After yesterday’s post (Getting the right tools vs. actually doing something) I read this story in Wired. Instead of waiting on a $4,500 paraglider that he could likely never afford, he built one out of plastic bags. He could have died using it, but instead he became a world renowned paraglider, one of a few from South Africa.

A brand-new glider and harness can easily cost upwards of $4,500. In short, these aren’t the sort of machines amateurs are supposed to build, especially not 12-year-old boys with little formal schooling… Cyril started small, using plastic bread bags for the wing, with lines made from orange-bag strings… Cyril stitched together the fertilizer bags to make his wing, using the wire for a needle and the rope as thread. He also built himself a harness, and even added basic safety features… “We used to see paragliders all the time, (and I realized), ‘Oh, there is an airbag to stop somebody from hurting his back if he crashed,’” he remembers, “so we used to put wine bags, inflated ones, in (our) harness.”

Read the whole story at Wired – Freedom Flight: Kid’s Homemade Paraglider Leads to Fame

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posted by Trout Monfalco