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foiled again

Now it is summer, I know that, but man has the wind been quiet lately! Now it did blow almost solid for a couple of weeks at the begining of the month, but it also was storm city all that time. So now the storms have left, the tropics are mostly quiet and the heat just makes things slow down... way down! The weather station says it's 4 mph at the airport but I have to doubt it.

So, what to do, what to do?! Order kites of course! I placed an order last week with our good friends at Extreme Kites. We did visit with Rob at EK when we were over at St. Augustine and of course we picked up a couple of kites then as well. Of course we did.

First, we bought the Premier Kites Square Mesh Kite. Got it right off the EK display wall. They had to get a ladder and everything. It was the last one in stock, and best I can tell it was the last one available anywhere. It looked great on their wall so I have to apologize for taking it away, but it called to us so what can we say?! It was a birthday kite for Kelli and as soon as we get eight miles per hour winds she plans to get it flying.

The other purchase that Saturday was Jeff Howard's Hoopty. I already have his sharp looking Fandango and have been staring at the Hoopty for some time now. So we have yet to fly either of the new kites, but they will make their debut flight very soon, I can feel it.

So that brings me to the kites i ordered last week. Two other kites that I have been staring at for more than a year. One is Jeff Howard's Flik. Had to complete the set ya know. Three Jeff Howard Kites all signed, er, marked, by the master kite maker. (They each have a PKC handwritten in the corner. PKC stands for Precision Kite Company, which is Jeff's Company)

I will write more about these kites after I have spent some quality time taming these little fighters. So far I have only flown my Fandango a few times and half of that was with a tail to keep the kite from circling so much. Fighter Kites can be tricky for the novice, and with these kites I am definitely a novice. But i sure enjoy learning so I will keep you posted.

Ok, there is one more kite on the way. One I am kinda excited about. The Horvath Hybrid 130. The smaller version of the Hybrid 200 that is already in the quiver. The 200 is one of my favorite kites and I have high hopes for its smaller incarnation.

So, you may ask, why buy kites if there is no wind? A very good question indeed. My answer to the no wind problem was to get some more no-wind kites! The Jeff Howard Kites need very little wind, and the Horvath is made for no wind. So they are all a perfect fit for the weather outside.

Of course, the wind will start blowing as soon as I get out on the field, you know it will, but that's ok, we do have a few kites in the quiver that like wind. Let's just say we are fairly well prepared no matter what wind we get. I like that.

If I were really trying to stay busy through this no-wind period by buying kites I would soon be very poor indeed. But something that can keep me busy is sewing a new kite. Yeah, that's the ticket

So Saturday a new sewing project began. I crafted a parafoil template on paper and fiddled with the shape and size til it seemed right. Then I cut the paper templates and laid them on some cardstock and began to cut the actual templates to be used for hot cutting. I have a bit more to cut out and hopefully will begin cutting some ripstop fabric on Thursday or so. Fun stuff.

Kites Flown:

Kites Flown:

iFlite #1243 (orange)

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Tuesday July 30th, 2013

Doldrum City

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