Red Doug

I second Penny's suggestion of the Wildwood campground--it's on Sandridge Rd., about 1/4 mi South of Sid Snyder--that's the streed that the kite museum is on. They're generally open in the winter, just try to find a time when the pipes aren't frozen--like now. They might make a winter weekly rate for you. The other possibility is Cape Disapointment State Park, on the ocean West of Ilwaco. It's really pretty, and cheap too.

Ahhh--if I was your baby, when would I want to come out?? Cool contest. I'll try Dec. 14, 4: 20AM. Doug L

There's tent camping available at around $20/night at Camp Casey. Contact Marjorie through the link John posted to see if any sites are still available. There is also some tent camping nearby with no facilities @ $10/night, but I can't tell you the name of that place--we could find it once you get up to Whidbey. As for travel, my own preference is to come up the West side of the Sound past Bremerton, and take the Port Townsend ferry. That's about $16 per crossing for a car. Be aware, Bud recently posted that ferries will be even more crowded than usual, as they have one down for repairs. The other options are to go up through Seattle to Mukilteo, or drive around through Anacortes. Hope you make it--Whidbey's a great festival. Doug L.

Well, here's a different way. I wind one of the pairs, starting from the staked handles, ending up at the kite. At that point I unhook both pairs from the kite, and pack up the kite. Then I start winding the second pair on the same winder, ending up at the stake, unhook the second pair from it's handle and I'm ready to walk away. Next time out, I hook the outer pair of lines to the first handle, hook it around the stake with the bottom, trailing edge line out for slack. If the wind isn't too strong, I can set the kite up leading edge down, hook up the second pair of lines and unwind back to the stake to hook up the second handle. In higher winds I'll weight the kite down with sand and walk back to the kite to set it up after staking out the lines. I'm sure this isn't the fastest way, but since each pair is wound separately, the pairs won't tangle. Doug L.

I'm interested in attending. Let me know the details.

Hi Brett There will be an indoor event in Lincoln City on March 30-April 1. Think it's the high school south of town, but check elsewhere on this forum for details. The point here is that many of the people who will be at the indoor fly are excellent Rev flyers--(thats actually an understatement) and will be more than hapy to get you started. Just talk to the guys in I-Quad--they'll be hard to miss.

You mean I'll be the first one to read it. Now I know there's too much freezing rain to go to work today.

A vented kite has holes in the sail to cut down on pressure in high winds. These are usually triangular with mesh sewn into the sail, and one or more sets of vents can be run covered/uncovered to adjust for wind range. Most competition sets have versions for almost no wind (SUL), light wind (UL), moderate 6-12 mph(STD) and vented 15-25 mph. Examples of models are Nirvana, Sea Devil, Genesis, Shiva, Tramontana--there's more but those are the first that come to mind.

All that frustrating chasing around after gusty wind must be goo for the soul--and skills John was pretty good when he got out here to the NW.

I'm just starting out with a Quad, working on stability in reverse flight. I'm going to put together a couple of longer linesets than the 75' I started out with and I wondering whether about 100' would be best to start working on precision figures and into ballet.

I was printing out ML figures and couldn't find figure #14 on the AKA site. Reed has a new figure for this, but I think Whidbey must be planning an old obsolete #14 that I haven't been able to find. Not that I'd be able to fly these things anyway, but at least I want to know what I'm attempting to learn/perform when I'm starting out.

Pay close attention to where in the grid your "IN" & "OUT" calls have to be. Practice calling "IN" & "OUT" on your figures. You'd be amazed how easy it is to forget to call these at the right time. I'm speaking from hard "lost" experience on that last one. Fly crisp and clean, and have a great time.

I'm going to answer that to the best of what I've heard. It has to do with the observation that you can move horizontally anywhere in the window after you first establish where the center of the window is. IOW, in medium to high winds, you could start with the kite at 30% to the left, call in, walk left til you're level with the kite, fly the figure, walk further to the left, and land with the kite 30% to the right of the place where you called in. Doug L. Someone who knows better, correct me here, but that's my best understanding of shat people have said about this, aside from John's comments for punching the landing.

I used to live in Eugene, and there are a couple of places I could suggest with decent wind. Out by the airport there's lots of grass fields--after spring cutting there's cleared areas, and a steady wind out of the North most days in Summer. In Winter, the North end of Fern Ridge Resevoir would be a good place when the wind is out of the South. That's if it's not raining, and you don't freeze your butt off. Then again, for those foggy winter days in Eugene, there's no substitute for getting out to the coast where the Sun is shining. Someone else on this forum mentioned the park at the top of the hill down by Lane CC, across I5 on the East side. I can't remember the name of the park at this time, but I imagine you know of it. Hope this helps.

I flew a Rev for the 1st time at WSKIF, and hope to get my very own soon. This discussion of "Quad Sticks" confuses me. So I'll expose my ignorance, and ask what they are, and how do they fit onto a quad? My impression is that they help to prop the kite up for a launch. If so, do the sticks stay on the ground? I can't imagine adding a (pair?) of sticks that will flop around on the back of the kite while it flies.

Way to hang in there Kitecrazy. It was worth the effort, thanks for the pics.

I get a section of blue, like clear blue sky. Must have been taken on Saturday.

Patti & I will be coming up Tues. night. Out to the beach Wed morning. Yay.

You mean Sunset Beach No of Seaside, right? We're going to be out in Warrenton this weekend fishing, but that's usually fairly early. How late do you plan to be out on the beach?

Here's a good place to start. http://wardley.org/kites/bridle/

Does anyone know what days the Parks and Lam Hoac will be in Lincoln City? I would only be able to make it Sat. and I would love to see them.

From hearing people talk about the Parks, and after reading Geezers great interview in Kitelife, I'd love to see them perform in Lincoln City in March. My problem is that I have to work that week. At one point, I was hoping that if I left town early Friday after work, I could make an evening session. Trouble is, everything goes on fron 12-5 PM, so that's out. Can someone tell me if they will still be at the event Saturday? Will Lam Hoac still be there for the comp Sat? I looked through the event program through Lincoln City Tourism's site, and didn't see anything about who's performing when.

Finally got a chance to get the 8" Rok into the sky. Here's the picture link http://community.webshots.com/user/red_doug The Eddy & the Della Porta were built at OKR.

To Penny You did not work with me on flying a Quad for the first time at this event. In that regard you are indefatigable. You did get me on one at Whidbey Is though. I'll be sure to say hi at the next opportunity.

Definitely some great flying--saw some indoor team after the comp that was awesum. I tried my hand at flying indoors for the first time. Hey, I kept the kite in the air--sometimes. Actually I was real proud to see my new Amazing perform in the hands of some masters. I sure won't say it's the kites fault. Lucky I have a dead wind spot in the front yard. Ready to start practicing that stuff. Kudos to Alan Cunningham for organizing the event--I came away with great admiration for what Alan is doing with the kids in Arlington--with and without kites.