My first aviation experience was a mil surplus parachute with several shrouds cut off at the back and a chunk of conduit and a pilfered swing set towed behind a 64 Plymouth. That ended when another guy fell out of it and broke both arms. I may be getting back in the air soon. I’m a BMW bike enthusiast and a friend of mine wants me to help him convert an 1100CC BMW twin to put in his Avid Flier. He’s offered borrowing rights as part of the deal.
My brother and I made various giant kites growing up that we tried to tow aloft with our tractors. None were successful until I bought a used hang glider that we could tow behind our ski boat.
This is a picture of a skypup ultralight similar to ours. We have a Rotax 277 with a composite ground adjustable pitch prop to tune the performance. It has a tachometer and an exhaust gas temperature guage, and no airspeed indicator. I used to wear an altimeter watch and sometimes bring along hang glider instrumentation for vertical speed.
We belonged to a club that went from ultralights to experimentals, to classic planes. I have a lot of amusing stories from back then.