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Great new kite. The Sync Bridles rock..

After Framing but before adding the permanent stack lines. I just had to see how a burst would look with the set.. Still crazy that all of these came from ONE tail.. **Note, I used a few old SLE Leading Edges to keep the shape while I took the picture.

Done! ...finally... I told someone I would post up a picture of this if and when I finished it. Just got around to scanning it (makes much clearer images, no camera shake). Most of the beads are seed beads. The LE is about 3 3/4 in across and has a wire in it. It was supposed to be a pin, but I had too much trouble figuring out how to attach some wire as the vertical spars and make a pin attachment. I'll probably put a couple jump rings on the LE and safety pin it from the back.

Sturdy Designs Saber II waiting for Santa

Sun-washed , backlit Sunset fade

Ready for framing and bridling..

my latest additions to my kite collection. complete with John Barresi wear strip and leading edge tab modifications.

My mismatched progressive stack. I bought a B-Pro and a B2. So instead of selling my old 1.5SLE and rev2, I bought a rev1 and stacked them all together.

Couldn't resist. B1-B with the kite.. Not in Kansas any more..

Showing the backlit hourglass.

Prism kites in storage, most hanging from nails, in humidity controlled heated & cooled area. Finally put them in some kind of order.

The Solus is a big kite. Thought the tree might show the special Prismatex panels. You should see it in the sun.

My 72" collection. I had 15 last week but the two lime and Black builds are in new hands.

Another Ghost sequence from the Brood's Vented Twin Bridle Check.

72" LE, Balanced Venting and ready to fly. Recommended Wind Range 15 - 30 MPH

Putting a bowtie on the Panda

Image courtesy of maker Stuart McCullough. Soon to arrive in the Kite Dungeon. Seems like I am amassing a collection of kites made in Virginia.

Well here it is, the first image of my kite in the air. It was a wild snap shot that got most of the kite.

What a sight. Steve parked it right at the very, very edge of the window just so we could get her nicely lit up by the setting sun, the golden minute where everything is in golden light. Ran up to snap the shot!

Before leaving for a kiting session I invested 20 minutes time to create a bar handle. The zero budget material (pointless going for some fancier before knowing what you want) I chose to use was a pin of lilac - a very hard material. In fact it is the only type of hard enough pins that last when playing with the German Shepard. In the background you can see a very frequent visitor - a Field Labrador (a more original Labrador type, quick/quick turning, jumps over high fences and with a very strong and constant desire to fetch). It may look innocent, but is the worst constantly-in-to-play "garden assistant" I know. I don't want to know what would happen to a flying kite in its vicinity. Learning to fly by using a handle was surprisingly quick (compared to trick learning). OK a few nose dives, but that was really expected. The handle was a bit too short because I couldn't do any snap stalls and no cart wheels (assuming this a a reason). Hopefully both hands will be strong enough to manage longer handles when doing quick movements. Off the kiting field I've started to use the left hand more and sometimes just wiggle my laptop quickly (or tilting my bag) while waiting in a line e.g. to get some more left hand exercise. A boost in kiting confidence was when the one hand fade launch worked. While cart wheels didn't work, fade launches became the remaining choice when the kite was not in a normal start position.

Picked up my Matching 75% Mesh to go with my 40%.. Photo by Eliot Shook.

Chris Shultz of HQ Kites flying my Bolero 9 Stack at OBSKC 2016

I finally got enough CF materials to rescue this kite.. Still needs a lot of TLC but at least now I can see what it's supposed to look like..

These are the kites that usually stay in the trunk of the car. http://kitelife.com/forum/blogs/entry/19-kites-in-the-trunk/

Snapped this Diamond purely under "Whump" pressure, wind speed was only 1-2 mph.

February 20, 2015

The art 2/3 done truly a master kite maker

The H is for my last name. :-)

My first real 2 line flight. Terrible wind, bloody great backdrop

This is the kite stake from the 10/15/13 karma drawing. Used it today when I went out to fly with some friends. Thanks Joespickles, LS Kite Accessories, and everyone who's helped make the karma drawings happen and keep them going.

This is the kite stake from the 10/15/13 karma drawing. Thanks Joespickles, LS Kite Accessories, and everyone who's helped make the karma drawings happen and keep them going.