By Lee Toy
Vol. 7 No. 2- Mar. -Apr. 1984

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

And so the historical (hysterical) journey of the Bay Area Kite Enthusiasts is off and run¬ning with a very successful kite fly on the third of March and a subsequent kite workshop at the Miraloma Elementary School on March 22, as a STEP in the right direction.
The March 3rd Kite Fly was a good one for those attending. Special surprize guest was BILL SHAPRIO, Kansas City, MO, who flew into town without telling anyone. He was first on the Green with suitcases in hand. I can imagine the cabbie thought he had another sta-tistic on his hands when Bill requested the Green rather than the airport when he got into the cab from the St. Francis Hotel that morn¬ing. Bill was awarded our “Longest Distance Kiter Award” (who needs Bell Telephone when you can be there in person). Bill thought he would surprize us by having the first kite in the air as well but the breezes did not co-operate. “Where’s the Beef” asked Bill as he sat there with his Grandmaster firmly planted on the ground. The Green has some what of a reputation for always having a good breeze as compared to certain areas between the two coasts. We didn’t have to wait long for some wind to come up and for the next four or five hours had a fine variety of winds for flying almost everything he had brought with him.

Bill’s favorite kites are single line maneu-verable kites, from Grandmasters to Jalbert Parafoils. Kites that don’t move around a bit are boring to Bill.
Another early arrivial, besides George and Marion who seem to live down there was Ray Minnie who brou„-ht his sister and brother in-law, Audrey and Sauk CaLur, Jack is a ZOO keeper at the S.F. Zoo. He’s invited me to March – April 1984 a feeding of the Tigers but I noticed his hand was bandaged and took a rain check (only kid¬ding Jack, I will be visiting you soon).

Ray had a handsome three vane rotor kite he constructed from plans in Kite Flyer (Vol.6, No.3). He’s added a static balance weight to the plates and trimmed the edges of the trays for a cleaner air flow over the rotor. Ray also changed the connector pieces to Teflon, which makes his kite spin like a top. Since Ray has some fishing background he also was able to “whip” the axle dowel at the ends to prevent the “pin”, in this case a small nail from spliting the wood. Ray also had a kite
he constructed from non-winning raffle tickets. He won our “Most unlikely to fly and doesn’t award” for that one.

Tom Caldwell was on hand with a number of show stoppers, his latest aerial-wonder is a 106 spinning disk arrangement that he had attached to his flying line. The project took Tom three years to develop and six months to construct, and it’s a wonder to behold. Tom won our “Most Innovative Kite Award”, Verna LeMar was awarded “Best Supporting Actress” for helping Tom with the unveiling and re-trieving of the spinners.

Amoung some of Tom’s other intrests are a 1916 Packard touring Car, a 1937 V-12 Packard limosine and a 1930 Rolls, all of which have been restored by Tom when he isn’t working on new kite projects or antique radios or phonographs. Tom gave up racing Hydro-plane boats after the table he was collectin his trophys on became over crowded. Tom says that he hates bringing down one of his “cars” because he spends all of his time talking about them instead of flying kites. Tom is hoping to get one of his latest kite designs, a counter rotating box kite, into the pages of KITE LINES.

Amoung some of our other awards given out: Jack Froelich – “I’d rather fly kites in Haiti – No Show Award”
Carol Henry – “I have to work today,a legiti-mate Excuse Award”
George and Marion Ham – “Best Team Award” Mr.& Mrs. Henry (no relation to Tom & Carol)
– “I Haven’t Flown a Kite in Years Award” Barbara Jung – “Best Lunch Award”
Jane & Fred – “Novice Tag Team Award”
Raymond Lee – “Struggle Award” for flying long centipedes with lots of pull.
Neil Thorburn – “Most Unusual Kiter Award”

Unfortunately there was little response for the Pot Luck dinner to follow the fly and so it was cancelled. In the future we hope to incorporate some “meeting” time during the time we are flying kites. The next Un-offi¬cial meeting of B.A.K.E. will be at the Marina Green May 6, 1984 for anyone interested.
Our regular No-Notice kite flys are on the first Sunday of each month at the Marina Green.

FLIGHT PATTERNS IS “ON THE AIR”

While he was in Virginia, Leland Toy was asked by WVPT-TV to host a kitemaking series called “FLIGHT PATTERNS”. Co-host Perry Fitzhugh, who is now living in Washington DC is happy to report that the program is being aired in Virginia on channel 51.

If you are interested in seeing this program aired in your locality, have your local educa-tional television channel to contact Wanda Zimmerman, Program Director of WVPT-TV, Port Republic Road, Harrisonburg, VA 22801, Phone: (703) 434-5391.

Detail of the head of one of Larry Chinn’s Centipede kites. Seattle, WA. Sept. 1982
OOPS-A-LA
A couple of errors leaped into the last issue (Vol. 7 No.1) of KITE FLYER: The man pictured with the box kite on pg.2 is Art Ross of Van-couver, Art Grossi is from Victoria, B.C.
Thank You Hugh Harrison for the correction. Missing from the list of first attendents of the B.A.K.E. meeting were my brother,Phil Toy and fellow flyer Tom Caldwell, sorry guys.

COMPETITIONS,
For those of you who seek a wider audience for your kiting efforts there are two interesting contests coming up.
First contest is the INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION OF SMALL KITES to be held in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, August 18, 1984. William Bigge and KITE LINES magazine are sponsoring this contest to explore the world of miniature kites that FLY. Basic requirements are that the kite be no larger that 3″ in height, width or depth INCLUDING the tail. Kites will be flown indoors by ambulatory judges. Entry forms and kites must be sent by early August. See the latest issue of KITE LINES for com-plete rules and regulations, or write IESK, c/a Kite Lines, 7106 Campfield Rd, Baltimore, MD 21207. Awards include $100 for the “Best” small kite. Additional prizes include Lawrence Hargrave Australian $20 notes. Each kite entered will earn a wallet-sized certifi¬cate as well as a special magnifying glass, and a chance to be shown in a future issue of KITE LINES.

The second contest that has been getting a lot of coverage lately is the “Ted Manekin” FLYING WEDGE KITE Challenge for the 1984 AKA Conven-tion October 4 to the 6th 1984 in Nashville, Tennessee. The Challenge comes from Ted’s attempts to fly a “Wedge” kite that he and his wife Lisa made at a Kite Retreat and has never been much higher than a few feet off the ground, despite the claims of various kite books that this box kite is a strong puller. Judging by the kite’s preformance at the last convention in Columbus, I would have to say whoever wrote those lines should have his head examined. Ted also agrees but would like to – share his experience in building this “notori,- ous non-flier” with others. So far the challenge has drawn such notables as: Charlie Sotich, Chicago, Ill., Oscar Bailey, Lutz, FL, Len Conover, Newfield,NJ, Hayden Mathews, Springfield, VA, and Rick Kinnaird, Flanders, NJ. Rick says that not only has he gotten the Wedge to fly but he will attempt a Man-lifting with the Wedge Kite as well as suggesting that: all of the Wedge kites that are brought to the convention be flown in a train, stunter kite style. This will be one event not to be missed.

If you are interested in making a Wedge Kite to see what all the excitement is about, the following books include plans:or drawings:
BOY’S AND GIRL’S BOOKSHELF, The University
Society [no date] Dolan, Edward, GO FLY A KITE, The Complete
Guide to Making and Flying Kites, Corner-
stone Library, New York, N.Y. 1977, pg.96 Downer, Marion, KITES, How to Make and Fly
Them, Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Co., 1959
pg. 40

Hart, Clive, YOUR BOOK OF KITES, Faber and Faber, London, England, 1964, pg. 50
Hill, William, HARPER’S OUTDOOR BOOK FOR BOYS, Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1907 KITE AND GLIDERS, Educational Insights,1975 Moulton, Ron, KITES, Pelham Books Ltd., London England, 1978 pg. 31

This list was compiled from the pages of Tight Lines, the newsletter of the G*D*V*K*S, $6.00 per year, P.O. Box 426, Newfield, New Jersey 08344 and SKY LINES, the Newsletter of the Chicagoland Sky Liners Kite Club, $5.00/ year 3851 W. 62nd. Place, Chicago, IL 60629. [Oh for those un-initiated, G*D*V*K*S stands for Greater Delaware Valley Kite Society, now you know.

In regards to these two contests you’ll be sure to hear about my entry into the IESK, a Flying Wedge what else.

TESTING, ONE, TWO, THREE,

Tom Caldwell won the “Smallest Kite Contest” at the 1982 Family Day Kite Festival held at the Marina Green in San Francisco. For his after midnight efforts he walked off with the $100 prize and a trophy. Tom knew his kite would fly because he tested it at 2 am THAT morning. He didn’t have to run around the block in order to test it either. Tom has two testing devices in his basement workshop with which he experiments with his kite de¬signs. One is a home made wind tunnel and the other, which we’ll discuss here, is his “Miniature Kite Tester” or M.K.T. for short.

The M.K.T. is a modified record player with an extended hollow aluminum spindle to which a horizontal arm is clamped. The minature kite is then attached to the arm and the “player” is switched on. The different speeds on the player, 33-1/3, 45 and 78 rpm will move the kite thru the air at various “apparent” wind speeds. Tom’s record player motor has been replaced with an army surplus special and is reversible , which according to Tom, is a must for testing the kite’s balance in clock-wise and counter clock-wise winds.

The hollow aluminum spindle is attached to the record player spindle with a small set screw, and :at the ceiling it is set into a ball bearing fitting. The horizontal arm is attached with a clamp to allow for varing the radius, and thus the speed.

In discussing the M.K.T. with Tom, we came up with several improvements to make it a bit more useful. 1) Use a direct drive from a motor to the spindle, the record player speed controls are based on friction and the various kites tested on the machine will “fly” at various speeds dependent upon the area of kite tested, the larger the kite the slower the machine will run. If the motor is con¬nected directly to the spindle this problem could be eliminated. 2) Use a rheostat to control the motor’s speed so that kites of different sizes can be tested at the same relative speeds. 3) Add a small protractor to the tip of the horizontal arm to measure the line ANGLE. With these improvements one could really test the preformance of a variety of small kites with relative equality. Any thoughts out there?

Here are some formulas for caculating the relative wind speeds at the various record playing speeds, not accounting for friction:
C=Irx D Circumference = Pi x diameter each revolution = C,
1 mile / hour = 5280 ft/60 min. or 88 ft./ Min
5 miles/ hour = 440 f t/ min 10 miles/ hr = 880 ft/min
using a 2′-0″ long radius for the horizontal arm of the M.K.T. you will see that each revolution will be equal to 12.56 ft. so at 33-1/3 rpm you will have an apparent wind of 33-1/3 x 12.56 ft = 418.5 ft/ min which is slightly less than 5 mph. at 78 rpm the apparent wind is 980.2 ft/ min or about 11 mph.

Since the various kites will induce. friction in the appratus a more accurate wind speed can be caculated using a stopwatch and counting the number of revolutions per minute. But this little article can give you some ideas as to how you can go about testing your small kites indoors under ideal conditions.

HERE WE GO AGAIN.

The last stop of your traveling kite-news editor,before returning to “Herpes by the Bay”, was to Scottsdale, Arizona to visit his cousin Judy and her family for a few days.

The ride from Silver City, New Mexico to Scottsdale didn’t look like it would take more than 4 to 5 hours, so I decided to take the LONG way around and took the scenic route North through the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, on route 666, a narrow and winding road that seemed to go on forever. After miles of dense forested hillsides I finally reached Springerville which is a small town nestled in the White Mountains, as they call that area. Although we sometimes think of Arizona being arid desert, the plateau I was on reminded me more of a village in the Alps or perhaps somewhere in the Black Forest of Germany. After stopping for a late lunch, I continued along Highway 60 down through the Salt River Canyon whose beauty can rival that of the Grand Canyon. I had to stop several times along the road to marval at the sheer walls that would drop away from the road or perhaps snap a picture of the canyon in the changing light of late afternoon. The scenery here is simply spectacular.

I arrived well after supper time and was welcomed by Judy’s three boys and an assort¬ment of neighbor children who were awaiting my arrival. It isn’t every day that your Kite Crazy cousin comes to town on his motorcycle.

The following days were filled with visits with my Auntie Lilian and Uncle Joe and of course taking David, Kelly and Jeff out to the flying field to fly kites. There is a wonderful Green Belt development that streches the length of Scottsdale in the North-South direction that goes on for several miles. It is free from overhead wires and since it is relatively new,the trees are not great obstacles, yet. Judy and the Boys and I managed to get Tom away from work one afternoon for a day of kiteflying.

The weather in Arizona at this time of the year, mid-October, must be what attracts most residents to the area. Blue skys with pure white clouds made a perfect backdrop for a set of Rainbow stunt kites I had along. I set up a Roller kite and a tailed Fighter kite for The Boys to fly and then gave each a lesson
on the Rainbows which proved to be the most popular kite that afternoon, Tom even gave it a whirl, and with a bit more practice could be the future Stunt Kite Champ of Scottsdale if they ever decided to have a competition.

I was some what surprized that there isn’t a great amount of kite awareness in Scottsdale, perhaps it’s because during much of the year people spend a lot of time in AIR CONDITIONED spaces, it can get quite hot. Then again there isn’t a huge amount of grassy parks, except for the Green Belt I had just mention¬ed, there is a lot of rocky desert with catus, not what you call the most ideal flying site. During the time I was there, the weather was quite beautiful and the winds were decent. There were a few times when cumulonimbus would darken the skys and a good possibility of re¬discovering electricity the hard way could have occurred. Flash flooding is a problem in desert climates. Over all I would say that this is one area of the country that kiting could really take off in.

I left Scottsdale Thursday afternoon on Oct. 27 and got as far north of Las Vegas to where I could hardly see the glow of that city’s electric lights. I woke up early on Friday to psych myself up for one of the longest days of the entire 16 month journey. I had about 590 miles to complete before reaching San Francis¬co. The ride through Death Valley was quietly comtemplative but in no way prepared me for the awsome magnificence of the eastern Serria Nevada mountain range that suddenly confronted me as I climbed out of the foothills between Death Valley and the town of Lone Pine. Mt. Whitney loomed above me at 14,494 feet and a wall of impregnable granite streched as far as I could see to the north as well as the south. I could almost sense the helplessness of the earliest settlers that once traveled similar routes, looking for a safe passage through the mountains.

Luckily I had my AAA maps to lead the way and I eventually took the Tioga Pass thru the eastern entrance of Yosemite National Park. I probably should have taken an extra day and relaxed in the park but decided to press on to reach The City by late evening. As the miles of roadway passed quickly beneath my wheels I recalled the people and places I had encountered in the past months. I was some¬what saddened by the thought of “arriving” home.

There seems to be a part of me that lives “on the road”. I am sure that I will venture forth again some day, perhaps to a more distant shore. As the City lights finally came into view I also realized how fortu¬nate I was to have the oppurtunity to DO what I had just done. Perhaps it is the love and caring of family and friends at HOME that has enabled me to adventure out and explore the world, for this I will always be grateful to them.

HA YIQI AND CHINA RECONSTRUCTS MAGAZINE

Ha Yiqi:s name is beginning to sound like a common household name like Takeshi Nishibay¬ashi, Peter Lynn or Tat Streeter. If the world wide kite masters would ever have an exhibit of kites what a sight it would be. Our Seattle neighbors to the north will be fortunate to have Master Ha visiting as part of the exhibit “CHINA: 7,000 years of Dis¬covery”. (see AKA News Vol. VI, No.1)

Bob Wilder had just returned from a recent tour of China when he found himself on a mailing list for a monthly magazine called “CHINA RECONSTRUCTS” it was the February 1984 issue that he brought my attention to, it had a small article on Ha Yiqi that he thought I would be interested in.

The article, written by Fan Zhilonq is short and sheds just a little more light on the life of Ha in China. What is nice about the article are several black and white photos showing Ha with his father, constructing a kite frame that looks like one of his Swallowtailed kites. There is also a two page color spread on the inside of the back cover of the magazine, which shows the intricately painted designs that adorn most traditional Chinese kites.

“Modern kites made in other countries tend to use plastic frames, printed cloth or plastic sheeting, and designs that are stylized– large spaces of pure color, no complex or Step-by-step instructions are given for eight kites, including a sled; Bill Lee’s tissue delta; a swallowtail delta designed by Perry Fitzhugh, co-host of the tv series; a winged box by Grant Madill; Red Braswell’s rotor; a rhomboid box and a fighter. Several of these kites have been published in kite newsletters. Having them between covers, instead of “filed” loose, is a great benefit.

Planned as a kitemaking course, FLIGHT PATTERNS serves the purpose admirably. A kitemaker could begin with a plastic sled in kindergarten and graduate with a fabric rhomboid box.

But the book is not for novices only. The button line tensioner, plastic tubing con-nectors, and rubber band limiters for box kite cross spars, are just a few of the construc¬tion details which have wide applications.

Sooner or later, every kitemaker is asked to teach a class. FLIGHT PATTERNS has the basics summed up in an introduction which covers supplies, tools, bridling, reels, flying and safety. It makes a good reference for classroom kitemaking.

FLIGHT PATTERNS is available by mail from SKY HIGH PRESS, 1044 Sanchez St., San Francis¬co, CA 94114 for $5.00 plus 75c shipping, California residents add 33(t Tax.

Margaret is the author of BLOWN SKY HIGH, SIMPLE FABRIC KITES and MORE SIMPLE KITES. She has led workshops at the Harper’s Ferry Kite Retreat in West Virginia and the Ft. Worden Kite Retreat in Washington State, on the construction of simple kites for the classroom.

DUNCANS MILLS HAS MONTHLY KITE FESTIVALS

The CROSSING is a kite and candy store in Duncans Mills, CA in the Russian River Resort area about two hours north of S.F. Barbara Price and Roma Robbins invite you to participate in their monthly kite festivals held at the campground next to Duncans Mills.

The next festival is to be held on  April 21  and will feature Jelly Belly flying a set of Rainbow Stunt kites. Additional flights are scheduled for: May  26, June 16, Jul)! 7, Aug. 4 , Sept. 1 and 29th. For more info write: The Crossing, P.O. Box 248, Duncans Mills, CA, 95430 or call (707) 865-2829. Duncans Mills is located just west of Monte Rio on Highway 116.