A Holiday Weekend Has Come And Gone

I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July weekend. Our celebration was kind of low-key. Mostly because the kids did not make it home this year. We did attend the annual Neighborhood Cookout and were able to put faces to a lot of the names of people living on our road. Still don’t know everyone but our reputation is growing. We heard a lot of “Are you the people who fly the kites?”. Several have seen us cleaning out the bags in the yard or loading up the car to go to a fly. Most of them haven’t flown a kite since their childhood and fondly remember the paper diamond or box kite of their youth. They have no idea of the kites available today. Nor do they believe that we have so many kites for so many different kinds of wind.

Sunday was the regular weekly club fly. It was all the more special because there were more kite friends there from out-of-town. We got there earlier than usual but not as early as most. We remain the “second shift” of the fliers. The sky was filled with kites of all shapes and sizes. I couldn’t begin to describe all that was there. The kites ranged from the large Suttons with banner tails and mesh and flo-tail deltas to the flakes, dragons, smaller deltas and the most unusual kite of the day, the flap kite sun beam by HQ. There were several dual-line stunt kites flying along with a couple of quad-line Revolution kites.

The sky was so full we only put up three kites ourselves, the Flo-tail Delta by Premier and two limited edition dragon kites by Go Fly A Kite, the Flying Tiger and the Jester. After a while I flew the Vamp Devil. I’m still having a bit of trouble getting the brake lines exactly right but each time it’s getting better. I’m getting a better understanding as to how the four lines work together and how some changes make things better and some make things worse. It’s all good. The only bad thing about the Sunday fly was that I forgot my camera and my iPod died. The sky was so beautiful that I was kicking myself for not being able to get some photos. I am also trying to figure out a routine for the Vamp Devil for the kite festival in October. And I was really inspired to listen to some music while I was flying. I guess I’m going to have to work things out on paper first and then add the music. Thank goodness I have a few months and the option of backing out at the last-minute. After four hours on the beach, we went home and nursed our sunburn.

Monday, being the official holiday, was crazy at the beach. Many people came to the beach for the day, many people came to the beach for the weekend and were trying to go home and many people were staying for the week. It all added up to a lot of traffic and a lot of people on the beach. Parking was hard to find. We didn’t fly but did hang out at the kite shop for a while. What holiday flying we did was done today. A good friend had to come down to work in the area and made it a “busman’s holiday”. For those of you who don’t know it, a “busman’s holiday” is when you combine a workday with some sort of non-work recreation. In this case, flying a couple of kites for a couple of hours on the beach before returning home. For him, it was a long day of driving. But we met on the beach and had a nice visit and a good couple of hours flying.

For those who are following my kite building progress, I finishing the replacement bottom panel late Saturday night. I looks so much better than the first one. I changed the way the pieces were assembled and stitched. Now I’m not afraid to have anyone see what I have done. And I’ve learned a lot. About appliqué and about my perfectionism. So the kite was not finished in time for the holiday. In fact, I have not sewn a thing in the past two days. The pieces are laying on the table waiting for me. I will probably finish this week and try to fly it at our next club fly. Just a week late. But better late than never. And I will not let this project reach the never stage. So, until the next time we fly…

Fair Winds All.

Smoke In The Morning

We have woken up several mornings to the strong smell of smoke. It seems that a good portion of the eastern part of our state is on fire. We are in the middle of a drought and the land is parched and dry. There have been a couple of thunderstorms but they haven’t produced enough long-term rain to wet the land. In fact, lightning is to blame for at least two of the fires. Thank goodness we are not threatened by the fires but we are downwind. So no rain, high temperatures, high humidity means we have been staying at home in the air conditioning most of the week.

I have been sewing a bit. I say a bit because most of what I have had to do is hemming the pieces for the parafoil I’m building. And I hate to hem. I’m putting a 1/4 inch hem on all the pieces per the instructions. I’m not good enough at sewing to roll the hem as it goes through the sewing machine. So I have to fold and crease the edges before I sew the hem. Yeech! So I put it off and put it off and now I’m pushing the deadline I set for myself. Finally getting the hemming done, I have started the applique on the bottom panel. That is going so much faster. I enjoy it more and that makes the work easier. I’m hoping that by Thursday I will begin final assembly. And hopefully, flight on the Fourth of July.

Sunday there was absolutely no wind. I mean NO WIND. I got to the beach late and there were only a couple of people there. The main activity was standing around talking. There were several Walas and a Laima (both low wind kites) laying on the ground. Even the Breeze by HQ would not fly. And that is a pretty reliable dual-line low wind kite. I only took one kite out of the car to take with me. It was the Chiroptera, my newest kite, labeled an indoor and ultra-low wind kite. I started flying it on a short line with a wand. I actually got some nice glides and a couple of swooping turns. The wind picked up to about 1 mph and I put it on a spool of line and it flew wonderfully overhead. When the wind let up, it just hovered and drifted and waited for another breath of wind to climb again. The only kite that would fly that day. Because I came by myself, I did not bring a camera with me. So the only photo I have of the maiden flight of the Chiroptera was taken with a cell phone camera. Not the best but it will do in a pinch. Thank you Will Sturdy for building a great kite. Thank you Barry for the photos.

Fair Winds All.

Another Aspect Of Kiting

This weekend was spent at the Old Dominion Stunt Kite Competition at Dorey Park in Richmond, VA. We had never been to one before and wanted to see what constituted a stunt kite competition and renew friendships with some people we hadn’t seen in a while. While we were warned that the competitions could get very boring and had prepared a back-up plan if needed. It turns out, we never left the park.

The competition is divided into two types; precision and ballet, and is set up for dual and multi-line kites on three levels; novice, experienced and masters. Also there is competition for pairs and teams to fly. Apparently, they have changed the precision competition rules and, instead of just doing figures, the flier must tie the figures together with transition moves. This makes it more of a fluid routine and makes it less boring because it not just the same thing over and over and over. Of course, the ballet routines are never boring. The choice of music for a ballet routine is as varied as the style of flying. The winds were a challenge all weekend. No wind, then some wind, then no wind, then some wind, etc. And rain on Sunday made things even more interesting. The competition kept on, even in the rain.

There were a fair number of kite builders in attendance. Most were competitors as well as builders. I had several conversations with them and shared a couple of the kites I had made. And they shared theirs. We talked sewing techniques and ideas and I learned quit a bit. I also got to meet people who I had only known from the online forums and found out their true names. It made me feel like I was a part of something and not just a faceless voice on a computer screen. I’m finding that sharing brings us all together. No matter where we come from. One person in particular was trying to get me to tell the secret pattern of my current kite build. It’s not going to happen. The secret will be revealed in due time.

I tried to put up a couple of single line kites over the weekend. Between the two days, I’d say I got maybe a half hour of flight time with about three different kites. Two were kites I had made and one was the Chiroptera I won in the raffle. So for two kites there wasn’t enough wind and for the one there was too much. I had wanted to fly my Vamp Devil but I never took it out of the bag. If the pros were having trouble keeping their kites in the air, what hope did I have. And, at times, the competitors were having trouble. One of the great things was that even though these fliers were serious about winning and earning league points so they could advance in the standings, they weren’t above laughing at their mistakes and enjoying the time together. As this was my first competition event, I can’t say whether it is this way at all the events. I sure hope so. By the way, I was informed that as I did manage to fly a kite at Dorey Park I was now considered a member of the Richmond Air Force, the local kite club. I think this decision was made so I could be drafted to help tear down the field equipment at the end of the day. I have to admit, I didn’t put up much of a fight. Many hands make light work.

Saturday night was a cookout at one of the local kite members house in the country. What a special place. And what great food. The awards were given out for the first day’s flying. And there was an auction for some kites that were donated to raise money to help fund the competition. I stayed out of the auction as I had already received a new kite. I had gotten the Chiroptera, the raffle kite, that morning from the builder. He even signed the kite for me. The party broke up about dusk as the next days flying was to begin early.

Sunday was Father’s Day. We got to the field late because we had a special Father’s Day breakfast. And John got to open a Father’s Day present from our daughter. It was a figurine of Charlie Brown trying to fly his kite. The inscription on it was “Believing Is Halfway to Flying.” So appropriate. He as thrilled. We got our canopy set up and talked to a few people when he got another Father’s Day surprise. The dog got him a red Vamp Devil. Now John has never flown a quad line kite so he was in no way expecting one. Especially from the dog. But he wanted to show it off so we hung it on the back wall of the canopy so everyone around could see it. And it’s tail billowing out behind it whenever the wind came up. It caught a lot attention from people who had never seen one before. Hardly anyone realized it was a quad line until we told them so. And then the rains came. We stayed dry under our canopy and gave shelter to several kite bags. The Vamp Devil was put away so it wouldn’t get wet. The rain was heavy at times but not steady. At the coast we would call it “coming in squalls”. And of course, it quit when it was time to give out the awards and pack up for the day. Then it was off to a restaurant for a Father’s Day dinner. A place of John’s choice for a dinner of his choice. Well, really his second choice. The first one was crammed and the waiting line was out the door.

This morning we slept late and took our time coming home. Made a couple of stops on the way and still got home in good time. Did we have a good time? Yes! Will we do it again next year? Most probably. The pressure will be on for us to fly in the novice class. We have been warned.

Fair Winds All.

All Beach, All Day

Sunday was the weekly club fly at Fort Macon. Quite a few of the usual suspects were there. It was a gorgeous day with great winds for all types of kites. And we had kites of all types in the sky. One of the better shows in the past few weeks. I put up my mesh delta with the transition tails and spinner. It’s been a long time since I’ve flown that kite. I also put up a White Bird dragon. I used to fly at least one of these every time I flew but had gotten out of the habit. Time to renew this habit. My husband put up his early Father’s Day present, the very colorful Flo-tail Delta by Premier. It is one beautiful kite with a lot of pull.

Three Kites — Premier Flo-tail Delta, White Bird Dragon, Premier Mesh Delta

There weren’t a lot of stunt kite fliers present but I did get some practice with the quad lines. First, I got a chance to fly the Volksquad by New Tech. It was a very short flight. Before I could get the kite balanced and a feel for how it flies, one of the bungy cords on the sail snapped. That was the end of my test. With no tension on one side of the sail, the kite came tumbling down. I will probably hear about “breaking” the kite for quite a while. At least I won’t have to fix it. It was a tester from the kite shop. However, It may be a while before I get to try out a new kite again. Later, I put up my Vamp Devil. Flew it for a while and then stopped for a some water. I highly advise everyone to mark their quad line handles so you can tell right from left. I haven’t and when I picked up the handles again, I got them reversed. The end result was a mess of tangled lines. It’s no fun to have to spend the end of your kiting day untangling lines so you can wind them up and put them away. Not my morning.

The day got better, however when we were invited to join some friends on the beach for more kite flying and good company. Someone had been flying on the beach in front of their house and the kite-flying gauntlet had been thrown down. It would be an afternoon of big kites and even bigger line laundry. We took two of our biggest kites to fly. And out friend had a huge Premier spinner to try out on his large Sutton. The winds had picked up from the morning and it was a perfect kite flying day. Before we arrived, the spinner was put up. And it broke the heavy line it was attached with and straightened out a large swivel. We missed the show of our friends running across the beach trying to get the spinner deflated and safely grounded. The call went out for a heavier line and swivel.

Our local kite shop owners came to the rescue and brought over the line and swivel after the shop closed for the day. The guys put up the spinner while the gals visited and supervised. The first attempt resulted in the sand anchors being pulled down the beach as the spinner caught the wind. It was gorgeous, but the pull was tremendous. Not to be defeated by line laundry, the anchors were re-buried and the spinner was put up once again. The spinner was a great show on the beach and drew a small group of people to watch the launches and the flight. When, once again, the anchors started to be pulled out of the sand, we quit and brought the spinner down. It went home to the kite shop and we enjoyed the last of the afternoon sun.