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.

I must apologize for letting this blog go unpublished for so long.  Bad weather, family events, health issues and just life got in the way.  And time flew by.  Unfortunately, our kites weren’t flying half as much.  We missed several of our favorite kite festivals.  Even our local kite festival experienced its first cancellation and 25 years.  As I attempt to resurrect this blog, it seems appropriate that it is also the start of National Kite Month.

We’ve managed to get to the beach a couple of times this past week.  The wind was low and gusty but the sun was warm.  I have acquired some new kites recently and finally got a chance to fly them.  One is a custom Rokkaku built by Randy Tom.  It is titled The Cat and is #2.  Number 1 is owned by my friend Brett Dixon.  It is a striking kite, looking like a tattoo in the sky.

Another is a train of kites I built at a kite builders workshop in Raleigh, NC last October.  The workshop brought in Tasmanian kite builder Robert Brasington to show us how to build a couple of his more popular kites and some wind spinners.  I opted to build the Waif Train.  It is a multi-colored series of smaller kites with long organza tails.  The complete train is made up of six kites.  However, I’m sad to say I’ve only completed five.  The sixth is still sitting on my sewing table.  But I have flown the train a couple of times and it has always drawn appreciative looks.  I am rather proud of it.

When all else failed, we brought out our collection of Skates.  We have all the color varieties and enjoy getting them up as a group.  The Skate was designed by Paul De Bakker and is made by Into The Wind Kites.  It is a low wind, no wind and indoor kite.  It goes up with almost no effort and hangs in the sky.  I’m beginning to sound like a commercial.  But it is handy to have at least one of these kites in the kite bag at all times.

Along with sharing what we are flying and when and how, I’m going to document my latest kite building venture.  I have thought a long time about what project I wanted to undertake and have decided on building a train of five kites.  The idea began during the annual American Kitefliers Association convention in Nags Head, NC.  It was re-enforced after building the Brasington Waif train.  Now the project begins and, hopefully, it will be completed before our local kite festival in October.

I hope anyone interested in kite flying will enjoy my ramblings and others will read this, become interested, and try kite flying.

Fair Winds All.