In this, the 3rd entry of the Twirlybirch series, Beauregard Twirlybirch reads about a man-powered flight named the Gossamer Condor that happened in 1977. Borrowing from that idea, he takes one of his floating umbrellas and decides to give it a propeller. Just as he is learning to take off, hover and land his brand new flying invention, Auntie Gertrude comes across a contest for entrants to fly from Vancouver to Vancouver Island, a distance of nearly 20 kilometres, using only man-powered flight. Quicker than you can say 'Zelda the Zebra's in the zinc-slinging business', Beauregard is entered in the contest.
With only a few days to train for the contest, will Beauregard be fit enough to fly his Pedal-Powered Umbrella farther than he has ever flown before? What happens if he runs out of energy and ditches into the salt chuck? How will our tiny, unlikely hero do against older, stronger, more experienced competitors? Has our petite floating umbrella pilot finally bit off more than he can chew? This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen!