#60 Fly a Kite - Complete

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Hi all. I've been working on a screenplay and haven't posted for a while, but I'm still alive and still plugging away on my tasks. I'll give you an update in a couple of days.

I bought this kite a couple of weeks ago. Pretty, ain't she? Walmart, $10. She's a two fister (see the two strings?) with a 60 inch wing span. We tried to fly it soon after I bought it, but quickly realized that she's pretty heavy and needs a lot of wind for lift. Saturday the wind was blowing pretty good so we tried again.

Boy did we have wind! And boy did she have lift! I'm not sure if I was controlling the kite of the kite controlling me. I got her up in the air onece and I had to lean waaay back to keep from getting pulled forward. Suddenly, she lost lift. Yep, you guessed it. Sprawled out in the grass, head over heals, getting ate alive by the chiggers. Needless to say, my family thought it was hilarious.

Hubby was having a hard time controlling how much string came off the little controllers, so he decided to wrap the string around his fingers. Ouch! You don't want to do that! The kite got lift and tried to cut the ends of his fingers off. No blood, but a couple of nice string burns for his effort.

My youngest son had the best luck. He got it flying on his first try and kept it up longer than anyone. He even had it up long enough for me to take a few pictures, for your viewing pleasure. Beginner's luck! He learned how to do it by watching us. That's my story anyway.

We had never tried to fly a kite with two strings before so it took a little getting used to. (Hint: If it rolls left, pull right) Once we figured that out we could keep it flying for a while, but once the strings got twisted, we were screwed. Armed with this new knowlege, and new cockiness, we decided to take it to the top of the hill where there was ever more wind. Wow! Hubby was flying, I was launching. I tossed it up in the air and it took off and immediately started doing wild erratic dives and loops... in my direction!. It sounded like a Cessna coming at me! It didn't take me long to learn the fine art of toss and RUN!

But alas, the wind at the top of the hill proved stronger than the kite string. Sigh. The string broke three times and we finally called it quits. But we had a good time playing with it. She was worth every bit of $10, and with some new string she'll be ready to fly again.

Hey. Go fly a kite! You'll like it, trust me.