kite hill renewed its reputation of flukey and bumpy winds for nfka's september fly luckily, frequent 270 degree shifts and some wonderful thermals were enough to keep us challenged and grinning while we waited the next few seconds of combat style wind.

   bruce brought a 3' x 2' buka made of orcon and carbon.   flew pretty darn good in such light wind.    ken added a couple of traditional child's sized bukas to the big airshow.   those puppies are pretty hunky for us guys used to zipping our little fighters across the sky using only our fingertips.   it was great fun manhandling one of those guys on 30 feet of line on under points. flying under points produces a most amazing sound when they bury their leading edge in the turf.   the big kites actually took several points during the day.   mostly on over points, don'tchaknow.   they pack so much power that they drive through to the edges of the wind window and just keep on going.   many hoots!

   anyway, much talk on the hill about big fighters and what new they can bring to our little game.   shortline with large kites are sure to thrill an audience who have trouble keeping up with the little kites.   and talk about great graphic potential!

   we also talked a lot about why toms' dragonfly is such a dog to fly.   how it won't track or spin.   accusations that he probably put misleading info on the plans just to keep other builders from gaining an advantage by actually making it correctly.   but it's really not true.   take it from nfka-consensus is that a well built and bridled dragonfly actually does fly, track, and spin at least as good as a rock - oooops - rok.

   then dinner at ron and patsy's

   whoooooweeeeeee!

   i can't do Rons' menu justice in this report, so I won't try.   just suffice to say that, if you missed it, you missed an amazing gastronomical delight.   ron used paper plates so we wouldn't play frisbee in the living room with the good china, but they kind of gummed up the dishwasher flooding the kitchen, so we departed post-haste and, like the guilty desperados we are, we left clean up to our hosts - although we did throw money over our shoulders in appreciation as we absconded with all the leftovers.

   ken and suzanne did a great show and tell about traditional bukas - a short slide show of some japanese bukamastercrafterguys with real live buka samples for us to examine, feel, and salivate over.   much discussion and ooohing and ahhhing over the bamboo joinery techniques and graphic methods.

   defrocking pope tom was easy - but the fat kid went to a high school football game to watch kevin's little boy ( who weighs more than kevin and the fat kid put together ) play, so we couldn't christen the new nfka president in any official ceremony - which is ok because we usually ignore our presidents anyway unless they get out of hand and start trying to make us obey and stuff.

   so that's the news for septembers' nfka fly.   if i missed something important, please fill in for a poor scribe and post the news your own darn self. not that i don't care - i'm just getting too old to remember nuances.

Sep. 23-24
Taipei, Taiwan
Fighter Kite World Cup

Sep. 22-24
Whidby Is., Wa.
Fort Casey State Park - Sat. 23rd - high noon

Oct. 7
Everywhere
One Sky One World - Go fly a kite

Oct. 21
Elma, Wa.
Elma track field

   grins.

   d.

   PS.

   how could i forget...please add to my nfka fly report for september...

   beer! art dug some most evil brew out of his laboratory and opened the bar at halftime...he also served as a very friendly nfka tavern keeper for the long line of thirsty flyers with extended paper cups...   he had several different home-brews that ranged in taste from the sublime to the supra-sublime.   an incredible treat.   thanks, art.

   d.

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