Tag: Kite Festival

A Sky Full Of Kite Tails

The sun was bright in the sky.  The water was aqua blue with white caps breaking on the beach.  The temperature was cool and, best of all, there was wind.  It was a weekly kite club fly day and we could fly.  Yippeee!  I will say flying wasn’t easy.  The weatherman lied a little.  He forecasted wind in the 10 to 15 mile per hour range.  Perfect wind.  In reality, it was about 12 one minute and 3 to 4 the next.  So we spent a lot of time picking up the kites that drifted to the ground and putting them back up in the sky.  But that was all right.  We had the chance to get together with friends and share the day.  There were several fliers that were down on vacation and we caught up on news and made plans for the upcoming Carolina Kite Festival.  The sky above looked like a small kite festival.  That’s the way we like to see it.  And we like to see others enjoying the sight, too.

 

Another reason I was so glad to have a good flying day was that I had two new kites to put in the air.  One was a large dragon-type kite by Premier Kites called Blackfoot’s Magic Gourd.  I’ve been eyeing this kite for a long time.  And kept talking myself out of buyng it.  Well, that only works for so long.  It’s mine now.  And it really puts a show on when it’s in the sky.

Blackfoot's Magic Gourd by Premier

The other kite was a custom kite by Ray Wong.  It is a rokkaku called “Windows”.  Mine is the pink version.  The owner of the kite shop has the blue version.  In fact, it was the blue version that I saw initially.  I saw the pink version in the kite shop when looking at the kites in the special kite bin.  Special because they were hand-made custom kites.  I also saw this one in the sky at one of the kite festivals.  This past month was our wedding anniversary and my husband bought me this kite as a present.  Seems that is what we do for special occasions, trade kites as presents.    So I finally got to fly it.  And it went straight up.  I was rather surprised at the angle of its flight.  It was directly above our heads.  In fact, a couple of times I thought it was lost because I didn’t look high enough in the sky when checking on it.

"Windows" Rokkaku by Ray Wong

As I mentioned before, the plans and preparation for the Carolina Kite Festival are moving ahead.  Although it often seems like we take one step forward and two steps backward.  So many changes this year.  Some of our invited guest fliers can’t make it.  That’s really sad because we look forward to visiting with them and watching them fly.  I guess the local fliers are going to have to take up the slack and provide some entertaining flying (or crashing as the case may be).  Hopefully, most of the viewing public will be in so much awe of the wonderful kites, they won’t notice the flying miscues.  

Guess that’s all for now.  I’m going to try to get some extra flying time this week.  The dust on the coffee tables will still be there when I get back.

Fair Winds All.

A Lot Of Catching Up To Do (Part 2)

It had been about three weeks since we had been to our own local flying beach.  The weeks we had missed were either rainy or windless so we didn’t miss much.  That is to say we didn’t miss much flying.  We did miss the time spent with kite friends.  So it was with some anticipation that we went to the weekly club fly on Sunday morning.  What we found were a couple of fliers, a couple of thousand mosquitos and no wind.  I’m beginning to feel cursed.  We never left the parking lot.  It just wasn’t worth it.  So instead of flying, we hung out at the kite shop.

Carolina Kite Festival
Carolina Kite Festival

We’re helping get things ready for the Carolina Kite Festival.  It’s the local festival sponsored by Kites Unlimited, Atlantic Beach, NC – our local kite shop.  It was to be held at the Sheraton Atlantic Beach Resort on the beach.  However, there has been a drastic change of plans.  The Sheraton suffered major damage due to Hurricane Irene and has had to close their doors and cancel all events until January, 2012.  Major headache.  After a lot of phone calling, the festival has been relocated to the Atlantic Beach Public Beach Access, locally known as “The Circle”.  I’ve been trying to help with Internet changes and making new brochures and stickers for old brochures.  I’m not a computer guru but I can try to take some little things off the over-full plates of the kite shop staff.  It’s been interesting to say the least.  The hardest part will be getting the word out about the change.

We finally got to fly for about an hour each on the following Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  The first evening I flew the Dunston-Taylor box delta for the first time on our home field.  It flew like a champ.  That kite is such a great flier I’m planning on making another with a much more outstanding sail pattern.  Not sure what it will be yet but I’m sure I’ll think of something.  John put up his early anniversary present, a Captain America Rokkaku by Ray Wong.  It is a beautiful handmade kite that he has been admiring for some time.  The wind was light but it just hung in the sky.  While the two single-line kites were up, I flew my latest dual-line acquisition, a Nebula by Ron Phipps.  It’s a wonderful precision kite that is smooth and easy. I love the way it handles.  I may actually learn to make push turns with it.  Something I haven’t been able to do well with any of my other dual-line stunt kites.  The second evening I practised with the Vamp Devil on short fifty foot lines.  I was having fun with a rising wind when a family walked by with a little girl maybe three years old.  She loved the Devil so I put on a show just for her.  Lots of low-level flying that she could see easily.  She laughed and giggled and gave the kite commands which I tried to follow.  In fact, she was having so much fun she didn’t want to leave.  And adult stayed behind with her while the rest of the family continued their walk.  I didn’t get much routine practising done but I sure had a good time.

We missed the weekly club fly again.  But we did have a legitimate reason.

More later.

Dunston-Taylor Box Delta (custom kite)
Captain America Rokkaku (custom kite)

Fair Winds All.

A Lot Of Catching Up To Do (Part 1)

Life has been hectic since the last post.  And it bothers me that I have left this so long with no updates.  I will try to do better in the future.  We haven’t been flying much for one reason or another.  The first reason is Hurricane Irene.  She may have only been a category 1 storm when she passed over our heads but the rains and winds were enough to disrupt our lives significantly.  We were lucky in that we had no damage to our property.  Although we did have to have three trees taken done to avoid later possible damage.  Needless to say, the regular weekly kite fly was canceled.

Right after the clean-up was completed at both houses, it was time to pack up the car and leave for the Mile High Kite Fly at Beech Mountain, NC.  This festival was so named because Beech Mountain is 5,506 feet above sea level, the highest town in the state.  Saturday is set-up day and a kite builders competition.  I decided to take the plunge and enter some of the kites I had built.  Hopefully, the judges would be kind and I would pick up some pointers on kite building and competing.  I spent a couple of hours Saturday morning attending to details on my kites and getting very nervous about the competition.  The judging is done in two stages: in the air ( how will it flies and looks in the sky) and on the ground (how well it is made).  I entered four kites in three categories.  In the flat & bowed kites, I entered the Penelope Cat della porta and the Green Bay hata. (Side note on the hata – I finished this kite and flew it for the first time on Superbowl Sunday.  Need I mention who won Superbowl LXV?  Go Packers!!)  In the soft & flexible, I entered the Eagle painless parafoil.  In the box & cellular, I entered the Dunston-Taylor box delta that I had finished the night before leaving for the festival.

Dunston-Taylor Box Delta (custom kite)
Green Bay Packers Hata (custom kite)

The winds on Saturday were light and variable and the skies were cloudy.  Not the best day to show off one’s handiwork.  But we do the best we can with what we’ve got.  There were a total of none kites entered in the competition.  They all flew to one degree or another.  I had the hardest time getting the parafoil to fly but once it got up, it flew steady like a champ.  There wasn’t quite enough wind for the flat & bowed so it took some work to keep them in the air high enough for the judges to see what they looked like.  But we managed.  The Dunston-Taylor box is a light wind kite so there was no problem there.  The judges’ scores were tallied but the results weren’t going to be announced until the next day.  More nervous waiting.  I did get some great comments from the judges and a lot of good advice and suggestions.  Lots of encouragement to keep on building.  And have to admit, it was fun and I look forward to doing it again.

Sunday was the festival day.  The day full of flying and kid’s kite-making and kid’s flying up and down the mountainside.  But there was no wind.  Yes, even less than the day before.  But that didn’t seemed to stop the kids.  They ran up and down and up and down trying to get their kites in the air.  Some brought their own kites to fly and some bought kites from a vendor on site.  The clouds became thicker and darker and around one o’clock the skies opened and the rain came down. We were ready to wait it out until there was thunder and lightning. Then the tents came down and the banners were put away and the festival was officially over. It all ended too soon. There was a fliers cook-out later that evening despite the rain. Thank goodness for picnic shelters. At the cook-out, the winners of the kite builders were announced.

I was truly surprised when I found out I won first place in soft & flexible with my Eagle parafoil. I truly thought my competitor’s kite was better but the judges thought otherwise. Hurray for me!!!!! Then I won a second place in flat & bowed with the Penelope Cat della porta. A second Hurray!!! Two awards in my first competition. Pretty good. I’ve started planning for next year.

The Eagle (custom kite)
Penelope Cat (custom kite)

More later.

Fair Winds All.

And Who Should Show Up

All plans for the weekend were changed in an instant.  There was a frenzy of straightening up and vacuuming the dog hair.  Well, maybe not a frenzy  but  there was some activity.  Dust the guest room, fluff the pillows, company’s coming.  With almost no notice, our daughter came home.  We got to spend a day together talking, walking the beach and eating.  Amazing how family times always come down to food.  Whether its home-cooking or eating at your favorite restaurant, that’s where connections are remade.

Anyway, Sunday became family day and we didn’t get to the kite fly.  All intentions were to fly together as a family.  But talk got in the way.  And did I mention food?  We did get to the kite shop for a visit.  And to beg forgiveness for not shoeing up to fly.  Since we brought the reason with us, we were forgiven and had a nice although short visit.  Then it was off to the beach for a walk in the sand.  You see, living your whole life at the beach and then moving to the mountains leads to some serious withdrawal problems.  And they just don’t go away over time.  More talking, more food and some indoor beanbag bocce ball and the visit was over.  Too fast.

So what does one do when the company leaves?  Well, go fly a kite, of course.  The winds were in the perfect range for some Vamp Devil flying.  The temperatures had moderated a bit and the skies were mostly blue.  We grabbed a couple of kites and made up for the missed flying day.  My husband committed himself to flying a quad line kite.  We have matching Vamp Devils and he decided that Monday was the day to learn how to fly his.  And he did quite well.  Yes, there were some crashes but no damage.  Some tangled lines but no breaks.  He even managed a reverse launch on his own.  Although he’ll tell you he has no idea how he did it.  We even got both Vamp Devils up together.  I should clarify that our Vamp Devils are not exact matches.  They are more of a set.  Mine is black with red accents.  His is red with black accents.  And they looked pretty good in the sky.  It won’t take long before my husband is comfortable with his and we can work on some team flying.  But first we must work on those landings.

Our local kite festival is only ten weeks away.  I’d better start thinking about a routine.

Fair Winds All.