I Hadn’t Realized

Things in life distracted me and I hadn’t realized that it has been two years since I wrote anything.  To those who were following me, I sincerely apologize.  The good news is we haven’t stopped flying our kites.  So I’m going to try to keep up with posting as things have gotten more and more interesting.I’ll start by saying on the days there is no wind or the weather is against us, I will recap what has been going on over the past two years.  On the days the flying is good, there will be a current report.

This past community kite flying day was rained out.  But we lately got home from the Mile High Kite Fly on Beech Mountain, NC.  We’ve been attending this festival for about eight years.  Some things never change, the winds were light.  The first day was a free fly day.  The serious kite flyers who came to help with the festival and show their big kites, art kites and handmade kites flew what they could.  The public brought their kids and their kites and took over the flying fields.  We all helped many people new to kiting to get their kites in the air.

The only scheduled event was the kitebuilding competition.  This year I had to decide between three kites on which one to enter.  I decided to enter my modified edo I built in a workshop in Camp Hill, PA.  (More about that later.)  Unfortunately it does not fly well in light winds so the scores in the flight category were low.  But it is impressive to look at and I took extra care with the appliqué.  The final result was I took first place this year.  The comments from the judges were very good and I did learn where I can improve.

The second day of the festival was the day for demos in the roped off flying field.  But just as things got started, a storm blew up with lightning and off and on rain.  We tried to wait it out but after a while we all just packed things up and went back to the hotel.  Luckily nothing got too wet and would dry in the wind between showers.  Kites stayed dry, banners were only damp and canopies were wrapped in tarps to get dried off later.  Despite the weather, spirits were high and the time spent with other kite flyer friends was good.  We all hated to have to go.

John and I stayed an extra day and, of course, the weather cleared and the winds were a trifle better.  We went back to the flying field, set up our canopy to dry and flew some of our light wind kites.  I even got to fly one of my dual line stunt kites.  All in all a good weekend.

Fair Winds All