Cameron Hill plummets into the Oamaru Harbour in the Street
Concepts plane in the Port FM Local Oamaru birdman
competition yesterday. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
They crashed, splashed but hardly flew in the Oamaru
Harbour birdman competition, but their antics thoroughly
entertained between 300 and 400 people who turned up yesterday
to watch.
Eleven entrants in the annual Port FM Local competition were
prepared to brave cloudy and cool conditions to try to prove
they could fly in weird costumes and creations, including a
seagull, pink flamingo. Incredible Hulk and Oamaru's own
superhero.
They included two big planes, one flown by Daniel O'Brien,
which took him and brother Mitchell about 12 hours to make
and a few seconds to crash into the harbour.
But the effort was enough
to win him the "best dressed" award of $300 and the overall
Lachie McLean Trophy for the best birdman.
The other plane took even longer to make, its pilot Cameron
Hill estimating "a couple of weeks".
It took 5000 staples, metres of adhesive tape and cardboard
to put together, the design based on the race planes used in
international competitions.
Mr Hill was out to win one of the three $300 prizes available
to help fund his first foray into the two-day individual
section of the Coast-to-Coast race.
The winners of the other two prizes were Sam Brocas as
Seagull Sam (biggest splash) and Oliver Walmsley as the
flying Rubik's cube (longest splash).
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.