By Lee Toy
Vol. 6 No. 6- Nov. -Dec. 1983

We dedicate this issue of Kite Flyer to the memory of Steve Edeiken (1953-1983), may we strive to emulate his kindness and fellowship by which he lived.

Two weeks before the AKA convention Steve was killed in a kite accident at Long Beach, WA.

After several hours of unsuccessful attempts to launch a 115’x150′ Parafoil, many of the spectators and launch team were preparing to leave the flying field. The kite suddenly became airborne with Steve’s foot entangled in it’s bridles. It lifted him 100 feet in the air.  Steve freed himself but was unable to pull himself up on top of the bridles before losing his grip and falling.

The kite was being flown by the Edmonds Community College Kite Team in an attempt to re-capture the record for flying the World’s Largest Kite. Steve was acting as launch director at the time of the accident.

Memorial kite flies were held on Sept. 28 at 5pm across the country.

Many of our local kite community flew kites in memory of Steve at the Marina Green.

All of us at Kite Flyer send our deepest sympathy to Steve’s wife, Cyndy and her two daughters.

Kite Flyer also sends it’s sympathy to Marty Dowling whose mother Ruth passed away in late October. Ruth was to celebrate her 91st birthday in November. Marty was a regular flyer on the Marina Green until he moved to San Diego in 1982. Marty was the man that introduced George Ham to the world of Parafoils.

6TH ANNUAL AKA CONVENTION
The 6th AKA kite convention was attended by over 300 participants. Although the local kite group COKA has been doing an excellent,on-going job of letting OHIO know that “What’s up, are KITES” I am sure that AKA turned a few heads when they desended “en mass” on those unsuspecting “Buck-eyes” of Columbus.

Perhaps the most spectacular event was the Nite-Flight. Imagine two or three dozen kites up at once with various strobes, nite-sticks, and flashlights attached.

The winds were perfect for steady flight and the lights seemed nailed to the sky like new stars. All except one very active light attached to Don Taber’s Action kite, a new two line stunt kite which traced out some great patterns at the far end of the flying field.

There were even some slightly illegal fire-works on display until the local authorities came by with a flashing RED light of their own. (No officer, I don’t know whose kite those things were attached to.)

My own favorite was a kite by good ol’Garry Woodcock of Toronto Canada. He made a six pointed star box kite, He made a six pointed star box kite, similar to the one we published several issues back (K.F. Vol.5 No.3) but doubled its size. To its outside perimeter spars he attached six nite-sticks forming a perfect hexagon in the sky.

Workshops were held from 1pm to 5pm on Thursday. Unfortunately the day was perfect for flying, so many people from all over the country volunteered had a hard choice between sitting inside or flying outside.

The Japanese kite team from Hammamatsu couldn’t understand English anyway so were busy bridling and testing some of the Giant kites they had made the day before.

The annual meeting was held before the workshops and was short and to the point with a well defined agenda prepared by Jack Van Gilder. Miller Makey of COKA was elected to be Pres. of AKA for 1984 (I thought you learned your lesson with the chairmanship of the convention:). Jerry_Winghead Harris of the Windancers of Tenn. will coordinate the 7th AKA convention to be held in Nashville, Tenn. in Oct.’84.

There is rumor that it will be Southern California in’85. Later that evening we had the Nite-flight, see above.

Friday was a full day of free flying and demonstrations by boomerang expert Chet Snouffer, the Hammamatsu Kite Team, Stunt kites and Kite trains.

We also had the first Rokkaku Team Kite Challenge which turned out to be quite an interesting “WAR”, American style. I am sure the Japanese must have enjoyed watching the Westerners playing an Eastern game.

Later that evening was the AKA auction with a real pro, Ron Witt as auctioneer. All items donated were auctioned off that evening netting the AKA with enough dough for another year’s office supplies.
Thanks to all who donated.

Saturday was the day of the AKA Nationals (I thought we were flying kites, not horses) during which “Yours Truly” was chained to a pickup truck and directed traffic on and off the flying field. A big THANK YOU goes to Hugh and Marge Harrison, Vancouver B.C. Canada for also sacrificing their entire day, we could never have done it without you.

Over 170 kites were entered into 9 contests with 30 categories;. About 20 judges from all over the country volunteered to judge various events. (I thought we were flying kites, not having a circus) By the end of the day I was somewhat exhausted and failed to record the winners of the contests, contests, but have sent the score cards to AKA headquarters for sorting out. Good luck.

I thought it would be educational for as many people to be involved with the judging procedure so that we might generate some notion nation-wide of what goes on during a contest of this sort. I think most judges learned that they wouldn’t really want to be in this position again. Judges included: Toby Schlick, WI, Rick Kinnaird. California in’85. NJ. Ken Conrad,WA, Tony Cyphert, CA, Bob Mc Cort, WA, Fred Zigler (?) OH, Cindy & Lar Moeller, MA, (box kite experts), Chuck and Dawn Norris, FL, Bill Rutiser,MD, Bob and Jewell Price, MD, Pete Ianuzzi, MD, Nancy Szerlag,

Later that evening was the annual AKA dinner banquet. It was complete with speakers, awards and a belly dancer (only our’s was Franklin without any veils) to entertain us.

Nishi sang his kite song, what would a convention be without him? Many farewells were wished before the evening ended with promises of seeing one another next year in Tennessee.

Many thanks are due to the Makey Family – Miller Sr. & Jr., and Betty and the C. members who worked so hard in making this years AKA Convention a success!!!

Thanks from all of us at Kite Flyer.

KITES:THE SCIENCE AND THE WONDER
Kites: the Science and the Wonder is a new book written by Dr. Toshio and Hirotsugu Komura. It is published by Japan Publications, Inc., 1983, 160 pgs. $11.95. About the best thing about this book is it’s cover designed by Tatsundo Hayashi.

I have ususally been excited by kite books from Japan, but this book about the worst I’ve had the pleasure of buying. It does have it’s moments and I believe that the scientists well intentioned even if they did lose track of where they were going. If you need to fill shelf space go find a copy.

The book does address itself to several aerodynamic principals of kites and airflow but quickly looses credibility by focusing on what they call the “ORIGINAL” kite.

By this the authors mean THE kite that they designed to meet design criteria they had establish¬ed as their goal. The “original” kite is actually a kite framing system that is used in the “twenty-five” types of kites promised on the back cover of the book. In reality they have given you an infinite number of kites based on a framing principal.

Just to see what they were up to I called them up and asked them for information about the kites, the man I spoke to just said that they were the agent for importing the books from Japan and that he thought kites were a lot of fun but didn’t know anything about “Archaeopteris or Ptesanodon” kite models (that’s what they call the ORIGINAL kite kits).

I do think that some of the basic aerodynamic theories are well introduced and could easily be expanded upon in their applications to various NON-ORIGINAL kites, basic every day flat, bowed, cellular, semi-rigid, rotary and soft to start with. Perhaps they’ll write a sequel.

HAVE HONDA, WILL TRAVEL (The continuing saga of Lee Toy and his’rusty Snail)
We last left Mr. Toy as he was just leaving the beautiful autumnal valley of Virginia and was on his way to the AKA kite convention in Ohio. We pick up his travels as the convention ends on Sunday the 9th of October.

I was accompanied, at least part way home,by Grant Madill, a “Honda-Kichi” kite flyer from Victoria, B.C.,Canada. I had met Grant while in the Pacific Northwest last September. At that time Grant was laid up with a broken leg from a run in with a Volkswagen.

Since that time Grant has recovered and rode his “Silver Wing” Honda motorcycle to Columbus to attend this year’s convention and to ride back with me and the Snail. I’m sure he was surprised at just how fast the Snail and I travel.

Our only kite stop together was a short but enjoyable visit with Ansel Toney in Farmland, Indiana. Ansel lives in an old green farmhouse next
to an 80 acre flying field. It was once part of Ansel’s farm but is now tended by one of his sons that lives near by.

Ansel started making kites when he was 90 years old. Since that time he has used several thousand yards of fabric and a few miles of thread. The first floor of his home is his kitemaking studio. ‘Ansel sews with a Pfaff 1222E sewing machine which has a “walking foot” which keeps the spinnaker cloth together as it goes thru the machine, a great feature.

Ansel believes in not wasting any materials when he is making a kite. This combined with the number of requests for kites, Ansel has found some very efficient construction and assembling techniques. He showed us a cold cutter he made with 3 blades from “utility” knives and a bit of ingenuity. With, this handy tool he can cut 40-60 yards of material in less than a half hour. Since he flat fells all his seams, no hot-knife is needed.

Ansel enjoys visitors to his home and has taught many people how to make his kites. Before Grant and I left I was able to put together a kite with Ansel’s guidance. When it was finished we took it out to the “field” and tested it, it flew like a dream! Although we would have enjoyed staying longer, threatening weather reports urged us on our way.

We left Farmland under clear skies that soon gave way to clouds and a real drencher by the time we made it to the “Gateway to the West” in
St. Louis, MO. We found a questionable hotel for the evening and stayed out of the rain that fell steadily all night. The following day we did have a chance to play tourist and took a ride up to the top of the “Arch”.

You could see for miles all around and just possibly to the place where the Snail decided to “take up” carpentry, starting with a nail in the rear tire.
I soon became noted for the speed by which I could remove the rear tire of the Snail and I got used to having grease under every nail, until I broke down and got a new tire somewhere in the middle of Kansas. At least it wasn’t raining.

Grant and I traveled together until Albuquerque, New Mexico, and stayed there for a few days with John Davis and his son Christopher (an up and coming fighter kite expert).

It had taken us six days to go 1,672 miles. At this rate Grant would never have made it back to Victoria in time for work; he only had a month off.

I wanted to take a more leisurely route back and so we parted ways there with Grant heading West and I,South.

TO BE CONTINUED

FLIGHTMASTER
I don’t know who’s mailing list you’re on but there are a lot of kite flyers out there with a new kite reel from M.P.C. Services. The original reel was made in wood and won an International Achievement Award from the Inventors International Workshop. The reels that were sent out are a plastic version of the same thing. Basically it’s a Cuban Yo-Yo with a center handle. The reel can hold a lot of line and features a breaking system to stop the line as you are letting out your kite.

From initial reports the reel is not suited for large kites at all, and not well suited to “fighter” kites that need quick retrieval and release of line (the handle to wind the line in with gets in the way). It seems well suited to very stable kites that don’t have a lot of pull, perhaps a small or medium sized delta or eddy kite.

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN JIGGITY JIG

I’m happy to report that I have arrived home, alive and well with all pieces accounted for. The Snail reports: 21,081 miles, two new rear tires, one chain, a new windscreen. Missing and presumed in a hock shop in Miami: a set of rear view mirrors and a Shoei quarter fairing.

I arrived back in THE CITY just in time to catch the cousin Halloween party and two out of state visitors. Bill Shapiro and Luke LeTourneau are from Kansas City, Missouri.

They had flown out for a few days of KITE FLYING the way it is meant to be. Each had a custom made parafoil made by Tom Henry and some excellent winds to fly in plus as an added bonus, liquid sunshine that dampened their kites but not their spirits. George and Marion Ham, Mr. Raymond Lee, Jack Froelich, Mt. View, CA. were also on hand for a day on the Green. Jack has a nice collection of George Peters kites which are always eye catchers.

Mr. Lee had his special Halloween message attached to his cen-tipede fly line and George had Black Bart (a parafoil, what else?) with an inflatable Jack-o-lantern attached to also get into the mood. Last week Tom Caldwell came out with a number on interesting kite designs he’s been working on. Unfortunately the winter rains are upon us, so we couldn’t fly for as long as we had hoped; next week will be better.

It’s nice being back in the Bay Area where you can almost bet on some wind off the ocean on any given day. The Marina Green is still the kite mecca of the Bay Area. Sundays are the usual day that we’ll be there so drop by and fly with us.

SMILE
Oscar Bailey says that the 1983 panoramic photo of the AKA convention in Columbus is now available. It’s in full color and almost five feet long. There are about 240 people and kites .and just over 360 degrees of coverage. This year’s photo cost is $53.00 and covers Oscar’s cost to print and mail the photo.

If interested write Oscar Bailey: 2004 Clement Rd., Lutz, FL 33549

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