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.
I live by that phrase. I am perpetually late for most things in my life. Yes, most times it only five minutes or less but it’s still late. And so is this posting. Right now it’s because there isn’t much to talk about. The weather is still too hot to do much. And, as usual, the wind is not cooperating.
Sunday was the weekly club fly. We have been seeing strong winds most of the week. The forecast for Sunday was for winds to moderate and be at an ideal level for flying. Weatherman, can you ever get anything right? It was howling a gale out on the beach. There were a lot of people out that morning. And there were quite a few kites in the air. Most notably, a large Sutton with a banner tail and lots of line laundry hanging from it and a HQ Triangulation, also with line laundry. Most of us foolishly listened to the weatherman and only brought mid-range kites and didn’t want to risk damage in the higher winds. So we stood around a lot and talked a lot.
Triangulation by HQ Kites
The stronger winds did not stop the Revolution fliers. There were several vented Revs and Super Sonic Revs in the air. Now those kites are made for stronger winds and so they were flying great. And one flier was having a ball launching himself with a HQ Symphony. I think it was a Symphony 2.2 but I’m not sure. Anyway, the pull on that kite was so much that at times the guy was sitting on the sand and digging his heels in to stay close to one place. That’s way more that I want to handle. So after a while we picked up our bags and headed to the kite shop for more chit-chat.
We did manage to fly one night this past week. About an hour before sunset, the winds seemed to be just right for some flying and it was starting to cool off some. I tried to put up the Goblin stack I had just put together. No luck. There wasn’t enough wind to launch the three-stack. Rats! But I did bring along the Nebula. I hadn’t flown it yet and was looking for a good opportunity. That night was the night. I took off like a dream. No pull. Very responsive. I tried a couple of “push” turns and it was fantastic. Sharp turn, no oversteer and straight tracking. I still need practice with those type of turns but it was so easy. I even managed a square in the sky. OK, so it was more like a lop-sided rectangle. But that was the closest I’ve ever come to completing that manuever. There is hope for making me a precision flier. Sweet kite, that Nebula. It was dark by the time we left the beach. Oh. for more evenings like that one.
I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July weekend. Our celebration was kind of low-key. Mostly because the kids did not make it home this year. We did attend the annual Neighborhood Cookout and were able to put faces to a lot of the names of people living on our road. Still don’t know everyone but our reputation is growing. We heard a lot of “Are you the people who fly the kites?”. Several have seen us cleaning out the bags in the yard or loading up the car to go to a fly. Most of them haven’t flown a kite since their childhood and fondly remember the paper diamond or box kite of their youth. They have no idea of the kites available today. Nor do they believe that we have so many kites for so many different kinds of wind.
Sunday was the regular weekly club fly. It was all the more special because there were more kite friends there from out-of-town. We got there earlier than usual but not as early as most. We remain the “second shift” of the fliers. The sky was filled with kites of all shapes and sizes. I couldn’t begin to describe all that was there. The kites ranged from the large Suttons with banner tails and mesh and flo-tail deltas to the flakes, dragons, smaller deltas and the most unusual kite of the day, the flap kite sun beam by HQ. There were several dual-line stunt kites flying along with a couple of quad-line Revolution kites.
The sky was so full we only put up three kites ourselves, the Flo-tail Delta by Premier and two limited edition dragon kites by Go Fly A Kite, the Flying Tiger and the Jester. After a while I flew the Vamp Devil. I’m still having a bit of trouble getting the brake lines exactly right but each time it’s getting better. I’m getting a better understanding as to how the four lines work together and how some changes make things better and some make things worse. It’s all good. The only bad thing about the Sunday fly was that I forgot my camera and my iPod died. The sky was so beautiful that I was kicking myself for not being able to get some photos. I am also trying to figure out a routine for the Vamp Devil for the kite festival in October. And I was really inspired to listen to some music while I was flying. I guess I’m going to have to work things out on paper first and then add the music. Thank goodness I have a few months and the option of backing out at the last-minute. After four hours on the beach, we went home and nursed our sunburn.
Monday, being the official holiday, was crazy at the beach. Many people came to the beach for the day, many people came to the beach for the weekend and were trying to go home and many people were staying for the week. It all added up to a lot of traffic and a lot of people on the beach. Parking was hard to find. We didn’t fly but did hang out at the kite shop for a while. What holiday flying we did was done today. A good friend had to come down to work in the area and made it a “busman’s holiday”. For those of you who don’t know it, a “busman’s holiday” is when you combine a workday with some sort of non-work recreation. In this case, flying a couple of kites for a couple of hours on the beach before returning home. For him, it was a long day of driving. But we met on the beach and had a nice visit and a good couple of hours flying.
For those who are following my kite building progress, I finishing the replacement bottom panel late Saturday night. I looks so much better than the first one. I changed the way the pieces were assembled and stitched. Now I’m not afraid to have anyone see what I have done. And I’ve learned a lot. About appliqué and about my perfectionism. So the kite was not finished in time for the holiday. In fact, I have not sewn a thing in the past two days. The pieces are laying on the table waiting for me. I will probably finish this week and try to fly it at our next club fly. Just a week late. But better late than never. And I will not let this project reach the never stage. So, until the next time we fly…
This weekend was spent at the Old Dominion Stunt Kite Competition at Dorey Park in Richmond, VA. We had never been to one before and wanted to see what constituted a stunt kite competition and renew friendships with some people we hadn’t seen in a while. While we were warned that the competitions could get very boring and had prepared a back-up plan if needed. It turns out, we never left the park.
The competition is divided into two types; precision and ballet, and is set up for dual and multi-line kites on three levels; novice, experienced and masters. Also there is competition for pairs and teams to fly. Apparently, they have changed the precision competition rules and, instead of just doing figures, the flier must tie the figures together with transition moves. This makes it more of a fluid routine and makes it less boring because it not just the same thing over and over and over. Of course, the ballet routines are never boring. The choice of music for a ballet routine is as varied as the style of flying. The winds were a challenge all weekend. No wind, then some wind, then no wind, then some wind, etc. And rain on Sunday made things even more interesting. The competition kept on, even in the rain.
Pairs Dual Line Ballet
There were a fair number of kite builders in attendance. Most were competitors as well as builders. I had several conversations with them and shared a couple of the kites I had made. And they shared theirs. We talked sewing techniques and ideas and I learned quit a bit. I also got to meet people who I had only known from the online forums and found out their true names. It made me feel like I was a part of something and not just a faceless voice on a computer screen. I’m finding that sharing brings us all together. No matter where we come from. One person in particular was trying to get me to tell the secret pattern of my current kite build. It’s not going to happen. The secret will be revealed in due time.
I tried to put up a couple of single line kites over the weekend. Between the two days, I’d say I got maybe a half hour of flight time with about three different kites. Two were kites I had made and one was the Chiroptera I won in the raffle. So for two kites there wasn’t enough wind and for the one there was too much. I had wanted to fly my Vamp Devil but I never took it out of the bag. If the pros were having trouble keeping their kites in the air, what hope did I have. And, at times, the competitors were having trouble. One of the great things was that even though these fliers were serious about winning and earning league points so they could advance in the standings, they weren’t above laughing at their mistakes and enjoying the time together. As this was my first competition event, I can’t say whether it is this way at all the events. I sure hope so. By the way, I was informed that as I did manage to fly a kite at Dorey Park I was now considered a member of the Richmond Air Force, the local kite club. I think this decision was made so I could be drafted to help tear down the field equipment at the end of the day. I have to admit, I didn’t put up much of a fight. Many hands make light work.
Saturday night was a cookout at one of the local kite members house in the country. What a special place. And what great food. The awards were given out for the first day’s flying. And there was an auction for some kites that were donated to raise money to help fund the competition. I stayed out of the auction as I had already received a new kite. I had gotten the Chiroptera, the raffle kite, that morning from the builder. He even signed the kite for me. The party broke up about dusk as the next days flying was to begin early.
Competition Kites
Sunday was Father’s Day. We got to the field late because we had a special Father’s Day breakfast. And John got to open a Father’s Day present from our daughter. It was a figurine of Charlie Brown trying to fly his kite. The inscription on it was “Believing Is Halfway to Flying.” So appropriate. He as thrilled. We got our canopy set up and talked to a few people when he got another Father’s Day surprise. The dog got him a red Vamp Devil. Now John has never flown a quad line kite so he was in no way expecting one. Especially from the dog. But he wanted to show it off so we hung it on the back wall of the canopy so everyone around could see it. And it’s tail billowing out behind it whenever the wind came up. It caught a lot attention from people who had never seen one before. Hardly anyone realized it was a quad line until we told them so. And then the rains came. We stayed dry under our canopy and gave shelter to several kite bags. The Vamp Devil was put away so it wouldn’t get wet. The rain was heavy at times but not steady. At the coast we would call it “coming in squalls”. And of course, it quit when it was time to give out the awards and pack up for the day. Then it was off to a restaurant for a Father’s Day dinner. A place of John’s choice for a dinner of his choice. Well, really his second choice. The first one was crammed and the waiting line was out the door.
This morning we slept late and took our time coming home. Made a couple of stops on the way and still got home in good time. Did we have a good time? Yes! Will we do it again next year? Most probably. The pressure will be on for us to fly in the novice class. We have been warned.
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