Authors: Peter Lynn
Date Submitted: February 28, 2005
Article Type: Journal

I decided to try a dose of machinery therapy (the male version of retail therapy)—-a forklift truck. It’s not exactly a new one, but it is six years younger than I am, so it’s not so old either. Nothing to do with kites? Well, it is actually. It’s an essential part of any good kite kit, as you will see.

Taking advantage of a reliable easterly here, I was testing some new kites down the back. Excellent conditions. I tested 20 or more modifications in six or seven hours, didn’t even pull in at nightfall, reasoning that they would just have to be laid out again for the next day’s testing anyway.

1Unfortunately by next morning one of them was stuck in the top of the tallest tree on the block. A 22-meter pole was still short, but standing on a pallet in said forklift at full reach did the trick, except that the pole’s hook straightened before the kite came free. So, tying the kite’s line to the forklift, I just closed my eyes and drove away. Result: kite retrieved. Forklift 1, tree 0. And the branch that broke missed me by some meters.

PDF Link: Journal Issue