member Kaylee Emerson said. “We thought it looked like fun,” Doss added.

Doss’ other crew members are Jake Stevenson and Joel Sampson. The pilot is Medical Lake senior Alicia Main, a friend of a friend who became an ideal candidate because of her pint-sized, lighter-than-air body. She’s also a gymnast, which can only help in sticking the landing.

The Inland Northwest also will be represented by a team captained by Rick Bethel of Rathdrum, Idaho. His mom, Judy Bethel, also of Rathdrum, Marcus Bethel of Post Falls, Brian McMillian of Spokane and Chris Bethel of Grass Valley, Calif., make up the crew.

Flügtag is more than a plunge off a cliff. Creativity also plays a role. Before liftoff, each team performs a skit to music, which is coordinated to a theme of its choice. Teams are judged on distance, creativity and showmanship.

Doss and his friends, all 2000 or 2001 Medical Lake grads, have selected “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” as their theme and the subject of their skit. Even though the movie was released when they were all in Pampers, thanks to VCRs, the guys were introduced to the film as pre-teens. After countless times of cueing the tape, its entertainment value has not paled.

“We have the movie memorized line by line,” said Stevenson, a student at Brigham Young University who recently finished a Mormon mission in Taiwan.

They named their craft Migrating African Swallow, based on the scene in the movie when King Arthur and a commoner debate whether swallows carrying a coconut can still fly. The bigger question circling in Medical Lake is, can a 22-foot-long by 33-foot-wide aircraft carrying a gymnast fly?

The first time they tried, it bombed. When they tested it off a 20-foot cliff at Medical Lake, it snapped.

Doss said they originally built the craft out of plastic pipe. It was too heavy.

The new, improved model is being constructed of lighter aluminum tubes. A parachute, dyed sparrow brown, will be used for wings. Main, who will be protected by padded clothes and a coconut helmet, will hang from a bar. She’ll stand in between two Styrofoam birds’ feet. If all goes right, it’s fly, fly away!

“If we can get a mediocre hang glider with the right ratio it should go 70 to 80 feet,” said a confident Emerson, who is studying fire science at Spokane Falls Community College.

For every 1-foot drop, the craft should go forward 5 feet, Doss said he was told by a hang glider.

The next test flight on Migrating African Swallow is scheduled for this weekend at Medical Lake.

No one knows whether the craft will sink or swim, but everyone expects to have fun.

“Humans are the only species who beat the crap out of themselves for fun,” Emerson said.