Sky-high dreams

Henderson team to attempt flight in Arizona tournament

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Demian Carpenter isn't certain he'll live to see next week.

On Saturday at Tempe Town Lake in Tempe, Ariz., Carpenter will allow four of his friends to wrap him in a carpet, toss him in the back of a man-made, man-powered vehicle and push the craft off a 30-foot ramp over a lake.

Then he'll cross his fingers and hope to fly.

Carpenter is the general manager of Henderson's Hot Rod Grille, and during the annual Red Bull Flugtag competition, he will serve as pilot of a craft built by the Henderson-based team American Graffiti.

"Our goal is to fly 120 feet," said Aaron Marsell, a member of American Graffiti. "At this point though, we're not 100 percent confident we'll make it that far. Realistically, if we fly 40 feet we'll consider it a total success."

So far, the flight record is 195 feet.

So what exactly is Flugtag, and why would anyone in their right mind want to take part in it?

Flugtag is a German word that, loosely translated, means "flight day."

The first Red Bull-sponsored Flugtag took place in Vienna, Austria, in 1991, and featured man-powered flying contraptions built not by aeronautical engineers, but everyday folk with dreams of launching some sort of craft into flight over a lake with a person inside.

Past entries have included a giant lobster, a pregnant cow, and at this year's event, a toilet.

More than 3,000 teams from around the world applied to participate in this year's competition, but only 30 were chosen.

American Graffiti is the only team from Nevada to win one of the competition's coveted slots.

"We honestly didn't think we would be selected," Carpenter said.

For the Flugtag competition application, the Henderson team, composed of Marsell and Carpenter, along with Justin Donald, Cody Grider and Adam Passman, drew a craft based on the yellow 1932 Ford Coupe that hangs over the bar inside the Hot Rod Grille, 1231 American Pacific Drive.

"We drew the coupe, and added wings for the entry," Carpenter said. "We were shocked to be selected. Now we have to build this coupe. We started the process right away. We have the wings and body done now. Each day, we do a little work on it."

American Graffiti submitted its application form for the Flugtag event the second week of March.

Carpenter said the team received word that it was accepted into the competition shortly after that, and started working on the craft's body and wings almost immediately.

Carpenter said he decided to enter the Flugtag competition early last month, then asked his teammates, all of whom he met at the Hot Rod Grille, if they wanted to form a team.

Marsell is the owner of Team Impact, a printing company; Donald is the owner of Restore 24, an emergency water extraction company; and Grider works for Team Acme, an auto glass and tint company.

All of the men's businesses are located in the area known as Hot Rod Hill, near the intersection of American Pacific Drive and Stephanie Street. The Hot Rod Grille anchors the Hot Rod Hill area.

Carpenter said Passman doesn't work in Hot Rod Hill, but is a regular customer at the Grille.

"They always come in after work," he said. "That's how they got involved. I asked them if they would do the graphics for the contest if I entered it. I'm amazed that it turned out so well. It's just a little car with wings."

During the competition, each Flugtag team is judged on three criteria: flight distance, creativity and showmanship.

The current flight record was set in Austria in 2000, and the record for a U.S.-hosted Flugtag event is 78 feet, set in 2004 in Cleveland.

On the initial application for the competition, teams were each required to submit a drawing of the craft they would build if selected to participate.

Carpenter said if the team had known it was going to be chosen for the Flugtag, it might have attempted a different vehicle design.

Members also might have recruited a team member with knowledge about building flying contraptions.

"We're kind of stuck with this design," Carpenter said with a laugh. "We have to build what's on the application. Unfortunately, none of us really knew how to build this and make it fly. We went to NASA.com, and they had a program that we used to build the wings. Anyone with aeronautical advice should call us."

Team members used fiberglass to build the body of the craft and wheelchair wheels for tires. For the craft's wings, they shaped PVC pipes, then wrapped the pipes in thick vinyl.

The craft's engine, roll cage and bumpers were created using Red Bull cans.

"The guys from Team Impact did graphics for the car," Carpenter said. "We're going with a total Vegas theme, with the 'Welcome to Las Vegas' sign and aces and Jacks printed on the vinyl wings. We wanted to be very Vegas."

American Graffiti is building the craft in three parts so it can be more easily transported to Arizona.

Grider said that at 30 feet, the craft's wingspan is right at the regulation limit for vehicle width, though there is no height limit.

When completed, the craft can weigh no more than 450 pounds, including the pilot.

Grider said each wing weighs about 40 pounds, and the 4-foot-by-4-foot fiberglass body weighs about 30 pounds, not including the frame and interior structures.

Grider said the biggest challenge in building the craft has been getting the whole team to agree on what to do at each stage of the building process.

"We've been having building parties on Sundays," Grider said. "There's been a whole lot of partying, but not so much building."

No motor power or kinetic energy can be used to power the vehicles, which means teams can't use rubber bands or slingshot-like tools to move the craft, though Marsell said in previous years, tools producing kinetic energy have been allowed.

"People would build catapults or human slingshots," he said. "They don't allow it now, which is probably a good thing."

The craft's wings will be attached to the top of the car, extending about eight to 10 feet above the roof of the car.

Though Carpenter jokingly maintained the team isn't above sacrificing his safety for creativity points, Marsell said safety is the No. 1 priority on the team's list.

However, he said some aspects of the craft's interior and exterior construction will remain top secret because the building team doesn't want "our pilot to freak out when he hears about some of these plans."

"The frame and interior of the car will be plastic and wood, but we still have to figure out what we're doing as far as what Demian will sit on and how the weight distribution inside the car will work," Marsell said. "If the weight isn't properly distributed, the car will go off balance and crash."

During Saturday's contest, each team will start by performing a two-minute skit before pushing its craft off a ramp.

"We're planning to do a mafia theme, and at the end of it, my teammates will roll me up in a carpet and throw me in the trunk of the car," Carpenter said. "The problem is, right now there's no escape route. I'm not sure how I'm going to get out of the carpet roll, but maybe it's a good thing -- it'll give me a little cushion.

"Now that we've been selected, I'm thinking 'Why did I volunteer myself for pilot?' "

Carpenter said the team tested one of the craft's wings a few weeks ago, but it didn't do much toward bolstering his confidence regarding the team's ability to achieve flight.

"It took a week to do the repairs afterward," he said. "We took one of the wings and tossed it off the roof of the restaurant. It flew 24 feet straight down. That was when I probably first started to get nervous -- when I saw that it didn't fly at all."

Marsell added that since the test run, the team has made some changes to the wing design. He is hoping the revamped wings will act like a parachute, allowing the craft to slowly float down to the water's surface.

"During the test run, the wing flipped over in the air and just crashed," he said. "That's, um, not what we want to see happen in the competition."

After the Flugtag competition, whatever is left of the car's wreckage will hang in the Hot Rod Grille's bar area, along with a framed photo collage detailing each step of the building process.

"We started with nothing, and by the end it'll be nothing," Carpenter said.

The team estimated that by the time it leaves for the competition, it will have put at least 100 hours' worth of work into its craft.

"I have a really good support team," Carpenter said. "They assure me the vehicle will fly. The only problem is they're usually drinking when they're building it. But they seem really sure that it'll fly and I'll survive. At least I'll be wearing a helmet."

"There are prizes, but I'm not even sure what they are," Carpenter said. "We're not doing it for the prizes. We're doing it for the fun of it. I went to the Flugtag Web site to see the designs of the other crafts -- I don't know how they're going to fly, either. I figure maybe if I just jump really far forward, we'll be OK. Thirty feet -- that's kind of a drop. I got a little scared when I actually realized how big of a drop that is."

Red Bull will host a send-off party at 8 p.m. today at the Hot Rod Grille. The community is invited to attend the event, and the American Graffiti team car will be on display.