Locals Prepare To Glide Over Potomac In Red Bull Flugtag
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The annual Red Bull Flugtag (German for "flying day") takes place Saturday afternoon in Washington, D.C.
Some 30 homemade gliders will compete to see which flies the farthest, before the inevitable plunge into the Potomac River.
In a Strip District garage, designer Kevin Wilson puts finishing touches on Pittsburgh's entry, sponsored by the Cheerleaders Club.
"The wing span with the plane together is 24 feet long," he says. "The body of the airplane is 11 feet long."
He'll transport it to D.C. by separating the wings from the body. Kevin and the club manager watched last year's Flugtag in Philadelphia, where they decided, "We can do this. We can create this aircraft; we can make it fly the distance."
Sporting large pink ribbons, the black and gold craft has garnered $10,000 in donations for breast cancer awareness.
"It's made of corrugated plastic, poplar lumber and PVC pipe," the builder says. "We have to be under 400 pounds, with the pilot on it."
The "pilot" is Cheerleaders bartender Tia Muscarella. Her plan?
"I can make the plane go up forward or down if it starts nose diving," Tia says. "If I lean back, hopefully I'll get the plane to straighten out more, and get a further distance."
Office manager Adrienne Walkow is one of four team members who will push, or "launch" the glider.
"We're all going to have pink wigs on," she says. "We're going to push our float off the launch pad, and we're going to go for the longest distance, and we're going to win"
For more information about Flugtag, visit: www.redbull.com/events
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