Of course we still fly kites.

Here's some photos from a Brooklyn Flyers outing a month ago.
Better late than never. I guess.

The Citizen Kite Falco

Cool

clipped from www.fitzsu.com Patterned after the real thing �Falco Subbuteo�, pull out the kite from its packaging and the kite unfolds itself, no complicated assembly-just attach the line and fly. 13 in L x 21.5 in W Kite made of black satin sheen, ripstop nylon, carbon fibre kite.

It was a good day for kites in the city. There were some in the park, bien sur, but also out by the Verazano, and some on the beach in Coney Island...



none here, of course, just a beautiful shot of the city. (sorry for the poor resolution, a camera phone, ya know?)

Near Miss

Near Miss
Originally uploaded by nichol alexander

That big 707, no MATCH for Boxy! Luckily it didn't come to that. (its sorta hard to see, but there's a plane right to the right of the kite)

58th Street, or there abouts, and the way east side, just north of the old brooklyn army yard, a big pier and it was mostly empty. me and a few guys fishing, someone listening to a baseball game and a kid reading harry potter - it was as good a place to fly as any.

next is, i wanna fly between the buildings of industry city; i expect the wind patterns and shifts to be fun and difficult.

WTF

Is no one flying kites? Is it the humidity or is it just god damn laziness? there's no room for non-believers, those not of faith, those who do not walk the path, who don't see the light, who don't have a little bit of toughness on their knees from getting down to ask the sky to blow a little, in a quiet soft sweet little prayer, there's no room. . hell, i'll tell you what, i tried.

i did, but god damn it there wasn't any good god damn wind. and so...

SO?!

what.

yeah what? oh for a sweet breeze and a little bit of kite line out into the blue...

Youngest Member

Clocking in at 4 and 3/4 years old, I'm pretty sure Lucy is the youngest member of the Brooklyn Flyers.

Kite flying can be very tiring.

The HEEZABEAST!

Colin "Heezabeast" Loughlin came to town and beasted it up with the Brooklyn Flyers in Prospect Park. We flew kites I think, but more importantly we invented a game I am going to refer to as "Scream Ball." To play, all you need is a football and some screamy friends.

Rules: One player--the "thrower"--has the ball. All other players run in varying directions and call for a pass by screaming the thrower's name. Whoever screams more or less the loudest gets the pass. Whoever gets the ball is now the thrower.

We left the park and had a triumphant return to my roof for a BBQ, and then into the city for Tru Brit.

...And it was good.

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No way. No. Way.

Now that's a little god damn kite.

Too small, however.

Foxy

Foxy - Cause she's crazy like a Fox.
Originally uploaded by nichol alexander

Who says you can only fly kites on Sunday?

The park was a little eerie at 7 am but a little before work flying was exactly what this odd Wednesday called for; it was a maiden voyage for Foxy, the successor to Soxs, and true to form, she flew like a mad banshee out of hell and then kept hitting the ground. I got her up a couple of times but never above the trees to where that nice clean air blows. So I took a picture of her on the ground. Why the hell not, that's my theory.

My new idea. Make a mini Delta kite, something with a wingspan of maybe a foot or something, that is completely collapsible and that you can travel with. Wouldn't that be cool? A little tiny baby kite? A little weeny teeny sort of bird like bee sized kite... theoretically, how small can a kite be?

The Moon & The Kite

Let it here be said and taken of note that when flying kites in late afternoon and early evening it is possible that the moon may rise behind the kite as the sun is setting, secreting the park into darkness, and letting the last rays of light illuminate the blues yellows and reds of your kite. if i had been on peyote it could not have been more beautiful.

needless to say, i don't have a picture as i was enjoying it too much to think about much else.

also let it here be said that i have progressed with the fighter kites, an excellent and most spirited kite.

this weekend the trees were not victorious, no, in fact they were losers.

i'm writing a kids story titled The Moon & The Kite

Game Night!

Saturday Night we had some folks over to get drunk and play board games. It was awesome. Balderdash rules. Endless Summer played on repeat in the background all night. By the way, Karl was definitely not posing for this shot.

It's been a few weekends in a row now that I haven't flown my kites, and I miss it.

a few more photos.

St. Louis Flyers

The St. Louis Flyers had its first officially documented flying session yesterday afternoon. It was fun.


Everybody was so psyched about flying kites that we started before we even got to the field.


John P. Eagle Scout.


A couple weeks ago I bought two large, fancy kites at a sale at my old High School. They were 25 cents apiece and included copius amounts of extra kite string. This one is a shark.


This one is an extremely elaborate mulit colored bi-plane with a corksrew tail.


The fancy kites were absolute pieces of shit compared to the two $1.99 Gayla's Cole picked up at Walgreens. (a stealth bomber and a fighting robots design)


I don't know if you Brooklyn kids drink beer while flying, but if not, I recommend it. After a few frosty ones Cole put the handle in his mouth and the trick flying flood gates opened right up.


John P. flying a kite while riding a tall bike.


Cole flying a kite with no hands.


John P. flying a kite with his beard.


Cole flying a kite with his mouth while doing a handstand.


Brian and Cole. The Hangman's noose.


John P. flying a kite on a rooftop.


Until next time.

-LEE

Contingency Plan

It looks like there is a legitimately good chance that it will be raining tomorrow. In case of rain, I'd like to propose a game night at my place.
Boggle, Clue, Cranium, Balderdash, Uno, Arne, and of course RISK.

Here's a little graph I found on the web that seemed just a little perfect.

Kites in Ubatuba

Paulo Costa (Liz's dad) grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil. As a kid he would ride a bus 6 hours along with some friends to the resort town of Ubatuba. In the center square of the town there was a jail with about 5-6 cells. Paulo and his friends would bring paper and bamboo for the inmates who already had the knives and other tools necessary for the job. The next day, on returning, the inmates would present the children with the beautiful kites they created from the supplies, and the children would fly the kites from the beach for the rest of the day.

This Saturday, CONEY ISLAND!

Hey. Coney Island this Saturday.
If I can fix Jeremy's bike we're gonna cruise out there down Ocean Parkway.
Bring all your kite line. We're letting it all hang out.
See you there. Exactly where on the beach will be determined by crowds and who gets there first and we'll organize the rest as it happens by cellular phone.

INDIANA KITES

This is how we roll in Indiana when we ain't farmin'.
This guy made this kite.

RIT, Zero; Monmotha Flys!

Trees, I hate you. Trees, BURN IN FIRE. Trees, die.

So as it turns out, trees create air turbulence which actually acts as a draw to kites. They are giant kite magnets. Science tells us that this is the way of nature; our hearts tell us otherwise.

Zero was a Golden Fighter Kite which during it's hour and half of flying, was stunning, beautiful, wonderful, and amazing. In fact, it was the most fun I've had with a kite. Who knew that being able to manuever a kite would be so much fun?

Additionally I flew the big one, Monmotha. She has a wing span of 11 feet and at 500 feet, she looks just like a small kite flying low. Also, her giagantiousness means she is quite fun at low altitudes and is a practically like flying a hang glider.

Oh, Zero.

Another Bright Idea, or How I learned to stop worrying and tape lights to my kite.

Night-kiting.
No date yet, but Prospect Park is open until 1am.
Right now I'm looking up the cheapest, easiest, brightest way to light up our kites, and I welcome any suggestions. So far I've found little LEDs and lithium ion batteries that we can tape together, and would cost about 50 cents each. They're really bright too.
What I'd really love to have is a kite material that could be illuminated by lights around the edges, so the entire delta would glow. That sounds expensive though.

Knowledge. The Kite of Your Mind.

NASA LOVES KITES!
Good site with great info....and its not all that slippery.
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/kite1.html

Socks and Lady.

Socks, my Airfoil 5 from ITW, saw it's second and final flight this weekend.

She was a good one that tried hard to fly far. She suffered a setback, that one time, it's true, and was dismissively referred to as a "windsock", but yesterday, with the stronger breeze, she showed her true colors, pulling a 60 ft. tail of multi-colored flags all over the park.

Then some stupid little 4 year old crap head stepped on the line and in the process of freeing her foot, the father tied it in a knot. Not her foot, or her leg, which I would've preferred, but the line. I saw the knot go up as I was spooling out and knowing that an improperly tied knot weakens a line, I tried to bring her back; then I heard it coming from behind through the cruel branches of the trees at my back, a gust. Seconds later Socks was gone.

I tracked her all the way to the picnic field and there found her in the top of a 40 foot tree. I searched, in vain, for a way to get her down, but couldn't. All I could think was: If I was a Marine and that kite was a Marine, I wouldn't leave him up in that tree to die. But, for many reasons that are to varied and personal, neither me nor my kite are Marines, nor affiliated with any other military program. So I left Socks up there.

For now! Oh, Socks... you poor poor kite.

Next weekend I am going to go kite fishing. This is a new sport which involves using a fishing rod and a hook to pull a kite out of a tree, in a million pieces if necessary. I would just chainsaw the god damn tree if it weren't on park property and it weren't illegal to do so. (Stupid Laws, Arbocide?! ARBOCIDE?!)

In other news, Lady, my 6' Delta on her second flight, was fantastic in the wind and when it got real high, the string started to scream with, as Jeremy put it, the souls of a 1000 dead kites. Or was it 1000 dead children? I prefer to think of screaming dead kites, twisting in the vile branches of those innumerable green monsters by which we are inevitably surrounded.

New Member, New RIT

Yes, that is Jane Anne. Yes, that is an American flag kite. She started with her 101 Dalmatians kite but it was unable to withstand the gale force winds and was at once dilapidated. In this particular case RIT stands for "rest in trashcan"; though it was traumatic all the same. Sleep well little Dalmatians, sleep well.

Pickle

a.k.a. Run the Bases
a.k.a. Hotbox
a.k.a. We're lucky no one got conked in the head with a ball.

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I swear we flew kites too, but only for a little bit. The wind was uncooperative.
To make up for it, Karl and Janeanne, and Nichol and Jeremy made separate trips to Prospect Park today where some major winds demolished Janeanne's 101 Dalmations kite, Nichol's little airfoil got tree'd (RIT), and Jeremy spied a Baby Bat in the treetops, possibly one of our lost brethren (RIT).

ps- If you guys have pictures, put some up.

So anyway, after Pickle, we stopped by Carriage Inn for some EPH, where some weirdo was whispering clues into the ears of Karl and Jeremy ("bosom," "derriere," "obvious"). Then we went to Karls for mint juleps and the Kentucky Derby. The Derby was pretty badass, the mint juleps were a bit much for me. I can't drink whiskey.

The first rule of Kite Club...

The first rule of Kite Club is...you tell everyone you know about Kite Club. Jeremy's roomate Lawrence became the newest member of the Brooklyn Flyers when he launched the Robot War Gayla yesterday. Congratulations to all of us.

Yesterday, Jeremy took a day off from teaching kids about science and we spent 7 and a half hours in Prospect Park, teaching ourselves a few things about a few things other than science. For instance, nerf footballs totally fly.
We also began honing our kite-fighting skills. Jeremy definitely dominated in this arena, and my brand new Gayla Trendsetter left the park with more than one strip of packing tape holding it together. Karl and Kyle came by after their respective days of work and we had a serious kite-fight followed by some serious knots. We decided to (literally) cut our losses.

Ye Olde Carriage Inn was crowded, and the MegaTouch was occupied, so we moved on to Karl's and drank our Guinness while we watched the History of Baseball. It went a little something like this:

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April Is A Good Month For Flying Kites

If we learned anything during this past month, and I'm not saying we did, but if we did learn something, it was probably that April is a good month for flying kites. At least this past one was. We were at the Long Meadow in Prospect Park every Saturday, and every Saturday our Gaylas were flying high. Whether it was the Sky Raider, the Baby Bat, the Sky Spy, Night Stalker, Terror Saurus, Dragon Wizard, Taz, Rainbow Unicorn or the Trend Setter, they were all up there being admired by the little ones with grabby hands. It totally ruled.

This past Saturday we even got in a few good rounds of catch. (not pictured)

Liz was designated knot-untangler.
As per usual, we ended our day in the sun in the cool retreat known as Ye Olde Carriage Inn, with the Guiness and the Erotic Photo Hunt. It took a team of six, but we finally achieved the high score on the machine. Unfortunately, the excitement was too much, and instead of entering our name as "BK FLYERS" our place in history is held by the name "BKK FL." I think they'll get the idea.

From Ye Olde Carriage Inn we moved on to Karl's for hot dogs and eventually a dance party of sorts. You'll can read about that here.

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Gayla Sighting

Save on Fifth (around 7th street) has a new batch of Gayla Kites.


Get 'em whiles theys gots 'em.

The Littlest Kite-Flyer

Every Sunday in San Juan, the locals gather on the big lawn that stretches down the hill from the ponderous old fort, El Morro. They buy cheap Gayla plastic kites from vendors who set up booths on the street. When I was there, there were at least 100 kites in the air at once.

This little girl was much more interested in bouncing her kite along the ground than flying it.

Found this on Flickr. Let's go to San Juan.

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow...

It's been a little wet, but we're still flying kites tomorrow.

We'll head out early as usual, because they are saying rain later, but we all know weather.com is full of shit anyway, so it's probably going to be beautiful and warm. But the ground will probably be wet, so prepare for that however you think you should. As Jeremy points out, the good thing about the wet ground is that our park will be less crowded with other jerks grabbing our spools, and getting in the way of squidgie discs.

See you there.

Hey! Look to the right.

There's the weather.
Specifically temperature, UV, and wind.
The keys to a great day of kite-flying.
Nice.

Make It Happen.

Another perfect day in the park. We got there around 10am, and the temperature quickly approached 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The winds were a little weak and inconsistent at first, and we had a lot of knotted lines, but we refused to surrender, and the winds finally picked up and the kites flew high. There were a lot of other kite-flyers in the park too, which is always excellent. There was also a gigantic American flag. We spent about 5 hours out there, and have the sunburns to prove it.

After the kite-flying we retreated to the recuperative shade and drinks of Ye Olde Carriage Inn, along with some fries and Erotic Photo Hunt.

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