Capone’s very own Flugtag team

If you haven’t heard, the Red Bull Flugtag, "flying day" in German, is coming to Chicago this weekend. This one day event, full of nutty people and their amusing creations, takes place at North Avenue Beach this Saturday and will feature teams of, perhaps mentally unsound individuals, dressing up, performing a skit and then jumping off a platform thirty feet in the air into Lake Michigan.  They will be judged based on their flight's distance and on the creativity and showmanship demonstrated in their skit, costume and machine.

The stakes are high.  This Satuday's champion team wins a paid trip to the Red Bull air race in 2009, runners up win a skydiving outing and a Flugtag viewing party (Woo-Hoo!  -Ed.).

Twenty-nine teams will compete in Chicago this weekend, with seven actually hailing from the Windy City.  Participants say they're in it for the small modicum of fame (Infamy? -Ed.) that comes from leaping off a 30-foot platform with a homemade flying machine into the lake.

We follow the Chicago team that call themselves The Perfect Getaway as they prepare for the event

The Perfect Getaway is made up of four Bradley college-mates and a close friend of one of the team members. David Rettig is the team leader, fabricator, designer and pilot. He’s the brave soul who will be a crew of one as the others push their flying machine, codenamed Moberati, off the platform.

Rettig works in his family business that makes t-shirts and other decorated promotional materials. He has been responsible for most of the construction on the vehicle.

Providing a duo of brawn behind the Moberati is Jon Olsen and Kris Heitzig. Kris is in physical therapy school and was a late replacement for a team member who had to drop out.

Jon declares that “I am a puma,” and insists that with his help they will be able to get the Moberati up to a speed of 80 mph as it leaves the platform.

Kelcy Hale and Lindsey Rohwer have been friends since high school. Their alcohol inspired brainstorming session in a bar generated the idea of the Al Capone theme for the group.

Both of these young ladies are very easy on the eyes, and with intense arm twisting by David’s mom Ruth, will be wearing short skirts that made David declare that “we’ll have slutty girls on stage.” 

Besides spending about three hundred hours on building the Moberati, the team has also rehearsed and refined their skit.

The details of this extravaganza cannot be revealed at this time, to prevent other teams from stealing their very original material.

Other preparations include freaking themselves out by climbing to the top of a building to get a feel for what thirty feet feels like.  

So far they have been involved in many press events scheduled by Red Bull and have no qualms about the time spent on various media visits. Red Bull has been really generous and have been very careful to emphasize safety in every aspect of the preparation work.

Saturday is the big day and David still doesn’t believe that he is doing this.

The team consensus is that they are aiming for the People’s Choice award and that they will definitely beat the team from Iowa. We’ll see.

Check in tomorrow for the next installment.