A Week Of Firsts

It’s been a week of firsts; first flights of new kites, first time on a new flying field, first visit at a new vacation location.

First things first (sorry, I couldn’t resist).  We recently got home from a visit to Corolla, NC.  It was a restful time with walks around the Whalehead Club grounds, the historic village and the Currituck lighthouse.  We also went on a safari to see the Corolla wild horses.  And, of course, the trip included kites.  We have some friends who have a kite shop in Corolla.  We stopped in several times and I bought a new kite from them.  A bit of history first.  One of the first stunt kites developed was a diamond stunter made in England by Peter Powell.  It was easy to fly and became very  popular.  It has been out of production for many years.  But now, the grandchildren of Peter Powell have begun manufacturing the diamond stunter again, with only minimal changes from the original.  Our friends had one of these stunt kites in their shop and I’ve had my eye on it for a while.  Well, I finally bought it and flew it on the beach at Corolla.  Thus, a first vacation in Corolla, the first time flying a kite there and the first flight of the Peter Powell stunt diamond.

I also scored a new kite on Ebay.  It was a HQ rokkaku that has also been out of production for a few years – Sun and Moon.  This kite had never been out of the package.  It’s  a smaller rok, only measuring about four feet tall.  Monday was a beautiful day on the beach and the winds were about 12-15 miles per hour.  I assembled the kite and it went up easily.  The sun and moon motif looked wonderful in the sky.  I also flew my large Xelon, the latest of four Xelons also made by HQ.  I added some tails to this kite and it made all the difference in the flight and the appearance.  I now have a complete set of Xelons and one day I will put all four in the air at the same time.  It should be quite a show.

My husband flew his latest acquisition, a Skydog penguin kite.  A really cute kite that flies well in a wide range of wind speeds.  It is one of five animal kites that Skydog has produced this year.  There is also an elephant, a monkey, a tiger and a panda.  The elephant is definitely going to be added to our collection soon.

We been acquiring a lot of kites lately.  Probably way too many.  But you can never have too many kites.

Fair Winds All.