Homemade gliders soar — or not — at ‘Flugtag’ in Long Beach

Off we go, into the wild green yonder.

That could have been the theme song for an unusual flying contest Saturday in Long Beach.

Thirty-five teams participated, pushing fanciful homemade gliders off a 30-foot-high ramp over Rainbow Harbor.

If that sounds odd, consider that a crowd at 105,000 showed up to watch.

All 35 gliders ended up in the harbor’s murky olive-colored water. So did each team’s four-member, costumed crew; they jumped off the ramp.

A Newport Beach-based team, Peepin’ It Real, won the contest, called the Red Bull Flugtag, by making it 98 feet from the end of the takeoff ramp. The candy-chick-shaped craft was piloted by Corinne Schnieders and featured an all-woman crew.

The energy-drink company has conducted more than 80 of the contests over the past 19 years, although Saturday’s was the first for Long Beach. “Flugtag” means “flight day” in German.

Spectators who lined the yacht harbor roared approval as contestants danced and staged skits atop the ramp before shoving off.

The gliders were built to resemble such things as hats, shoes, a fire engine and race cars. Most, like the huge bruin built by a team of UCLA juniors, sank like rocks when pushed over the edge of the ramp. UCLA’s entry landed with all four legs pointed up.

Most participants insisted before the contest’s start that they were confident their entries would take wing. “We haven’t tried it yet, but it’s going to fly. I’m not going to get wet,” said Amber Cowan of Long Beach, who piloted a goose-shaped craft sponsored by the Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Cowan actually stayed dry when the goose glided to a smooth water landing. Shane Passantino also avoided a dunking when his 22-foot-wide sombrero-shaped craft landed right-side-up. It was built in Echo Park of Styrofoam “and 200 sticks of glue,” said Passantino, of Woodland Hills.

Spectators said they enjoyed the competition but not the throng of people. Parking lots in the downtown area were filled and traffic was so heavy that authorities closed the nearby offramp to the 710 Freeway.

Some, who spent nearly an hour stuck in traffic in the vicinity of the yacht harbor, were wishing the contest’s organizer had jump-started traffic control officers with some energy drinks.

“This is fun but the crowds are horrible,” said Craig Stewart of Huntington Beach as he watched the action on a big-screen TV next to Shoreline Drive with his wife, Colleen, and 3-year-old daughter Chloe.

The trio wasn’t close enough to see the actual ramp and gliders.

bob.pool@latimes.com