It’s been almost a month since we’ve been flying our kites. Seems like forever. There are some new kites still in their packaging, waiting to be freed to touch the sky. And why have we been keeping them captive? It’s the weather.
It has just been too darn hot to do much of anything. The regular flyers have been staying home and the new flyers, who have stopped at the shop and bought a kite or had a kite repaired, have avoided the heat and humidity on the beach, too. To top it off, there has been little to no wind. The most activity the kite club has done is stand in the parking lot looking at the flag on the Fort Macon flagpole hanging straight down and sweat.
Hopefully, things will change soon. We want to fly!!
The heat has continued throughout the week. After almost succumbing to it on the Independence Day holiday fly, we’ve decided we will not go to the beach without some sort of shelter. Most people use a 10×10 foot pop-up tent. Considering we have to walk from the parking lot, up the road and to the beach, that option is rather cumbersome. So we invested in a new kind of beach shelter – the Cool Cabana. It is a smaller tent with only a center pole, like an umbrella, but it has four corner legs that are weighted down to make the shelter stable in higher winds. It is light weight and super easy to erect and take down. It provides just enough shade for two chairs and a cooler.
The Cool Cabana
The lack of wind made the heat even hotter. What we should have done was leave the beach and return to the air conditioning. That was the easy way out and not for us this day. The small hardcore group went down to the beach and nursed our low-wind kites into the sky.
The Skate by Into The Wind and the Penguin Critter Kite by Skydog KitesThe Laima by Flying Wings, the Skate and a vintage box Delta
The one kite that defied the odds of flying was a vintage box Delta with wooden spars. By no stretch of the imagination should that kite fly. It was too heavy for the winds available. But it did. Just goes to show what a good design can do.
Just for fun, one of our club members tried to fly the new Skeleton kite. After all, the box Delta flew so maybe there was a large enough sail to get that kite in the sky. Unfortunately, it was a no go. But it was fun to watch as it danced crazily before settling to the ground.
Black Skeleton Kite by Premier Kites
With the heat index rising, we decided to call it a day and head for a cool place. Hopefully the extreme heat will move on and the winds will come up and we can soon fly and fly and fly to our hearts content.
The Independence Day weekend was hot and crowded. As this holiday was on a Monday, we had the red/white/blue fly on our usual club fly day, Sunday. This also kept us out of the insane traffic a second time. And it was so hot, a second trip to the beach was not desirable. Okay, maybe it was desirable for those who don’t live here and only have a chance to get to the beach on holidays.
While there were only a few flyers in attendance, there was a large variety of kites in the air. All but two red, white and blue. They included four deltas, a flowform, a powersled, two Joel Scholz eagles, a parafoil and a sky skimmer. The blue delta had the space shuttle on it which made it patriotic enough for the holiday. The other non-RWB kite was the black skeleton, being flown by special request.
Small Joel Scholz Eagle kite and two custom kites – Eagle Parafoil and Space Shuttle DeltaPatriotic Delta by Premier, a Flowform and a Double Box DeltaSky Skimmer by Kites UnlimitedPowersled 24 by Premier
Large Joel Scholz Eagle kite
After the single line kites were up and anchored, the stunt kites came out to play. Not a large number of kites but a sampling of the different types, from dual line to quad line to a stack of Hyperkites. Two of the stunt kites were vintage, a Star Dart and a Spirit Quad.
Star Dart by Action Kites and Hyperkites stackSpirit Quad by New Tech Kites
To complete the show for this Independence Day, there were a couple of banners placed on the beach. Actually one was a banner and the other was a Masterpiece Rev that was created by Randy Tom. One by one the flyers had enough of the heat and packed up and headed for the air conditioning. There was satisfaction in that we had put on an appropriate display for this Independence Day.
A person couldn’t ask for a more beautiful morning. The temperature was mild, the sun was out and the winds were light, in the 5-7 mph range. The clouds moved in not too much later but the beach was still the place to be. This was the day for the first flight of my new light wind kite, the Laima. It looks like a bird soaring high in the sky and floats on the lightest of winds.
The Laima by Flying Wings
There was quite a variety of kites in the air along with my Laima; a white Ghost delta kite with a jellyfish on the line, the low-wind Skate, a Triangulation and a smaller power sled.
Ghost Delta by Gomberg Kites with Jellyfish by Premier KitesLaima by Flying Wings and a power sledTriangulation by HQ Kites
This was also a good day to do some test flying of new kites. Two of Skydog Kites new offerings flew very well in the light winds and you couldn’t help but smile when looking at them. One was a parrot and the other was a butterfly. Perfect kites for families on vacation.
Parrot by Skydog KitesButterfly by Skydog Kites
I took advantage of the morning to fly my little Wisp. It is such a great low wind dual line stunt kite but oh, so sensitive to the inputs. It took me a couple of launches to get used to it again. Then the fun began. Loops and dives and tight little spins.
Before leaving, I took some time to try out the Reflex from Revolution kites, their latest model quad line. The early descriptions have it as a low wind kite for the beginner quad line flyer. So this was the perfect day to give it a trial.
The Reflex by Revolution Kites
To me it appeared to be a slower flyer but easy to handle. At times it seemed to drift in the wind and feel soft on the handles. I wasn’t using the light-weight handles that come with but had it on my regular no-snag handles. I had an easier time with an inverse hover which I’ve never been able to do well. This trial was an easy fly, no hard “spanking” or tricks. Mostly smooth moves and slow lazy turns and loops. Just want a beginning flyer would try to do. I didn’t try the launch from a flat position nor the classic “dive-stop”. I did like the Reflex more than I thought I would. So there you have it.
Freedom In The Sky - A Kiter's Blog 