For other events around the country, click
here to visit the AKA web site and select "Event Calendar.
Sometimes, I don't get all the good pictures. But Jim & Laura post
theirs for everyone to enjoy. Check out their gallery at Kitefliers
Kite Gallery.
And Jim Martin puts a bunch up at his Fotki
photo page.
January 2008
| 5 - |
Invigorating! That's the best way to describe a mostly sunny day with temps
around 50 and winds from 2 - 14 mph this early in January. 8 flyers can't be
wrong! This was a great way to start the 2008 flying year. And on such a fine
day, another flyer dabbled on the Dark Side. |
| |
|
| 19 - |
Third Saturday - Waaay too cold and crummy. Hopefully February will be
better. |
| 26 - |
|
February 2008
| 2 - |
Happy Groundhog Day! If you were a groundhog and were at Frank Liske Park
today, we'd be having 6 more weeks of winter. It was sunny. It was in the mid
50's. It was blowing between 3 and 6 mph. There were 9 flyers. When I left at 4
pm, there were still people flying. Good way to start the month. |
| 9 - |
You gotta take it when you can get it! Winds 8 - 16; sky - sunny; temps
about 60 degrees; flyers - 6; Mint Hill Park by the volleyball courts. Only
casualty was Stu's kite (the spine blew up). Great day for quads but the duals
were everywhere. There was a couple guys flying an old Top of the Line over in
the corner but we never talked with them. I hope it's this nice next weekend. |
| 16 - |
Third Saturday - As usual the winds were light and the dual line stunters
ruled. But we made good contact with the Park people and it should be beneficial
for all of us. |
| 23 - |
|
March 2008
| 1 - |
First Saturday -
Refreshing. That's the best word I can think of to describe today. Sunny skies,
very pleasant temps and a good breeze. Although the winds varied between 2 and
12, it made for a pretty good flying day. Duals, singles and quads, 8
WACKOS and several families with kids running around flying their own kites. And
some folks that weren't flying, were sitting on the side of the hill watching.
Folks, we need to start bringing wind farm stuff and single line kites to the
park again. The wind farm gets attention from people driving in and from the
playground. They'll see us flying and come down to visit or perhaps they'll
bring a kite the next time they come. So if you have older single lines that you
don't fly much anymore, bring them to the park and maybe we'll find that one kid
that just needs a kite to play with to get him (or her) started on the same path
we follow.
|
| 8 - |
|
| 15 - |
Third Saturday - This is Lake Park Kite Day from 10 am to 2 pm in
Founders Park. We've been asked back again so bring your single line stuff and
be ready to help the kids of Lake Park fly their kites. If you want to play with
duals or quads bring very short lines - there isn't much room. Or better
yet, save them until the field empties towards the end of the festival. You
could also go back to fly after a WACKOS lunch someplace. This was probably
one of two best Lake Park Kite Days since we've flown. The sky was forbidding
but cleared and warmed up by noon and the winds actually came and stayed this
year. There were a lot of enthusiastic families and several enthusiastic WACKOS.
We flew single, dual and quad line kites the whole time and chowed down later at
La Unica in Indian Trail. Stu summed it up this way, "I
went on Lake Park's home page and they had plenty of pictures of our kites,
including our banners. Gerhard made it on the front page of this one....go to
http://www.lakeparknc.com and the pictures are
on the front page. This was a good festival this year, with decent winds this
time. Thanks to all who came out. It was fun!" If you looked at
their publicity page for this event, they listed, "Demonstrations from WACKOS
kite flying club". Somewhere, there's a photo of smiling WACKOS with their kites
and banners in Founder's Park. Brian put up a few pictures, too. See
Brian's
webshots. |
| 23 - |
Easter Weekend |
| 29 - |
Smithsonian Kite Festival, Washington, DC - http://kitefestival.org/ |
April 2008
| 5 - |
First Saturday -
Shelton
Vineyards Wind & Wine Festival, Dobson, NC. Unfortunately, we got rained
out Saturday and the few times when it wasn't raining the wind was non-existent.
but we had a good indoor display set up and taught a lot of "little folks" how
to fly little kites indoors. We even sold a few kites for Sunday's flying. A
couple of us took advantage of the lack of activity to tour the vineyard and
winery. After enough rain to float an ark, Sunday started with some sun but no
rain and a light, variable wind. It wasn't roaring but it was enough to raise a
252 Flow form, a large Octopus, ghost delta, a Blue Moon 61/49, eddys, deltas, a
roller and a handful of others. There were some dual lines and a Rev plying the
light winds. But the winds were shifting and variable so steady flying was
haphazard. Fortunately, our hosts at Shelton Vineyard were very understanding
and are already talking about the 2009 Shelton Vineyards Wind & Wine Festival.
Thanks to everyone that came to Dobson. We had a great time despite the weather.
Jim Martin put some pictures up to share at his Fotki site - see
Jim
Martin's photo album and then check out these pictures at >>
Brian's
webshots <<.
Crossroads Church
Kites Over Cabarrus - I just heard about this event last weekend from our
"new best friend at Frank Liske Park", Tina Pritchard. This is a first year
event hosted by the church at the park and they would like some help. If you
will be in the area for this first Saturday event at FLP and want to fly demos
or help with the festival, please contact Kara McAbee at Crossroads Church; her
number is at the link above. |
| 12 - |
Flying at Ft Defiance, Fort
Defiance 18th Century Plantation 10-5 or so. This event is in it's 3rd year,
is growing every year and everyone that has gone had a fun but challenging time
with winds and weather. It's a good chance to go to the mountains, explore an
18th Century home site and fly a few kites. By early afternoon, the morning
drizzle cleared out, the clouds were gone and the sun came out. Lots of WACKOS
this year, including Ken & Holly McNeill, Frazer & family from Raleigh and Paul
from Blowing In The Wind. Eddie captured some good shots and put them on his
Web Album;
Brian added more on
webshots |
| 19 - |
Third Saturday Blue Ridge Kite Festival, Salem, VA. The 10th Annual
festival was a good one! Variable winds most of the day allowed for some pretty
good flying. The first pics are on the net at
Ninjak2k Webshots;
Patrick added more at
stackflyer's
webshots and here are some on
Grumpy's flickr page. The Saturday night slide show was a hoot! If anyone has photos, let me know and
I'll put the link here.
Family Fun Kite Festival, Perry Memorial Park, Aiken, SC. Anyone have news or
photos? |
| 26 - |
Day at the Docks, Holden Beach - John was the only one there, since he lives
at Holden, but he did himself proud. Best show they've had in a couple years.
click
>> here << to see some of John's pictures. |
May 2008
| 3 - |
First Saturday at FLP |
| 4 - |
Sunday - Oliver Webster, Superintendent of Recreation, Albemarle
Parks and Recreation has set up a festival for Sunday. He wrote,
The Festival will be from
2
to
5 pm.
It is at the Soccer Complex on the
Stanly
Community College
campus. There are three full size fields, each on its own level. I will be
setting up the kite Workshop and the DJ/commentary on the bottom field which is
next to the bathrooms.
Inland flying is the same everywhere and we had a lot of it
this afternoon. It started out pretty good as a large Manta ray made his
presence known along with a 252 with streamer tail. Several single liners, dual
liners and a couple quad heads were able to get in some good flying but by late
afternoon, the wind totally stopped. It was still a pretty good show for those
that came to watch and there were a few kids kites in the air, too. It was great
to have some music for flying. Thanks, Oliver, for having us over. Please come
and fly with us at Frank Liske Park. Brian missed the Manta
Ray in the air but got these shots. Click this link >>
Brian's Albemarle
Fly 08 << to see his web shots. Jim, however, captured the Manta Ray
in the air. See
Jim's Stanley County album. |
| 10 |
|
| 17 - |
Third Saturday - WACKOS Spring Festival (or whatever) in conjunction with
International Migratory Bird Day, Frank Liske Park. Not too long ago I suggested
we have a WACKOS Spring Festival because we hadn't had a large gathering of the
club in a long while. The Park
will be sponsoring Migratory Bird Day with displays and information including
birds from the Carolina Raptor Center and are very interested in having the WACKOS add to the festive atmosphere.
The Migratory Bird Day activities will run from about 11 a.m. until about 2 or 3
p.m. We should probably be there around 10 a.m. to start setting up our stuff.
There will be a Kites for Kids area setup at the barn (manned by Park staff)
to make sled kites and they will be all around us.
Let's bring everything we've got and put on a great WACKOS show for
Cabarrus County. We can, if we want, mark off an area for the big stuff with a
separate area for the stunters and smaller single line kites. We'll need to be
around to watch the big kites, help people and answer questions.
Some other ideas are
festival things we've done in the past: Rok battles, trick flying demos, maybe
stunt lessons and fighter kites. I have some ideas for Rev games with prizes
provided by Ben at Revolution Kites.
Let's make it a picnic, bring the family and make sure to bring plenty of
drinks. |
| 24 |
Memorial Day weekend, Monday is Memorial Day. |
| 31 |
|
June 2008
| 7 - |
First Saturday |
| 14-15 |
26th Rogallo Kite Festival, Jockey's Ridge State Park |
| 21 - |
 Third Saturday - This is Pops in the Park, the biggest event on the Frank
Liske Park calendar. We've been asked to provide visual entertainment for people
waiting for the concert to begin around 6 p.m. I'm sure we would be welcome to enjoy the
music once it starts. The concert will be by the lake, seating around it and parking will be across from our normal flying area. I don't have any
more than this yet but will update this space as it becomes available.
|
| 28 - |
|
July 2008
| 5 - |
First Saturday |
| 12-13 |
29th Wright Kite Fest, Wright Memorial, Kitty Hawk |
| 19 |
Third Saturday |
| 26 |
|
August 2008
| 2 |
First Saturday - |
| 9 |
|
| 16 |
Third Saturday - |
| 23 |
|
| 30,31 |
Through Sept 1 - Mile High Kite Fly, Beech Mtn, NC |
September 2008
| 6 |
First Saturday |
| 13 |
|
| 20 |
Third Saturday |
| 22-27 |
AKA Convention, Gettysburg, Pa. |
| 27 |
|
October 2008
| 4 |
First Saturday |
| 11 |
|
| 18 |
Third Saturday Festival By The Sea, Holden Beach - will there be
enough beach to fly? |
| 25 |
21st Annual Carolina Kite Festival, Atlantic Beach, NC. See
http://kitesunlimitednc.com/kitefest.html |
November 2008
| 1,2 |
Cape Fear Kite Festival |
| 8 |
|
| 15 |
Third Saturday |
| 22 |
|
| 29 |
|
December 2008
| 6 |
First Saturday - 2nd last club fly of 2008. Take a break from the
shopping and come out and have some fun! |
| 13 |
|
| 20 |
Third Saturday - Let's try and get out before everyone scatters for
the holidays. |
| 27 |
|
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