- www.starznbarz.com
- Flight crew for the Dade City Motocross team, with Pilot Little Evel.
The world-renowned Red Bull Flugtag returned to Tampa Bay on Saturday. The event was last held here in 2008 and the response from the folks in Tampa Bay was so intense that this year's event in Tampa is the only one being held in the U.S.A. In 2008 the estimated crowd was 100,000 – this year's crowd was estimated at 125,00.
The weather forecast was not promising: small craft advisory for boaters (and LOTS of boats showed up), rain chances at 40%, winds in excess of 20 knots. I would guess the promoters were a tad jittery — and probably not from consumption of Red Bull. There were 38 flying teams in the hangar area, all having the time of their lives working the crowd to vote for them, posing for team photos, as well as doing interviews with local and national media. The crowd was equally hyped up, due to free-flowing Red Bull and the carnival atmosphere. The only time the flying teams were somewhat subdued is when they made the required walk to the edge of the launch ramp and looked down; reality slapped down the Red Bull for a few minutes.
Finally it was time for the first launch. The wind was howling, the crowd was howling, the pilot and crew of the first flight were howling as they went over the edge — and, like the 37 flight teams that followed them, they fought the law — of gravity — and the law won.
This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2011.