Is it Spring Again Already?

Date: 12/11/2011 Place: 100 Acres Park, Moorhead, MN Kites: 4d on 12' Wind: 0 to 1.5 mph, NW Weather: Sunny, 44º

What a nice day after the cold days we have been having. It kind of felt like the start of spring. The 44º with the sun shining, no hat, no gloves, and just a  just a T-shirt and a very light fleece, and practically no wind, made for a very nice no-wind day flying the 4d. I did lots of spirals, 360s, axels, half-axels, and fades. It was good to get some exercise moving around with a dual-line no-wind kite. And it was very peaceful, and much more quiet than usual. I didn't see any geese flying overhead, nor even hear their honking.

Happy Birthday Ron!

Date: 12/10/2011 Place: 100 Acres Park, Moorhead, MN Kites: Rev 1.5 "Hawk" 3-wrap on 70' Wind: 5 to 9 mph, SW Weather: Sunny, 36º 16 flights at $16.13/flight

This was a nice sunny no-snow wintery day. Annett walked while I flew my kite. I had more line trouble than usual, a knot at the start and then several times the kite got stuck upside-down on the ground and I had to walk to it and make it right again. It was maybe the lightest wind day I've flown a quad-line kite in. Usually if the wind is this light I fly a dual-line kite. But at the start of the flying the wind seemed too strong for a dual-liner. There were lots of geese again, but mostly to the east of where I was flying. 

Ron was my 1st best friend until I was 10 and we moved from Livingston to Bozeman, MT. I still remember when his birthday is.

Infinity Plus or Bow Ties or Lazy 8s

Date: 12/3/2011 Place: 100 Acres Park, Moorhead, MN Kites: Rev 1.5-b "Sunset" 4-wrap on 70' Wind: 8 to 12 mph, NW Weather: Cloudy, 30º 19 flights at $16.95/flight

While not exactly a "bow tie," I practiced a lot of lazy eights, a figure 8 that is laying over or is actually an infinity sign. the bow tie effect is when I add an extra spin at the crossing point. I also practiced flying up, then back down at different slanted angles.

I think that soon it will be too cold to fly outside in the Fargo/Moorhead area, though at least for now there is no snow on the ground.

4 - 5 Gusting to 6

Date: 11/27/2011 Place: 100 Acres Park, Moorhead, MN Kites: 4d on 46' Wind: 4 to 6 mph, SW Weather: Sunny, 32º

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and even though it was only 32º it seemed warmer with the sun shining on my back and only a gentle breeze blowing. Annett walked in the park while I flew my kite. It was definitely a 4d day. The wind was 4 - 5 mph, with gusts (?!) to 6 mph. No 360s and spirals today, but all the other tricks were possible. Fades were easy and glorious. With me standing in one place a fade would gently and slowly rise or just stay in one place in the sky. I could control the fades with just a twitch of my fingers, not even using my whole hands. A dive, a flair to a pancake, then a pull to a fade was the easiest way into a fade this afternoon.

An Opposite Day From Yesterday

Date: 11/20/2011 Place: 100 Acres Park, Moorhead, MN Kites: Nirvana on 100 Wind: 9 to 5 mph, S Weather: Sunny Sunset, 22º

It wasn't quite like a night-vs-day difference from yesterday, but almost. It was a balmy 22º and the sun was shining and the wind was not a gale, so it was actually pleasant flying. I wore the same coats and layers as yesterday (where I was cold) and today I had to unzip my coat and put my hat's ear flaps up because I got too warm. This was also partly because today I was flying a dual-line kite and I always move around more with a dual-line kite than with a quad-line kite.

Justin flew his parafoil for a while until the wind died down too much for it to make that kite fun. Then he was able to take some more video. It was a very nice wind for my Nirvana. I was able to show Justin some tricks that I had not shown him before, namely: Jacob's Ladders (The Nirvana excels at this trick), Back-spins, Back-flips with Lazy-Susans, and a couple of Slot-machines.

Zero Flying

Date: 11/19/2011 Place: 100 Acres Park, Moorhead, MN Kites: Rev 1.5-b "Sunset" 4-wrap on 70' Wind: 18 to 25 mph, N Weather: Cloudy, 15º 18 flights at $17.89/flight

Justin, my best friend from Minneapolis, was visiting for the weekend, and since I got him interested in kite flying, we had to go out and fly, even though it was frozen-finger weather. I also wanted to show him a real-life quad-line kite flying. I demonstrated many of the things I do with my Rev's, flying the vented kite since it was blowing a gale, which made the wind-chill temperatures around zero! Justin took some video with his new camcorder. This also froze his fingers enough that he passed on flying his parafoil. Maybe I'll post some video sometime when I have time to edit the raw-footage and figure out how to post video on this blog. We were rather crazy to even try and fly in this kind of weather. I found out that I really need to add some tabs of some kind to make it much much easier to undo the larks-head knots to un-attach the line from the kite's bridle. My fingers really got cold putting my kite away.

Kite Switching Wind

Date: 11/12/2011 Place: 100 Acres Park, Moorhead, MN Kites: Nirvana on 100', 4d on 46' Wind: 3 to 7 mph, SW Weather: Partly Sunny, 52º

I switched back-and-forth between the 4d and the Nirvana. Overall, it was a better wind for the Nirvana. Because the wind was sometimes on the lite side I got more wingtip wraps with my Nirvana than I like. But, it was also a good wind for trying Slot-Machines. I succeeded with three on the left.