Time to Wing It

It's the Sunday of the Labor Day weekend and things are getting a little dicey. I get to meet Kris Heitzig, the late addition to the crew. I ask him about whether he's worried about performing the skit they have rehearsed and he tells me that "we're all kinda hams," which I think means that they will do very well. He's the one who is in physical therapy school and was very happy to be a last minute call-up.

Kris says that it has always been David's dream to do this, having made a proposal last year to Flugtag Nashville, an unfortunate failed attempt to bring a flying guitar to the event.At a previous visit I took a long look at the impressive wings of the car they call the Moberati. The wings are made of the same wonderfully light and sturdy Tricel material that the rest of the Moberati is made of, but this time only it's only in the frame. White ripstop nylon forms the skin of the wings. The whole thing looks like it could be a funky looking, very large, folding room divider.

A Perfect Getaway Team leader David Rettig tries out the wings. The word on the street is that he will not be wearing slippers the day of the event.

The team decides it's time to practice folding up the wings into the Moberati and trying to deploy it. It seems easy enough to fold up but the fit in the car is about two inches shy on each side. The team plows on. The hinges are spring loaded, which helps, but four metal rods need to be inserted to strengthen the wings and right now, the crew members are having a hard time doing that with any speed. In the two minutes that they have for the skit and the launch, the sides of the top of the car will be broken off and the wings will triumphantly emerge, supporting rods and all, with David under it. The idea is that he will hang on for dear life as wing + David separates from moberati + the rest of the crew. This scares me no end. He wears a helmet but the wings are awkward and it ends up forcing him to angle his head downward.

Looking at the time log on my photos, I can tell that unfolding the wings is taking up too much time. Its not an easy task and there's less than one week to the event.

They end up wheeling the Moberati out to the parking lot to see if that helps. They do get a chance to run around with the whole contraption.

I arrived at 6pm and left three hours later. At the time, Kelcy and Lindsey had yet to arrive. They are going to need to find time to practice deploying the wings. I'm nervous for the team but spirits are high and there's still almost a week more to work the kinks out. We wish them luck.