At Last

At last, it was a sunny warm day for the weekly club fly.  According to the weather report on my phone, the winds were around 8 mph.  Which means it could be anywhere from 5 to 12 mph.  I selected my kites and set off for the beach.  As I drove to the parking lot, I noticed quite a few kites in the sky, mostly small deltas.  And as I walked back up the road to the path to the beach, I could hear the buzz of an “old school” dual line stunt kite.  I also noticed the wind felt a little stronger than 8 mph.

There were more people flying than had been in quite some time.  The kites in the air included three small deltas, three 6-7 foot deltas, a set of Martin Lester legs and a penguin.  And the satisfying “old school” buzz was from a Joel Scholz fish stunt kite.  And then I saw the movement of the sand.  It was blowing across the surface of the beach in waves.  A clue that the wind was much higher than the weather report.  I got out my trusty wind meter and it was blowing 17-20 mph.

There was not a thing in my bag that would safely fly in those winds.  And I stood there thinking of all the high wind kites that were sitting at home.  I was not the only person there with the same dilemma and so we stood around and talked about many things and waited, hoping the winds would die down little before it was time to go home.  Just before everyone left, I took a chance and put up my Waif train.  The wind was about 15 mph at this time and I had seen other trains flying in strong winds.  It bobbed and weaved quite a bit and pulled quite a bit but it did stay up without damage.  So I can truthfully say I flew a kite on this blustery day.

Later in the day, I returned to my kite building.  It’s going to be a little more complicated than my past kite projects.  And take up more space than just my craft room.  Already I’ve lost the use of my dining room table.  I can easily see the guest room being next.  The target date for completion is our local kite festival at the end of October.  Wish me luck.

Fair Winds All.