“What’s this?” I asked, gesturing at the pile.

“That,” said Bobby, “That is going to be a glider. I’m going to fly her at Tampa Bay in July. That is, if I get in.”

I would have started laughing if I had been talking to anyone in the world except for Bobby Bailey. He is, by all accounts, a genius. He invented the Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly, the specialized Ultralite plane that is now the favored aircraft world-wide used to tow hang gliders, and if he says he intends to make a flying machine – whether it’s out of old paper clips or clothes hangers or duct tape – he probably will.

So instead of giggling, I asked, “If you get into what?”

“The Red Bull Flugtag. Have you heard of it? You make a homemade, human-powered, flying machine, dress it up to look like a pregnant cow or a stork or something weird, and then you fly it off a ramp into the ocean.”

I nodded, vaguely remembering seeing clips of spectacular crashes.

Bobby continued, “I designed a glider for a Flugtag competition in Australia.”

Bobby looked momentarily stricken. “I spent months building her. She was beautiful. But the gliders are supposed to look funny, not beautiful. The night before the competition, the team glued a head on her. It wrecked her aerodynamics.” He shook himself. “Then, the guy who launched her slipped on the ramp and destroyed her. So we all just sort of picked her up and heaved her in the ocean. She would have flown, though, if she’d had half a chance.”

“That sounds terrible.” I struggled to find something positive to say. “I want to go to Tampa and watch this one fly.”

“The last Flugtag was really fun,” Bobby said, apparently dismissing the demise of his last creation. “Do you want to be on the team?”

“I don’t have to fly it, do I?” I asked. While no rocket scientist, I have enough intelligence to know that I don’t want to be a test pilot in a glider that may well have a head glued onto it.

“No, you just have to dance around it before it launches.”

I smiled. “I’m in!”

You should come, too, and thrill to the spectacle of the brave, creative and slightly crazy launching their homemade creations off a 22 foot ramp above Tampa Bay outside the City Park at Tampa Convention Center.

• The Red Bull Flugtag is free, and open to the public. You’d be crazy to miss the party – though not quite as crazy as the daredevils that will be piloting their engine-free inventions there.

• The high-flying action (or low-flying action, as the case may be) will occur in Tampa on July 19^th.

• 40 teams of up to five members each will be judged on three criteria: distance, creativity and showmanship. Distance is simply how far the contraption can soar, measured in feet. Creativity is the category that ensures an exceptional flying day. The judges will be rewarding the shocking, the head-turning and the wacky. Showmanship calls for the teams to spend one minute on the fight deck strutting their stuff before launching (that’s where I come in!).

• A total of up to 5 people can be on a team (4 pushers and 1 pilot).

• Only the pilot may be in the craft at time of launch and must be 18 years of age or older.

• All crafts must be entirely human powered - no catapults, slingshots, or stored energy.

• All crafts must be less than 30 feet wide.

• All crafts must weigh less than 450 lbs, including the pilot.

• “Flugtag” (pronounced floog-tag) means “flying day”  in German.

• The first Red Bull Flugtag was held in Vienna, Austria, in 1991. More than 35 Flugtags have been held around the world since then!

• These popular, one-of-a-kind parties have attracted up to 300,000 spectators.

• The record for the farthest flight-to-date currently stands at 195 feet, and was set in 2000 at Flugtag Austria.

• The U.S. record stands at 155 feet, and was set in Nashville, TN in 2007.

• Past Red Bull Flugtag entries include a Cadillac, a giant Oompa Loompa, and even a lobster named Larry.

For more information, click here.