Flying Squirrels place seventh
<p>Brandon Beveridge, of the Hayden Beverage Flying Squirrel Flugtag team, responds to crowd after flying his team’s craft 51 feet for the third largest distance at the Red Bull Flugtag in Portland, Ore., on Saturday.</p>
<p>Brandon Beveridge pilots the Flying Squirrel craft off a 28-foot drop over the Willamette River in Portland, Ore., on Saturday as his team jumps in behind him. Their flying craft soared 51 feet for a third place in distance, and the team placed 7th out of 41 teams overall.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - The local Flying Squirrel Flugtag team placed seventh of the 41 teams at the Red Bull Flugtag competition in Portland, Ore., on Saturday.
Flying Squirrel manager Bryce Rich said the competition was surreal.
"It went really great, man," Rich said on Wednesday. "Our flight went well and we had a really strong response from the crowd."
After doing a little skit on the 28-foot tall stage, Rich said, they took flight and soared an impressive 51 feet before landing in the Willamette River. It was the third-longest distance flown on Saturday.
"Getting up on that stage in front of 100,000 people was pretty wild and overwhelming," Rich said, adding he feels the Flying Squirrels might have placed first if it was judged by the crowd's reaction.
Flugtag teams are judged on creativity and showmanship just as much as they are the distance their crafts can soar across the river from the platform.
Four hundred teams applied for the 2015 Red Bull Portland Flugtag, a huge international event that celebrates human ingenuity, the joy of creativity and the wonder of flight.
Only 41 teams were selected, and about 10 of them didn't get to compete before the U.S. Coast Guard shut the event down early.
Rich said Red Bull was supposed to keep the commercial shipping lanes clear of spectators, but that proved difficult toward the late afternoon.
"People kept blocking the shipping channel and one boat would move out of the way, another boat would take that space," he said.
The Flugtag, which is German for "flight day," welcomes all kinds of ideas when it comes to human-powered flying machines, from giant hamburgers and geese to pirate ships and oversized paper airplanes. More than 100 Flugtags have taken place around the globe since the inaugural event in Vienna, Austria, in 1992.
Three Oregon-based teams with home-court advantage took the top three spots, according to organizers.
Team "I Dream of Jeannie" twinkled their noses and flew an impressive 84 feet to a first-place victory, while team "McFly" placed second and "Rings of Fire" took third.
Representing the City of Angels, "Team NghtBrnd" of Los Angeles, Calif., took home the People's Choice Award.
Teams from across North America traveled hundreds of miles to compete in Red Bull Flugtag Portland this year, hailing from California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, New Jersey, Texas and Canada.
Rich said the event is held in a different location every year. The last time it was in Portland was in 2007. He said the Flying Squirrels will be watching to see where the next one will be held, and apply to get in again.
"It's hard to know where the next West Coast flugtag will be," he said, adding if it's within striking distance they will apply.