By Lee Toy
Vol. 6 No. 5- Sep. – Oct. 1983

I would like to dedicate this issue of KITE FLYER to the many kite friends I have met while traveling on the East Coast during the past year. I am especially endebted to Jim Boatwright for his kind hospitality and encouragement even if he doesn’t fly kites.

As summer starts drawing to a close, your roving reporter will soon be heading off to attend the 6th Annual AKA kite Convention in Columbus, OH, and finally put an end to his wanderings around the East Coast. But as General-What’s-His-Name said,”I shall return’.

To bring you all up to date, I had an offer I couldn’t refuse and flew off to San Fran-cisco for two weeks when no one was looking.

It was a relief to get out of 90 to 100 degree temperatures of Shenandoah Valley and into the foggy, cool) naturally air conditioned climate of the Bay Area. Not much has changed since I’ve been on the road, execept for a number of new buildings going up downtown, and several that have opened for business and several that have opened for business and pleasure.

The Marina Green is being well looked after by George and Marion. Tom and Carol Henry assured me I hadn’t missed that much going on outside their window.

George Ham was pictured in USA TODAY making him the second kiteflier to be “covered” this year. He was also featured on EVENING MAGA¬ZINE which aired in July, for the momentous occasion he broke down and got a COLOR TV set, welcome to the 20th Century! (just kidding) George has prided himself for not owning one, he’d rather be making or flying a kite than be caught watching the tube.

From all reports the program was a HIT.

Both Tom and George have been busy making new parafoils. Tom’s latest is a J-80 which just about covers his living room floor. I had the opportunity to have it drag me down the Green one windy afternoon – this is not your every-day kite! George’s latest is about a J-30 which is a more manageable size and an excel-lent flier. George has also been busy helping the Edmonds Community College Kite Team with the designing of their Giant Parafoil that will try to recapture the World record for Largest Kite Flown.

While riding along Hwy. 116 in the Russian River Resort Area just north of San Francisco I saw a large delta kite flying above a clearing in the woods. Upon closer inspection I found a small kite store attached at the other end. THE CROSSING is a new shop in Duncan Mills featuring kites and candy. Monthly kite festivals are planned at a near by campground on the river and free admission tickets are available on festival days. For more information contact Roma or Barbara at THE CROSSING (707) 865-2829.

August 5th I flew back to Washington D.C. and arrived in the pouring rain. The next couple of days were Hot, Humid and Hazy to use a direct quote from the weatherman.

I believe that most people, if they could, leave the D.C. area in times like this, which is precisely what I had planned.

Jim “Colonel” Boatwright met me in Wash-ington in his 4-wheeled Fuego and we headed north to cooler climates. First stop was Fire Island where the New Yorkers go to get away from IT ALL. The little community where we stayed for several days is called The PINES.

You have to ferry over from Long Island. No cars are allowed on Fire Island execept for emergency vehicles and little electric service carts. The main form of transportation is by foot on wooden boardwalks that crisscross the is-land.

Although somewhat isolated from THE CITY, New York’s influence can be seen on the well stocked shelves of the gourmet grocery store and felt by the astronomical prices of everything. Nightlife begins at 2AM which is too late for this country boy.

What some visitors enjoy most about Fire Island is the 30 miles of beautiful sand beach, cooled by offshore Alantic breezes in mid-summer. It is truly a bit of paradise within a two hour journey from Manhattan.

Kites are available at the local variety store, but one would be wise to bring your own for the health of one’s wallet. The wind is excellent as is the scenery and you
may even see a celebrity or two who own summer homes on the island. I usually flew my kites on the beach in front of Calvin Klein’s modest little two story palatial “sea cottage”.

After Fire Island we spent several days in THE BIG APPLE in mid-town Manhattan. Several blocks away was the Citicorp building in which Go Fly A Kite has a small retail shop in the Arcade on the second floor.I was surprised at the limit¬ed stock, but assume things are going well enough to afford the rent.

Karen Schle-singer, manager of the Lexington Ave. shop, did put me in touch with a very fine kitemaker – John Martin. John is noted for making some wonderfully crafted kites that are usually pieced together in black and white rip-stop. John got hooked on kites several years back with the pur-chase of a Valkeri from the Nantucket Kite-man which he still owns.

Since that time John has been active in the N.Y. Kite Festivals and as Karen had noticed, he would show up every year with a new col-lection of black and white kites. John says he enjoys the simple graphic state-ments his kites make in the sky.

All other kite people I tried to contact had fled the CITY for the summer and in a few days we bade farewell to N.Y. and headed north. Our next stop was to Jimmy Merrill and and David Jackson’s house in Stonington, Connecticut, where I committed, what Carol Henry would have loved to witness, “A kite embarrassment”. I was on the roof garden one morning and thought I would fly a kite to amuse our hosts.

I lofted a small delta varient (this month’s kite design) which was flying o.k. on about 150 feet of line until it hit some turblence.

I tried in vain to regain control, being in their eyes “a kite expert”, but after several minutes, watched the kite get devoured by a starving Maple that lived a block down wind. Casually as possible I took a walk down to the “accident” to survey the damage.

It was kind of like looking at your bumper after backing into a lamp post in a parking lot, only you look up. In my case it was about 50 feet up with telephone wires to boot. With little hope of retrieval I chalked that one up for experience and left my friends with a reminder of my visit that will be visible for years to come.

Our final destination of this trek was to visit Montreal, Quebec.

This city has all of the European charm with out having to cross an ocean to get to it. Although French is the official language, most of the people speak some English. The most striking difference between Montreal and New York was the cleanliness of the streets and subways.

This may be an unfair comparison considering the difference in population density and newness of the Montreal Metro system.

There are two kite shop/manufacturers located in the section of town called Vieux Montreal or “Old” Montreal. Both are located on Rue St. Paul.

The first one you come across is LE CERF-VOLANT, The Kite. The shop is large and well stocked with a variety of manufactured kites from here and abroad. Kites are manufactured on the premise under the name EOLE Inc. A bi-lingual brochure features color photographs of the kites. One of the most interesting kites I saw was called the “GULL” (aerobatic). It appears to be a high aspect ratio delta that is rigged for two line control.

What was unique was the method of rigging.

For more information contact: EOLE Inc. 30 est, rue Saint-Paul, Montreal, Que., Canada H2Y 1G3.

The second kite shop is actually the studio-workshop of artist Claude Thibau-deau, whose kites have been seen in Montreal since the early 70’s. His palette includes anything he can loft in the sky by kite or helium balloons. Night shows are lit by searchlights and sometimes fireworks. He has also done some interior installations, the most permanent is a collection of kites on the ceiling of the bar called Cerf-Volant at the International Airport Mirabel.

The studio’s ceiling is alive with multi-colored delta kites that undulate with a slight breeze from the front door that is always open.

The studio seems to be a favorite spot for local artists and friends to drop by for a visit.

Claude’s kites as well as EOLE’s kites are fabricated from what the Canadians call “spinnaker” cloth. It appears to be a cross between what we call rip-stop and taffeta. It doesn’t have the grid pattern or the crispness of American rip-stop, that we have called “spinnaker”.

Whatever type of cloth it is, it comes in an incredible range of colors that I have never seen before.

I just happened to visit Claude the day before he was to put up a small exhibit of his work on the Island of Sainte-Helene, which he invited me to participate in. I helped to fill giant helium balloons that were used to loft several kites and banners above a crowd of reporters that were on hand for a press conference having to do with a future event on the island. Since it was all done in French I didn’t under-stand much.

For more information concerning Claude’s kites you can write to: LA CERF-VOLANTERIE 224 Saint Paul 0., Montreal, Quebec, H2Y 1Z9 Canada.

Before leaving Montreal I dropped in on Ozzie Markham and enjoyed a short after-noon of kiteflying at a park near his home.

Upon returning from the field we had a delicious lunch and chat with the Mrs. She encourages all of Ozzie’s hobbies which include photography, music, indoor gardening and CORK-SCREW collecting. When he showed me a drawer full I asked if he had the wine bottles to go with them.

Ozzie’s best kite buddy is none other than Vancouver’s Hugh Harrison who used to live around the corner until he met Marge who lured him out to the West Coast to fly kites with her and he’s been there ever since. Now Ozzie has to look for a replacement to fly with in Montreal, any takers out there?

We left Montreal’s beautiful clear skies and delicious breezes, swearing by its charm to return someday. Eventually we made our way back to Lexington and I to the typewriter.

WHAT GOES UP…MUST COME DOWN
AS THE CATERPILLAR SAID WHEN HE SAW THE BUTTERFLY, “BOY YOU’LL NEVER GET ME UP IN ONE OF THOSE THINGS”.
-Michael Kernan, Washington Post
What do three generations of the Taylor family have in common besides their last name? Ans. An experience of a lifetime: Parascending. Grampa Frank, a young 67 years, wanted to impress his grandson Chris, so had his son Mike meet him at a large field outside Martha’s Vineyard July 15. Mike and Chris arrived just in time to watch Frank and Parasend-ing pilot take off. At about 1000 feet of elevation the tow line was released and the men circled back to the launch site and landed in front of the wide-eyed spectators, who couldn’t wait to try their hand at this new sport.

Aero-tech Ltd. is the company that took the Taylors for a ride. Fred Stockwell and Scott Faulkner are partners in what they see as one of the fastest growing sports in Europe and if they have their way in America as well. Basically what happens is that a pilot and passenger are strapped to a 454 sq. ft. ram-air  parachute and then towed on a 1500 ft. line by a Land Cruiser, at which point the tow line is released and they are allowed to free flight return to earth.

The chute is an 11 celled parafoil, with 4 vertical set of flares (keels), in 12 lateral rows. The shroud lines are divided into two sets that attach to the pilot’s harness, which in turn is attached to the passenger’s. There are two control lines to the trailing edge of the chute. I think the chute has a 2:1 aspect ratio and may simply be a regulation parachute with a modified harness.

Launch is achieved by having two assistants hold the “mouth” of the chute open as the tow vehicle moves forward. Pilot and pas-senger also step forward for a few feet before being shot straight up. Frank said it was a great way to get some aerial photos and even a better way to impress a young grandson.

TID BITS
Hugh Harrison, Vancouver B.C. (excerpted from a letter to 0.S. Markham, Montreal)
Excellent kite weather here this summer interspaced with usual sprinkles…We have an excellent stunt kite for the Long Beach Competition in Washington…

There are 8 members of the B.C.K.A. attending the event…New team T-shirts are back from the screen printer and I’ve been going crazy for the last few days trying to get 20 ft. of thread from a panty-hose to fly a postage stamp sized kite made by Dan Kurahashi. Finally got 5 lengths, it would have been more fun if I could have had a tall blond who would have let me unravel the stocking while being worn… Dan and I are suppose to try out kite tomorrow

J.V.G. Seattle, Washington…

Coastal breezes, my daughter and her family are moving to San Diego where he will have a new parish at St. Anthony-by-the-Sea (Episcopal).

So you can expect more visits to So. Calif. Hummm that’s right at one time you lived in the Bay Area didn’t you…

We’ve had two chinese kite masters in town this past couple of months: Kin Kan and Susan Hsieh from Taiwan and Ya Qi Ha from Mainland China.

They both showed us how to handle bamboo. If we all don’t qualify as oriental kite ex-perts by this time, don’t fault the Chinese…I think I’ve have a do-it-yourself (cheap) 2-line control kite developed that will fly in the fickle winds of Virginia. The basic configura-tion is -guess what – SQUARE.

J.V.C. again…Well Ken & Suzanne’s big shingdig went off with nary a hitch. This was the first three-story walk up wedding I’ve been associated with. Food on the fifth floor, booze and band on the sixth floor and the cermony on the roof under cloudless, beautiful, blue sky. Ken had rented a cylinder of helium and filled about 300 balloons, tying them in three or four huge coulmns. I put up 48 kites for the occassion also….

ed. Thanks for keeping us posted on the activities in the Pacific N.W. Congrat-ulations to Ken and Suzanne, as Jack once said it’s about time you two stopped practicing!!! Best wishes for years to come.

Gerry Osborne, Clm Elum, Washington…

You asked me if my kites fly, do tornados lift houses? In the same wind they will.. My problem is lack of bridling knowledge, so I’ll never know. I just build um, smile and burn um. That way I remain “mystical” and weird and looked up to by the dim wits that only know STORE kites!

ed. I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing one of Gerry’s kites fly or burn for that matter. What I have seen and been amused by are his wonderful KITETOONS including one of your old eddy-tor on the Snail that was enclosed in a letter that he sent a while back.

Keep up the TOONING Gerry.

INTO THE WIND
Into the Wind Catalo& is available for 1$ featuring a great variety of kites and accessories. Some of the best buys are the kites manufactured by Into the Wind, including their Wind Tracer (fighter kite), Delta-Conynes and Double Winged Box Kite. They also feature the unique kites of George Peters.

With excellent color photographs and know¬ledgable descriptions, the catalog is a pleasure to look through. Write:INTO THE Wind, 1729 Spruce St., Boulder, CO 80302.

KITE OF THE MONTH
Kite Flyer’s kite of the month is a kite designed by my co-host on FLIGHT PATTERNS, the kitemaking TV series soon to be released, keep your fingers crossed. Perry Fitzhugh calls this kite a Swallowtail Delta Variant.

What’s nice about this design is that it isn’t rigid, there are no exact dimensions to be followed and allows the builder to experiment with the basic configura-tion and connection details. Although the given design is for a modest little kite, I have made a larger one success-fully in rip-stop nylon, which flew quite well before being swallowed by a large, hungry Maple.

Thank you Perry for sharing this design with us. The kite plan follows…

BY WAY OF STANDARD REFERENCE–KITE FLYER NEWS IS AVAILABLE SIX TIMES A YEAR (WEATHER PERMITTING) AT THE MINIMAL COST OF A TRIP TO DOGGIE DINER–FIVE BUCKS A YEAR. SEND ALL MONEY, TRADING STAMPS OR GOLD BARS TO: KITE FLYER, 1883 GRAND VIEW DRIVE, OAKLAND, CA 94618