I Must Apologize

I must apologize for letting this blog go unpublished for so long.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.

Is This January Or June?

The weather the past two days has been more reminiscent of spring or early June than January. Temperatures rose to the seventies and the sky was a clear, gorgeous blue. There was even a heavy fog in the mornings both days. So glad I didn’t have to go anywhere early. After not flying for a couple of weeks, we couldn’t let these days pass by. After completing the things we needed to do (note the word need), we went to the beach and did what we wanted to do. Put some kites in the air. Both days we didn’t get out until after 3:00 but an hour or so flying is better than no flying at all.

Contrary to what the weatherman said, the winds were very light on Tuesday. Luckily I had my sure-fire, light wind kite, the Chiroptera. It wanted to fly before I even got the line hooked up. It took off and rose straight up and stayed there fluttering in the sky. The wind was a little gusty so at times there were some mid-air acrobatics, including a couple of complete roll-overs, but it always recovered and rose again.

So from the very new to the vintage, the second kite that I put up was the Joel Scholz Butterfly. This kite is not supposed to be a light wind kite. It is a heavy kite with five wooden dowels for its framework. But it is so well designed and balanced that it will go up in the lightest winds and just sit there and rock slightly from side to side. It is a fun kite and gorgeous to look at. Any kids in the area invariably point to it. sometimes I think the new kite designers need to go back and take a look at some of those vintage kites. Many of the were kites do not fly half as well as the vintage models. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the “latest and greatest” that we lose sight of the “tried and true”. I guess that’s why I am different from most fliers in that I don’t get into all the tricking and I search to add vintage kites to my bag. Oh yes, I do fly them, too. In fact, I have a couple of new additions that I hope to bring out when the wind and the weather cooperate.

Wednesday the wind was up a trifle and off we went again. Found the EO6 hiding in the bottom of the kite bag and decided to give it a try. This is an interesting kite in that in steady winds it will hang in the sky and in gusty wind it will dip and dive and remind one of fighter kite. Tugging on the line brings causes tumbling from which the kite recovers and rises again. I’m afraid we were at the bottom of its wind range so we couldn’t just anchor it and watch it fly. We had to be on the line to give it a boost now and then. It was fun nonetheless. The other kite that flew was the workshop kite from the last Carolina Kite Festival. I call it “Go Fish”. Some of you may have seen this kite on an earlier post. It is a great kite and easy to fly. I tried cutting the tail differently and I’m still not sure I like it. I may take my scissors out and make the tail more like a standard fuzzy tail. It may fly and look better.

So now we’ve had our kite fix for a while. Hopefully the weather will continue to cooperate and we will have our regular club fly this weekend.

Fair winds All

Two Weeks And Not A Kite Has Left The Bag

I guess you could say this is just a part of winter. The weather is either too cold and/or wet for flying or its beautiful and there’s no wind. Really it’s been grey and rainy a lot lately. While you would think this is good weather to work in the craft room making kites, I just haven’t been inspired. It’s taken a long time but I did finally finish the kite for the nursery. The one my daughter asked for last summer. It’s not that it was too complicated. I think my perfectionism got in the way as I worked on it. Anyway, it is done and it looks pretty good.

I have my next kite project cut out ready to sew. A pocket sled. However, it is going on hold. There is something new and different that has moved up to the front of the line. Something I’ve never tried before and haven’t read or seen anyone try lately. Last night I stayed up way too late cutting out the template for this project. I’ll make a smaller prototype first just to see if it will fly. If it does, then I will start on the real thing. This sounds like I really know what I’m doing. Oh, so far from the truth.

I added a “new” kite to my vintage kite collection. A Joel Scholz Butterfighter, signed and dated June, 1991. There’s a little bit of fine tuning that needs to be done to the sparring but it should not be a problem. I am lucky that I have a kite shop close by and they have just about every kite known to man. I was able to compare my kite with a brand new Butterfighter and see what needs to be done. Believe it or not, everything I need is found at the local hardware store. None of this specialty stuff that you can’t get from anyone except the manufacturer. Just dowels and O-rings. When I get it ready and have the day to fly, I’ll have photos.

That’s about all for now. Hopefully, things will start to change and I’ll have exciting kite news week after week after week. Until then…

Fair Winds all

Wind! We Got Wind!

After a long string of windless Sundays and some low temperatures thrown in, we have sunshine, mild temperature and WIND! We joined four other kite fliers to celebrate the gorgeous day. I decided that rather than haul everything out to the field (a job which seems like it takes a small moving van) I would selection a few kites to fly and leave the rest home. All the while hoping I make the right choice and have the right kites for the right wind. I put in my bag some kites that hadn’t seen the sky in a year or two. They definitely needed the air time.

I first put up my twin tail dragon. The last time it flew was about a year ago and the wind was so strong I didn’t get the tails wound up neatly, they were just stuffed in the bag. So my initial job was to untangle and untie the tails. Lesson learned – no matter what, roll up your tails before packing away a dragon kite. Once in the air, it flew beautifully.

George Peter's Twin Tail Dragon by Into the Wind

The next kite I put up was my mesh diamond with roses. This kite was given to me a couple of years ago as an anniversary present. My husband gave me roses that will never wilt. One of which is a yellow rose, my favorite. It really is a shame I don’t fly this one more often. It is easy to assemble and flies great. It just hangs in the air for all to see. Must mention that this kite is no longer available. Maybe that’s why I like it. I should try to remember and fly this one on each wedding anniversary. Must make a note on my iPad.

Willi Koch's Mesh Diamond — Wili Koch's Mesh Diamond by Premier

My husband flew one of his latest acquisitions, a Premier powersled. He got the largest powersled with the optical illusion/quilted pattern in rainbow colors. The powersled is a real “puller”. We found that out as we watched the large kite anchor being pulled across the sand. And there was a lot of sand already in the anchor. That’s one reason we really like sand bags and sand anchors for our single line kites. they may get dragged a bit but they don’t fly away or run the risk of injuring a passerby. We got out the shovel and added sand and the kite stayed put for the rest of the morning.

The rest of the sky had color from several of our friends kites. Including one unconventional training of a Sky Flake and a Firefly 2. Both of these kites are made at Kites Unlimited in Atlantic Beach, NC. Both will hang in the air like they were pinned there. But they will dance and bob around if you give their lines a tug now and then. Neither of them like to fall to the ground and will rise before hitting the ground when the line is pulled and released. It makes a good show for spectators as they think the kite is falling and it magically rises up again. I’m not sure if they ever had been trained together before but it worked pretty well and they both behaved themselves.

Sky Flake & Firefly 2 — Sky Flake and Firefly2 by Kites Unlimited

At last my Vamp Devil did not fly alone. Usually I’m the only one flying this quad line kite. And, quite often, I think I’m the only one who really likes this kite. But on this day, another Vamp Devil was in the sky. It was the one from the kite shop, Kites Unlimited, and the owner had it out to give another quad one flier a chance to try it out. Luckily, I had mine with me and we flew together for a short time. Also, luckily, I had the camera and a photo assistant with me so we could get photos of the two. It was fun. Next time, we will have to have lines the same length so we can interact more. That means I will have to untangle my longer lines which right now look more like a bird’s nest than a set of kite lines. Ugh!

Fair Winds All

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