Playing Catch-Up

The weather has taken a turn for the better with Spring arriving. And I have fallen behind on my posting. It seems I’d rather be out flying my kites than writing about them. So here’s to playing Catch-Up.

The last club fly of February was one of the prettiest days we’d had in quite a while. The wind was up and the morning sky was a beautiful blue. There were only a few of the regular kite club members on the field and we had an interesting mix of old and new kites. My friend Bob dug out some of his older kites that hadn’t seen the sun in a while. The red-white-blue airplane was purported to be a “unflyable” kite. But after some work and innovation, Bob got it to fly remarkably well. It just hung in the sky all morning. The same goes for his Sutton and red-white-blue Double Delta Box kite. Both very reliable flyers. The Angel kite can be finicky at times. But this morning was not one of those times.

I put up our relatively new Vertical Visuals Malay Diamonds. We have one of each color variation. They fly well with or without tails. I prefer the look of the tails trailing along behind.

Vertical Visual Malay Diamonds by Into The Wind

The newest kites in the sky were the pair of Flakes made by Jeri at the Kites Unlimited shop in Atlantic Beach, NC. These were custom-made, one in white and one in black. They made quite a pair hanging together. Rumor has it that there will never be another black Flake made.

And so ended the month of February. Happy to say, this was the start of better weather and better flying. More to come as I continue to play Catch-Up.

Fair Winds All.

This Is Not A Festival

After some discussion, we decided to broaden our scope and travel a little further to attend some kiting activities. From what I had seen online, Kitemania South seemed like just the gathering we would enjoy and it wasn’t too far to drive. So plans were made and off we went to Treasure Island, FL.

We arrived a day early in order to get our bearings and a little rest after the two-day drive. I did get out on the beach for some flying. Winds were light and gusty and the temperature was cooler than it should be. But I did get up a couple of kites. I was especially pleased that my mini-circoflex flew. I hadn’t had it out of the bag in quite some time. There were several other kite flyers taking advantage of the day. Several deltas and couple of large flowforms were in the sky also.

Saturday started out promising. I got out early and flew my Dream stack. It took a little work to find enough wind and I ended up quite a ways down the beach from our hotel. Like most resort beaches, the high-rise hotels and condos block any wind not coming off the ocean. It was a satisfying start to the weekend. Then the gray clouds moved in. Of course, the lack of sunshine does not stop kite flyers from doing their thing. Canopies were erected, banners set out and the kite flying began.

Unfortunately, the day did not continue in this fashion. Along with the colder temperatures came the rain. For most of the morning, the flyers huddled under the canopies, coming out to fly in between showers. But eventually the rain won and we all retreated to the covered patios to visit and exchange “feathers”.

Ah, yes, the “feathers”. An activity that was unique to this gathering is the exchange of “feathers”. Those attending this gathering create feathers out of ripstop nylon, tyvek, fabric, paper or anything that is at hand. The feathers are then traded as the weekend goes on. The trading brings old friends together and gets everyone actively involved in meeting new people. It almost becomes a competition to get as many feathers as possible from as many people as possible. The range of creativity is amazing. The feathers are sewn, glued, painted, dyed, printed and colored with markers. And are made in all shapes and sizes. A couple were even made out of actual feathers. Each feather has a story and will trigger memories of this gathering for a long time to come.

I made what I felt was a distinctly North Carolina feather, the Hatteras Lighthouse.

Then, after trading all weekend, I came home with around forty new feathers. And I’m already thinking about what I’ll be making for next year.

Thankfully, the rain stopped in the evening and there was some night flying. This included a ghost delta and some other deltas of varying sizes with programmable LEDs. They were beautiful. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any decent images. Just blurs of color in a black sky.

Sunday was windy. Very, very windy. Most of the kite flyers didn’t bring kites out because the wind was too strong. Us included. So the day was spent visiting and making the let of the feather trades. There were flyers who had kites that could handle the wind so all was not lost.

It was truly an enjoyable trip. We are planning on going back next year. And staying an extra day to get in some more flying and visiting. Here’s hoping the weather is more Florida-like than this year. That is sunny, warm and dry.

Fair Winds All.

The Problem With ‘Hanging Out’ At The Kite Shop

It seems we just can’t catch a break. After a few days of cold temperatures, it warmed somewhat but the warmer air brought rain the for the weekly club fly. The morning broke with gray skies, an ugly misty rain and little to no wind. By the time we got to the beach, the winds had come up strong. Or as is said around here, “blowin’ a gale”. And there was standing water on the sand. I did have my Flexifoil with me and could have flown it in those winds but I don’t particularly like putting my bags or kites down on wet sand. So we headed to the kite shop to spend some time and chat.

The problem with hanging out at the kite shop is that you are on site when boxes of kites are opened for inspection. In this case, a shipment of long-awaited Hyperkites arrived. I currently have three stacks of Hyperkites. A vintage stack of six in rainbow colors with the original wooden dowel frames. I have never flown this set and I know it is going to need some work before it is flyable. The second one is a nine stack made up of berry, wine and slate colored kites. The third is a six stack of gold, green and blue. I have been toying with the idea of enlarging the last two stacks but the colors have not always been available. And that was a good excuse not to. However, when this box was opened, there were the colors I was looking for. I made a quick decision to enlarge both stacks while I could as you never know when another shipment would come in.

NineStack — Nine Stack of Hyperkites Guarded by The House Supervisor

So I ended up buying six new Hyperkites, tails and necessary train lines to add them to my stacks. Now I have to remove the bridals from the new kites and add them to my current stacks with the new train lines. Not a hard task but tedious. I may end up taking the old stacks apart in order to update the order of the colors to accommodate the new kites. We shall see.

So the problem with “hangin’ out” at the kite shop is it costs money and gives me another task to do in my “free time”. Oh well, maybe the weather will be cold and wet a little longer so I am forced to stay indoors and catch up on all those little kite tasks I’ve been putting off and the new ones I’ve just gained.

Fair Winds All

Our Last Fly of 2015

Christmas Day dawned warm and foggy. So foggy, in fact, you couldn’t see the ocean from the boardwalk. So the kite fly was canceled. The day after Christmas was just about the same, although the fog did burn off a little earlier in the day. We went for a quick fly in the late afternoon. The wind was about 2 mph so not much would fly. However, we did anchor a Skate and fly the Black Dog UL. It wasn’t much but it made up for the previous day.

The Sunday morning kite club fly at Fort Macon State Park turned out to be glorious. The temperature was unseasonably warm, the sun was out and the clouds came and went. The winds were a little stronger than the day before with the best winds up high. This made getting things launched harder but once they were up, they stayed up. We put up a couple of Skates and I got out my Black Dog UL and my Wisp II.

Several of the usual club members were there and were joined by a couple of new families. It looked like a festival when everyone got their kites in the air. There were several smaller deltas, a Ghost Delta, a couple of Walas, our Skates, a Plutz, a Laima and a Rokkaku. One newer flyer was trying to fly her Skydog Dream On stunt kite. The wind was a little too light for it, so I had her try the Into The Wind Wisp II. She took to it right away. Then she proceeded to pass it on to two other new flyers and we both gave them some instruction. The little Wisp was a hit for all who tried it.

The company and the day was so great, the club fly lasted well into the afternoon. Only hunger drove us off the beach. As the afternoon wore on, the wind picked up and we all went to the Atlantic Beach public access to join some more of our flyer friends and put up some more kites. And, again, it looked like another kite festival in progress. Kites in the air included a Rokkaku, a Sky Skimmer, a Conyne Delta, a Ghost Delta, a Fled and various smaller deltas. The sun was setting when we finally pulled in the lines and headed for home.

So went the last kite fly of 2015. It couldn’t have ended better. Now we look forward to 2016 and a year filled with old friends, new friends and new kiting adventures.

Fair Winds All and Happy New Year!

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