Tako Kichi (Kite Crazy): As They Say... 'March Came In Like A Lion'

Our 1st-Sunday-of-the-month kite fly for March lived up to March standards for wind. NW winds blew at 14-21 mph all day long, but the temperature was more like April or May; except for a few puffy cumulus clouds over the foothills it was clear skies with temperatures as high as 67 degrees... pretty close to perfection if you ask me. Jim Stainback and I arrived at about 10:30 AM to find fellow kiteflier, John King from Grass Valley, already flying his Gomberg 250 with a 100' tail. Unfortunately the middle of the field was being used for soccer practice, so we had to 'short-line' our kites on a little over 100' of line; John's kite didn't like the ground turbulence and kept collapsing. I was able to put Big Boy up on about 125 'of line with a fair amount of line laundry, and he flew well. Mike Hagen and Rhonda Davidson arrived less than an hour later and proceeded to add kites to the sky. By early afternoon we had seven kites up, and families all over the park added another eight or nine kites of various shapes & colors.

An unusual number of people took pictures and asked questions or made compliments. Truth be known, I get as much enjoyment out of watching others enjoy my kites as I do out of flying them. The surprise of the day was a fellow who had taken photos of our kites before; he showed up with a really nice drone with a GoPro camera on it and proceeded to shoot close to 15 minutes of video of Big Boy and all the other kites up. We got to watch what the camera was seeing on the tablet he was using to remotely fly the drone. I can't wait to see the edited video. He's going to post it on YouTube, so I'll share the link when I get it.

I managed to get a few good shots of our day at Wildwood Park. Hope you enjoy them...