Five modern-day ‘Wright Brothers’ are heading to Cape Town to take part in the wacky and wonderful Red Bull Flugtag at the V&A Waterfront on Sunday.

Cape Town pilot Edward Yeo, along with his Ballito ground crew – Derek Everitt, Timothy Lyle, Shaun Joffe and Cuan Rootman – are chasing extreme sports glory when The Red Flamingoes return to the Mother City 13 years after their first Flugtag challenge.

Red Bull Flugtag, which means “flying day” in German, began in Vienna in 1992 and has since become a global celebration of creativity, courage and controlled chaos. Back in 2012, an estimated world record crowd of 220 000 packed Cape Town harbour to witness homemade flying machines crash spectacularly into the water.

This year, 50 teams will launch their human-powered aircraft off a six-metre-high platform at Jetty 1, judged on distance, creativity, and showmanship. Prizes will be awarded to the top three teams.

Designing and funding the Red Flamingo aircraft has been months in the making.

“I wasn’t aware of the event until someone sent me a link. So, I did a quick sketch and sent it through to Red Bull and we entered,” said Cuan, whose garage doubled as the aircraft hangar.

With help from neighbours, the crew spent the weeks assembling the aircraft for shipping to Cape Town. Every piece has been blueprinted and numbered for reassembly on arrival.

To cover costs, the team turned to their previous sponsor, Rordon Cowley, owner of Digit FMS.

“We sat around and showed him our design and plans and he was amped to get on board. He backed us in a big way We’d like to thank all our sponsors and everyone else who helped us with this project,” said Cuan.

“This time around, we decided to go big. With Rordon’s funding, we purchased aeronautical parachute material to give us extra distance. Our aero-foil design is suited to low speed. We are hoping to achieve at least one upswing, which we could consider a controlled flight. We’d be happy with that.”

In 2012, Team Bulls Eye won with a 17.09m flight.

“We flew about 16m in 2012 and were the first team to be awarded a score of 10 by one of the judges. We landed on the front page of the Argus,” added Cuan.

The event will not be streamed or shared live online.

Back the boys at R100+ per metre flown and nominate a company or person to match or beat you. All pledge proceeds go to Sables Animal Rescue.

Find out more at redflamingo.co.za.

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