As unofficial historian of kite doings over the years at Lindenberg, Werner Schmidt has carefully researched the feat most closely associated with the observatory—-a high altitude kite train record set Aug. 1, l919. The world mark claimed was 9,750 meters or 31,989 feet. Details of what he learned are as follows: Before and after that date, the station routinely achieved heights with its trains of 6,000 meters. There were dozens of 7,000-meter flights and the occasional 8,000-meter flight was achieved.

Since he once viewed a dramatic lightning strike on a kite train at a kite festival, inventor Peter Lynn was particularly interested to study the winch house at Lindenberg. Kites there were flown typically with a 1 millimeter (.039 inch) steel line—-a magnet for trouble. What the New Zealander learned was that kites were flown 4,000 days between 1905, the opening of the weather observatory, and 1938, the apparent close of everyday kite operations there, to altitudes regularly exceeding 3,000 meters, sometimes as high as 7,000 meters.

Tony Rice, of Brisbane, Australia, has for years been pulling off a feat. He has been able to live, and evidently thrive, largely by giving kite workshops. He teaches all ages and spreads joy wherever he goes. “Kids—-and adults—-make something with their hands, decorate it, successfully fly it,” he says. “It’s tangible, fulfilling, fun. They can’t get it out of a computer. They’re enthusiastic.”

Having become interested in kites because of an exhibition, workshop and festival organized by the lively museum he directed in a town near Wellington, New Zealander Bob Maysmor found himself organizing a national kite association in the mid-80s.

At age 83, Helen Bushell, of Melbourne, likes nothing better than to recall her 40 plus years of involvement with kiting, a sport she loves. She took up kiteflying when she and husband and five children, plus friends, went to the beach. The men and boys sailed, the women and girls were relegated to the sand. Buying a little Delta that had just come on the market, Helen adopted kites as an amusement for herself and the kids. When she saw two seemingly identical kites perform very differently, she became fascinated by the aerodynamics involved.

“I confess. The kite activity I really like, the only one I consistently do just for myself even when there is no commercial or showoff element, is kiteboating,” says Peter Lynn. “Just leaning back there in perfect wind sliding down one swell and up the other, sometimes on one tack just about forever (or so it seems), is the most enjoyable sensation.”

Peter Lynn is flying kites at a German beach resort festival. His giant Octopus kite soars over a rooftop restaurant for hours with barely a twitch, the wind is so steady. A man approaches Peter and asks if the kite is for sale. “Yes.” “How much?” Bargaining. Okay. Guy reaches into wallet and hands over $4,000 cash. Peter: “You are now the owner of the kite.” Both smile in agreement. Minutes later, the kite does an unexpected loop and sweeps the rooftop, toppling umbrellas, tables, chairs, food, glassware, cutlery, and people.

Peter Lynn’s undoubted success in life is owed in part to his support staff, particularly wife Elwyn. Both with Highland Scot and Protestant Northern Irish bloodlines, they met at Canterbury University in Christchurch, he a student of engineering, she a speech therapist. It was love at first sight. They wed six weeks after meeting. He was 21, she 19. Initially Peter joined his father’s large woodworking business. He had learned the business as a boy. Elwyn taught.

“Talking about Peter Lynn poses a problem,” says Scott Skinner, president of the Drachen Foundation and a longtime, knowledgeable observer of Lynn and his work. “There are so many facets to this diamond, everyone of them an integral part of the whole.” “First and foremost, he is the world’s expert on kite aerodynamics. No one is even close to him because of his aeronautical training, experience, and his hands-on willingness to test and quantify the results.

Smack in the middle of a farming and pastoral area of New Zealand’s South Island, the service town of Ashburton, population 15,000, is the unlikely home of perhaps the leading figure in kites and kiting worldwide. Peter Lynn’s town is in the Canterbury Plains, bordered on the east by the Pacific Ocean and on the west by the New Zealand Alps. Just to the north is Christchurch, a port and jumping off point for Antarctic expeditions. Ashburton is on the same latitude as Boston, but with a few more sheep and marsupials and, of course, with seasons reversed.