OSU students create shaggy entry for flugtag

By MARY ANN ALBRIGHT
Gazette-Times reporter

Luckily Josh Stinson isn’t afraid of heights. In less than two weeks, the Oregon State University senior will pilot a 200-pound flying machine resembling a giant white dog off a 30-foot ramp and into the Tempe Town Lake.

“It’ll be in front of 50,000 people. The only thing I worry about is the thing falling on top of me. But if I bail out right, then everything should be OK,” Stinson said.

The OSU construction engineering management student is just one of a five-member team that has spent the past few weeks designing what they call the “Shaggin Waggin.”

On April 29, they’ll compete in Red Bull’s Flugtag, which means “flying day” in German. The event takes place in Tempe, Ariz., and features 31 teams from across the country.

The Corvallis-based “Shaggin Waggin” is the only Oregon entrant. Its competition includes machines with names such as “Dipsomaniacal Devils,” “Flying Marlin” and “Chariot to Hell.”

For Flugtag, teams of up to five people build a homemade, human-powered flying craft that one person pilots off an elevated flight deck, through the air and into a body of water. Teams are judged on distance, creativity and showmanship.

The “Shaggin Waggin” is built for looks, not for performance.

“It’s definitely not going to fly. We’re hoping to win creativity and showmanship. It’s going to drop like a rock,” Stinson said.

He predicted the “Shaggin Waggin” would fly about five feet.

Teammate Blake Dupont, a senior majoring in business management, was more optimistic. He thinks it will go at least 45 feet.

The world Flugtag record is 195 feet. The U.S. record is 78 feet.

Red Bull has produced more than 30 Flugtags around the world. The first took place in 1991 in Vienna, Austria.

The OSU team’s creation is named after the furry van in the movie comedy “Dumb and Dumber.” The theme was actually Dupont’s parents’ idea.

Dupont and Stinson think they have a good shot at winning Flugtag. They also think they’re in the running for the “Most Creative” and “People’s Choice” awards.

The grand prize is a pilot’s training course, or the cash equivalent of $7,500. Second prize is skydiving lessons or $3,000. Third prize is paragliding lessons or $1,500.

The “Shaggin Waggin” team will take the cash. It cost about $200 to build the “Shaggin Wagon” — the fur alone cost $100. The winnings would first cover construction and travel expenses, then be split among the teammates.

In addition to Dupont and Stinson, Jean-Marie Peterson, Jake Wilmes and Brian Dupont, Blake’s brother, helped create the big dog with the red tongue, black eyes and perky white tail.

Peterson won’t be going to Arizona, so OSU alumnus Jeff Wright will stand in for her.

Wilmes and Wright competed in the 2004 Flugtag in Portland, so they bring experience to the “Shaggin Waggin.”

Although Stinson will ride atop the flying machine solo, the other four members of his team will all jump in the lake after pushing the contraption off the ramp. They’ll wear helmets and life vests. Dupont said no one has been injured yet in a Flugtag.

Before flying through the air — or crashing into the water, depending on how aerodynamic the dog proves to be — the Corvallis team will perform a one-minute skit. They’ll act out the diner scene from “Dumb and Dumber.”

Then they’ll push off the ramp to the sounds of Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog.”



At a glance

On April 29, 31 teams from around the country will compete at Red Bull Flugtag Tempe, which pits homemade, human-powered flying machines against each other. The “Shaggin Waggin” from Corvallis is among the challengers.

For more information about Flugtag, see www.

redbullflugtagusa.com

To pilot a virtual flying machine, try the free online Flugtag game available at www.redbullflugtagusa.com/Game

Mary Ann Albright can be reached at maryann.albright@lee.net or 758-9518.