And I thought nobody flew kites anymore

[Winger Ed.]

We all did as kids, and stores always had a big display of them for about a dollar.
I can't remember the last time I saw someone flying one..... until today.

Now days, everybody has electric model airplanes or those quad blade drones.
I see them buzzing around all the time.

Today, I actually saw a kid with an old school kite with a tail made out of rags
and on a string flying along above the tree line here.

I haven't seen any for sale lately. I wonder if he made it out of news paper and sticks
like we did after we'd crashed all our 'store bought' ones.

[Bigslug]

Hee! I went through a brief phase of having "kite fights" with the other kids using the plastic Gayla bat kites. which you could sort of steer. Never did have much luck keeping an old-school diamond kite airborne.

[deltaenterprizes]

I built and flew kites and I have thought about doing it again!
Plenty of wind and open space behind my house!
I have not figured out what wood is best to use for sticks!

[Gewehr-Guy]

An old man that lived beside our school used to fly huge box kites in the hay field behind our playground. Some days they looked to go 500 ft. high. His old outhouse was always smoking from everywhere, we all thought he was smoking big cigars in there, but one day he showed us he was smoking carp in it !

[Froogal]

Yep! I had several of those kites when I was a kid. Seems like I paid about 10 cents for them. Don't think I was ever able to make one fly like I wanted.

[redhawk0]

I always liked the kites that looked like a mini hang glider. I don't know what they were called...but they were made of plastic sheeting and attached to plastic tubes. I love the ones that had "eyes" on them. (yes...I remember the older wooden/paper kites too...made of balsa wood)...but the "plastic" ones that came about in the mid-70s were a lot of fun. You could steer them and make them dip/dive. I don't think I ever paid more than a buck or two for them...the only thing you had to do was buy more string. I always had them tangles in trees and of course the string rarely survived. Most times we'd fly them at the beach...no trees on the Jersey shore beaches back in those days.

redhawk

[imashooter2]

Folks that live near a beach see them all the time. Inland, not so much. But then, I don’t see a bunch of kids playing pickup baseball or touch football anymore either.

[Mk42gunner]

I never had any luck getting a box kite off the ground, but did have a lot of fun with the diamond style ones for a few years. Then the batwing type came out and they would do all sorts of things and still stay airborne.

Had a few strings break, then wading brush and pastures trying to find the kite.

It has been probably ten years since I saw a few kids playing baseball in a vacant lot. That was something we did almost every day during summer in the late seventies. I don't think we ever had more than eight kids playing at once.

Lots of playing out of position, the best (or worst) was if you were batting, you were also the catcher and umpire.

Robert

[Carrier]

We had to make our own kites. Some worked great some not so much.

[Winger Ed.]

I always liked the kites that looked like a mini hang glider.

I remember, I think it was 1969-1970 I saw the first one of those.
The skin part of them was real thin vinyl, and they were kind of pricey for us kids.
I want to say the first company selling them called them 'Glites',
named after being a kite inspired by the new generation hang gliders of the day
people jumped off cliffs with.

They are still made by somebody, and called high performance 'stunt kites'.
They start at only around $150.oo.

It reminds me of the old RONCO commercials when at the end they said, "How can they do it so cheap"?

[15meter]

Head to a resort town along a shoreline. There will usually be a store or two selling everything from basic paper kites up to and including 4 line control kites that can be made to do just about anything. There used to be a number of clubs across the country. Closest one here was: https://www-personal.umich.edu/~annritt/bsaf/bsaf.htm.

Website is still live, I don't know if they are still active. Cool what they can do with them. Do a search for control line kites on youtube. You'll be amazed what can be done with them.

My wife has a couple of control line kites, I've got a small Chinese fighting kite. Fighting kites is still a big thing in China. The line is coated with ground glass and the object is to saw your opponent's line with your line.

We haven't had them out in several years. Used to fly them at the farm. When that was sold after my mother passed we lost our private flying field.

[Texas by God]

A Big Kite pilot let me try flying his ski rope equipped kite on the beach near Ventura, California back in the 80s.
It went well for a bit; then started dragging my 150 lb self out to sea! The owner rescued his kite before I lost it- but it was close.
As a kid, we’d tie our kites to our rod & reels sometimes for grins.

[Murphy]

May as well toss this oldie but a goodie in while we're talking about the good ole' days of our youth.

Although it's been about 25 years ago, it sure brings back a great memory flying a kite with my oldest granddaughter. It wasn't but a few short years later when I told the two of them about being able to tie two Dixie cups together with string and they could talk to one another through them. I'm pretty sure they though old Gramps was pulling their leg. Off to the little store in their small town we went to get the making's. I still remember the clerk's face as I walked those two little ones up to the counter, nothing but a small package of Dixie cups and a roll of twine. The clerk had a couple years on me (but not much) and I watched his face turn into a gentle smile as he looked down for a moment and then bag the items, he knew exactly what was about to happen and I'm pretty sure was having a memory of his own pass by.

Didn't we have a great life inspite of what we may look around and see these days?


Murphy

[MaryB]

I have a box kite I use to lift an antenna that is 250 feet long(end fed half wave...)... when that is flying I have super strong signals! Ham radio 160 meter band... if I had a quarter wave vertical I would need a 135 foot tall tower on insulated legs! Not something I can do on a 1 acre lot!

[GhostHawk]

Back in the old days we saved labels off of Green Giant containers. Redeemed a bunch of them along with 1$ for a 6' tall white plastic kite. It had 5 plastic tubes for arms that mounted to a central plastic fixture. The skin was white plastic with a big picture of the jolly green giant on it.

Biggest problem was finding a day calm enough to fly them. They loved 5 mph breezes but tended to break in anything much over 10 mph wind. But man when the weather was right they would fly!

We got started with oak strips sawed by dad with newspaper or white butcher paper skins.

Lets go fly a KITE!

[bedbugbilly]

When I was a kid I liked to use the "Funnies" from the Sunday paper to make kites - they were printed in color so the kite (to me as a kid) "looked cooler". IIRC, I only has one box kite - my grandmother gave it to me at Christmas. I couldn't have been too old as she passed away when I was eight. My Mother helped me with it, but we never got it to fly very well. I haven't thought about kites for years, but things like that sure kept us busy when we had time to play. We'd fly them in the hay field with plenty of wide open space. Good times and good memories!

[Finster101]

Seems like every time I tried to fly one I ended up looking like Charlie Brown.

[45DUDE]

I would get a kite and 2 balls of kite string and mother had silk one foot square hankies and I would make parachutes and use a paper clip to send it to the top and pop the string.

[jonp]

Buying plastic kites in a tube and a ball of string was common as a kid. Those were everywhere. Wife and I got the bright idea a few years ago to get a few kites as the wind never stops here and we are surrounded by soybean fields. Couldn't find one anywhere.

[choctaw/creek]

I built and flew kites and I have thought about doing it again!
Plenty of wind and open space behind my house!
I have not figured out what wood is best to use for sticks!

I would use carbon fiber rods instead of dowels. They should be more than strong enough and they aren't horribly expensive.

[challenger_i]

For CF, use kevlar string to bind the joints. If you will be using CA (fancy super glue, found at Hobby Lobby, and use the "medium" viscosity) 3M has a primer to use on the CF before wrapping and binding: helps the CA to adhere to the CF.

Deltaenterprizes: straight grain spruce is best. Clean grain bass is next best. Check with Aircraft Spruce and Specialty for "capstrip" stock. You can get it in multiple sizes. If you have good winds, and are making a fairly large kit, oh, say a 36 incher, 1/4" square stock is good, and you can make your sail from garden variety rip-stop nylon from your local fabric store.

Redhawk0: what you are describing is the Rogallo kite. Fun kites! Designed by a NASA engineer, by the way! :)

[Good Cheer]

My favorite to make were five sided with a short cross stick at the bottom.

[dale2242]

Crescent City, Ca. has an annual kite festival .
The wind seems to blow there a lot along the northern Ca. coast.

[WRideout]

I built and flew kites and I have thought about doing it again!
Plenty of wind and open space behind my house!
I have not figured out what wood is best to use for sticks!

It seems like split bamboo would work great, due to it's flexibility.
Spruce is usually the soft wood that is considered very flexible also. Ash is getting very hard to find, so I'm told.

Wayne

[WRideout]

I have read that during the Boer War, large kites were fitted with a wooden seat to lift an observer. Just hope you don't lose altitude too fast.

Wayne

[ebb]

Off shore fisherman use a kite to lift the bait out of the water occasionally, it works very well if the conditions are right. I used to really enjoy a good kite trip, most always had something to smoke or eat.

[.429&H110]

My folks would kite fish the beach in Fla.
Mom would fly a box kite/ clothes pin with her fishing pole
Dads rigs clipped to the clothes pin.
Fly the kite out beyond the breakers, quick tug out of the clothes pin to drop the rig.
Catch dinner...

[gwpercle]

We all did as kids, and stores always had a big display of them for about a dollar.
I can't remember the last time I saw someone flying one..... until today.

Now days, everybody has electric model airplanes or those quad blade drones.
I see them buzzing around all the time.

Today, I actually saw a kid with an old school kite with a tail made out of rags
and on a string flying along above the tree line here.

I haven't seen any for sale lately. I wonder if he made it out of news paper and sticks
like we did after we'd crashed all our 'store bought' ones.

:goodpost:
LIKE !

Making and flying kites ... what fun that was .
The kites that amazed me ... as to how they flew... were Box Kites !
We always had the old fashioned diamond shaped kites , my Dad knew how to make them and taught me and my brother the basics. One day he comes home with a Box Kite Kit ... he bought it and was as eager to put it together and fly it as me and my brother ... I didn't think it would fly ... and still don't understand how they fly but they sure as heck do fly !

April 29th 2023 Kite Fest Louisiane' , Port Allen , in West Baton Rouge Parish , is a big deal every year ... competitions and exhibitions , how to build and fly ... if you like kites ...it's something to see . Renews your faith in the old ways of having a good time !

Thanks for bringing back a few Kite Memories :drinks:
Lets go fly a kite !
Gary

[Ithaca Gunner]

In early March when I was a kid every mom&pop store in the area had at least two cases of kites right by the register. .19 would get you diamond kite and .29 would get you a box kite. I can't recall what a ball of string cost, but we only bought one ball a year for two of us, but kites were multiple, sometimes two a day if we had money, trees and power lines were the death of many kites in my youth.

[Finster101]

In early March when I was a kid every mom&pop store in the area had at least two cases of kites right by the register. .19 would get you diamond kite and .29 would get you a box kite. I can't recall what a ball of string cost, but we only bought one ball a year for two of us, but kites were multiple, sometimes two a day if we had money, trees and power lines were the death of many kites in my youth.

Mine usually just crashed into the ground after maybe a 30 second flight. I guess me and Dad were not very skilled in how to set one up to fly.

[.429&H110]

Boy's Life magazine in the 60's featured "Skate sailing"
"Hey Dad, watch this!"
You are your own ice boat, big kite, no friction, no noise, no speed limit.

The harder you pull on the sail, the faster you go, on a reach.
When you fall, you fall alone, needing hockey shin pads, gloves, helmet,
ice at that speed is worse than asphalt, so don't fall.
Youth is wasted on the young, man that was a blast.

[super6]

Ever try to tie the next ball of string to a high flyer! That takes some doing!

[MaryB]

Boy's Life magazine in the 60's featured "Skate sailing"
"Hey Dad, watch this!"
You are your own ice boat, big kite, no friction, no noise, no speed limit.

The harder you pull on the sail, the faster you go, on a reach.
When you fall, you fall alone, needing hockey shin pads, gloves, helmet,
ice at that speed is worse than asphalt, so don't fall.
Youth is wasted on the young, man that was a blast.

Dad built an ice boat for at the lake. Fun but do not hit a pressure ridge! Top speed was close to 100mph in a strong wind... one year the lake froze smooth as glass and we had a blast going up and down the lake at top speed. We wore full motorcycle leathers for any spills! Broke a couple bones sailing that thing! Ribs twice, foot once(metatarsal, the long bone behind the little toe). Mom hated it but we loved it LOL wasn't any more dangerous than the snowmobiles we rolled more than once hitting pressure ridges.

[MaryB]

I remember the kite my uncle built, he had 200 pound test fishing line on it and it would lift us kids off the ground!

[jsizemore]

If you want to take take the guess work out:

Kites The Science and the Wonder
Dr. Toshio Ito and Hirotsugu Komura

I used to make them from bamboo and paper grocery bags. Busted fishing rod and battle worn fishing line. Nobody wants to lose a big bill fish to suspect line. Plenty good for a kite.

[Duckiller]

The parking lot at Santa Anita race track was a great place to fly kites after the racing season was over. Penn reels with mono line was the preferred string holds and string.

[MaryB]

The parking lot at Santa Anita race track was a great place to fly kites after the racing season was over. Penn reels with mono line was the preferred string holds and string.

I would think the mono has to much stretch to control the kite properly... I use braided line, no stretch so any input to the kite is instant...