Go Fly A Kite

Ever since I remember my Dad and I used to go to the park and fly a kite we had. It's a delta wing kite (triangular shape) white and red (both for Poland, my family's origins, and for Canada my home). Well we moved recently and after about 10 years of not flying it, my kids saw it and bugged me daily to go to the park and fly the kite. Our new house backs onto a large muncipal park.

So last night after dinner we head out to the park with the kite. It's about 7pm and still plenty bright. Put the kite up and they're amazed. We lie in the grass and watch it for at least 30 min. Then they drift to the playground and some friends meet us in the park with their kids.

Getting to be around 8pm and starting to get dark.....when all of a sudden I get this idea...can I put a flashlight on the kite and send it back up??

Fortunately I have, among other lights, an Arc-AAA-P in my pocket on a split ring. I haul down the kite, turn on the Arc, attach the split ring to the end of the string holding the kite, and send-er back up.

I've got about 300 feet of string on a spool and I pay it all out, so with the angle I figure the kite and light was at 200 feet approximately.

It was great, all the kids in the park came over because the sun was setting, the kite was high, and the Arc was swinging away under the kite like a signal light.

Had a blast and the kids loved it too. :twothumbs


BTW, my wife had this smirk on her face the whole time. I asked her "What?" and she says, "You're just loving this aren't you?" My reply, "It's for the kids, honey."

great story

you should get some of those cheap inova keychain lights from target and attacth them to you kite you can also get differnt colors so you could get blue red or maybe green and turn them on strobe mode your neighbors might think its a UFO.

have fun again tonight

Hahahahaha, that's great! Maybe get some different color fauxtons(Or mod them with your own led's? I don't know if different color fauxtons are available.) and attach several of them to the string as the kite goes up?


:buddies:

Blazer said:

BTW, my wife had this smirk on her face the whole time. I asked her "What?" and she says, "You're just loving this aren't you?" My reply, "It's for the kids, honey."

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Great idea! I have this Digilight PIS-103 marker that someone very kindly sent me. I'll have to set it on strobe and put it on my kite.

:laughing:
Great story. While your at it why not use a wire instead of the normal string, so you can ground feed some high power lights. No need to lift the batteries.

Jan

JanCPF said:

:laughing:
Great story. While your at it why not use a wire instead of the normal string, so you can ground feed some high power lights. No need to lift the batteries.

Jan

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why not just build a 8yd Cody? Send up some high power lights and a bunch of full size lead acid batteries to power them