Date: 18 Feb 93 20:45:32 GMT From: Colin_Douthwaite@equinox.gen.nz (Colin Douthwaite) Message-ID: Organization: Equinox Networks Subject: Re: Stories and Weather Channel Spat... spaceman@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu wrote: : Hi fellow kiters... : Anyone have any good kite stories? Not necessarily about a particular kite, : but about one of the better days of kite flying you have had, or where it : was that you liked (or still like) to fly. : Just want to read anything about kites... : Paul : Spaceman@kuhub.Cc.Ukans.Edu -- A Kite Story -- About 3O years ago I began to fly kites. These were square plastic, single line. About 18 inches square with printed designs. They were sold at bargain prices at holiday resorts. Balls of cotton string were also on sale. At Cromer, on the east coast of England, there were nice open beaches and a nice steady westerly every day. All you had to do was attach a ball of string. The kite just flew out of your hand and out to sea. The temptation was to buy more balls of string and keep knotting them on. No one had told me in those days about the dangers of seagulls or low flying aircraft. I did know about power lines, but there weren't any of those out to sea. When the time came to go for lunch or tea, or whatever, it used to take me over half an hour to wind the kite back in. My family grew tired of waiting for me. They soon began to give me early warnings of impending departures. One afternoon we all decided to go a little way south to Mundesley.( You may have heard Rolf Harris sing his little song "Hev' you gotta loight boy ? Hev' you gotta loight". In the song he refers to the Muns'ley Shore and of course he imitates the Cromer dialect). Sorry about that digression, but all good stories, and kites, tend to wander away. At Mundesley the beach is directly below thw main road at the bottom of a vertical cliff. You cannot see anything of the town from down on the beach. It was a busy day up above with lots of people shopping. All was well. Off flew my kite, out to sea, in the usual steady westerly, and became a mere speck in the distance. Other members of the family were digging holes in the sand, to no purpose that I could see. I had gone off into a satisfied daze having fed out about six balls of string, when something changed. The wind quickly turned from a strong westerly to a strong easterly. My kite came racing in fom the sea whilst I began winding in the 6 balls of string furiously. I had no chance. The kite sailed inland over the top of Mundesley cliff, over the top of the telephone wires and buildings, landing at last in a large car park. The string was draped over everything. I rescued the kite by cutting it off and crept away before the local police officer spotted me. I never flew at Mundesley again and I never used more than three balls of string again. -- end of story -- I did not give up flying. I still wish I had one of those simple little kites. They flew like birds. Now ......I have a similar, nylon, single liner, which is far more difficult to fly. And I have an "unstable" single line delta which is a joy. It is so unstable, especially on a short line, that it behaves like a stunter. It doesn't actually crash but it does almost everything else, but not always to order. My favourite Stunter is a Global Kites (NZ) Arrowhead Stunter. About 2 foot wingspan and shaped like an arrowhead, it really prefers to fly, not crash. I have a larger, 16 year old, High Performer, which is a Peter Powell clone. Supposed to be a kite for newbies and kids to fly, I have always found it a real handful to keep airborne. When I feel like a kite battle, and the wind is strong enough, I have yet another duel with the old warhorse. My ideal kites are those which just cannot stay on the ground and never want to come down. Hope I didn't bore you with my stories. Colin Douthwaite, New Zealand, 19 February 1993