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Show Go fly a kite, and enjoy the fun Last Saturday we spent the morning working in our yard, trying to help it recover from the ravages of winter and getting it ready for spring. While we were working the kids wanted to know if we were going to do anything fun when we were finished. Since there was a breeze blowing, I told them that when we were done we would fly our kites. This may not sound like much of a reward for a morning of hard work, but there is something intriguing about launching laun-ching a bit of wood and paper, tied to a string, on a fresh spring breeze. For our family, flying kites has become an enjoyable springtime ritual. In some respects, kits have come a long way from the tissue paper and flimsy wooden cross-members cross-members of my youth. There was nothing wrong with that type of kite. I remember rounding roun-ding up all of my friends and every piece of kite string we could find to put one of those kites up so far that it was a tiny speck in the sky. With one kid holding the kite, the rest of us jumped on our bikes and raced three blocks to see if we could get directly beneath be-neath the kite, which seemed to be miles in the air. It took us forever for-ever to pull in all that string. The trees in our neighborhood devoured more than one of those paper and stick kites. The big test was to see if we could get the kite up in the sky while avoiding the reaching arms of the trees. It took a steady breeze r Lct Utah Outdoors IftJTj by Mike I Ulili I Hemin9wcy and careful maneuvering to get the kite high enough to miss the trees and power lines on its journey into the sky. Today, kites, like most everything every-thing else, are made of plastic. The wooden sticks have been replaced by plastic rods, and the paper has been replaced by sheets of plastic. In fact, it is pretty difficult to find a paper diamond shaped kite in a store. (There are some at The Basement Base-ment in Centerville if you are really nostalgic.) Most kites are built like delta wing airplanes. They take very little construction and launch very easily. They even have the hole for the string punched in the proper place. There is no guessing guess-ing or moving your string to find the best place to tie for flight. It has all been carefully engineered so that the kite will fly with little effort Kites have entered the space age. It is possible to purchase kites made of nylon or mylar. If you really want to "fly" your kite, you can get a model that has two lines and can be controlled so that it climbs, dives, swoops, and spins. There are many other designs that are now commercially commer-cially available. The box kite is fairly common, com-mon, and is really fun to fly. There are also sled kites, para-sail para-sail kites, kites that drop parachutes, and many other unique and interesting designs. It pays to look around if you want to have an interesting afternoon flying a kite. We happen to have a kite made of mylar, that bears a picture pic-ture of the "Peanuts' character. Snoopy. The kite has a multi-strand, multi-strand, multi-color tail. When it waves in the breeze, it creates colorful shadows and reflections on the pavement. The kids have f as much fun trying to stand in V the kite shadow as they do flying the kite. Saturday, we launched Snoopy and a paper diamond kite from our front yard. The wind forced us to move across the street to keep the kites in I j flight and out of the trees. Before i long, my kids were joined by several friends and the whole V group took turns holding onto the kites, letting out and pulling in string, and watching the kites fly. Even the four-year-olds thought it was fun to fly. Kite season will last for a few more weeks. There are plenty of parks and school grounds that offer open flying areas. If you want a challenge, see if you can get a kite up between the trees in your backyard. However you do it, take a little time one of these next couple of weekends and tell f the kid to go fly a kite. Then go V . with them and enjoy the fun. |
