The idea of climbing Everest came to Wilson while he was recuperating in the Black Forest. Inspired by press cuttings about the and the upcoming Houston Everest Flight, he became convinced that fasting and prayer would enable him to succeed where George Mallory and Andrew Irvine had failed, which would prove to the world the power of his beliefs. He clearly saw this as part of his vocation, describing climbing Everest as the job I've been given to do. He formed a plan to fly a small aeroplane to Tibet, crash-land it on the upper slopes of Everest, and walk to the summit. It was a bold plan; a solo flight halfway across the world would have been a significant undertaking for the best aviators of the day, while no mountaineer of the time would have contemplated a solo ascent of Everest - a feat which was not to be achieved until 1980. A practical problem was posed by the fact that Wilson knew nothing about either flying or mountaineering, so he set out to learn these.