All about kites

reposted from the family website:

More about kites.

The first kite I remember making was at school. I was hoping that this would be a practical introduction to aerial exploration. I followed the instructions carefully and cut out the traditional kite shape that I had marked out with a ruler. I thought it was a bit small and the card too heavy but I continued. The colouring went well and I did a four quadrant scheme. Then the tail was made of woollen yarn and paper twist bows attached with sticky tape. Finally the flying line was attached, one metre of wool by which time I had realised that we had wasted our time making ornaments. We were allowed to “fly” our kites, which meant exiting the classroom by the big glass doors and running up and down the lawn with these fluttering kites never going higher than we could lift them.

Since then I have constructed a few kites. The most ecological one was made from Fenwicks department store plastic bags. It uses inflatable air channels to create the rigidity so as long as the wind blows it flies high. When the wind stops it collapses. It conveniently rolls up for carrying in a coat pocket.

In 1967 we stayed at Hing Hon road and I would go up to the roof. One day in the gentle breeze there were kites flying from the other roofs. This seemed reckless to me as there was nowhere to run if the kite drooped and needed some extra lift. And if it did fall out of control it would probably be lost on another building or street.

In the Bahamas kids would make kites and fly them from trees to sell them for pocket money.

I never used a Chinese kite but I did admire the fact that mere paper was good enough and the bold red, green, yellow and blue dragon print. Then there was the ornamentation that seemed only to make the kite heavier with tails and flaps. The delicate bamboo splints didn’t look like they would survive a collision with the ground. Even the flying line was delicate and looked like something that mum would have in her sewing box. But one day we went up to Barn Hill and Dad flew the kite. It went up in a gentle breeze and stayed up high almost still. In the same conditions the German kite would have stayed on the ground.

My usual kites were German mass produced plastic ones and were typically printed plastic film with an eagle or similar bird of prey. They were tensioned by flexible wooden spars and plastic brackets. The line was 100m of monofilament nylon on a Jürgens plastic reel with pivoted crank handles that I still use today. These kites needed a good wind. It usually required a good run to loft them high enough to catch the faster air away from the drag of the ground. And preferably somebody on the other end to pick it up and relaunch after the inevitable crash.

My smallest kite is palm sized and is made from a mylar and bamboo splints. It flies well on a short string of a couple of metres and in the lightest of breeze. My largest kite was a nylon sledge kite and was magnificent, but it was lost on the very windy day when it snapped the line.

The other type of kite flies near our house over the common.The red kite stays hovering in one spot matching the speed of the wind while watching the ground. Soon it will spot something and make a rapid dive, Then there will be one less baby rabbit or mouse on the common.