WSIKF 2007

Big kites in August means it is time once again for the Washington State International Kite Festival in Long Beach Washington. This years's event was the number six for Joani and I, along with the rest of our kite club, the Goat Hill Gang.

The Goat Hill Gang: Rod, Marti, Joani, Dick, Dave, Marion, Fran, and Deb. Missing are Jim and Lynn, who were out on the beach flying their Revolutions.

The Festival provides a special area on the beach for kite clubs. As usual The Gang set up camp there. We had something new this year; a 7-foot helium-filled balloon.

In addition to looking pretty the balloon is able to lift a radio-controlled digital camera to do aerial photography. If you scroll back to earlier blog updates you can see what the camera rig looks like. It captured this image of the balloon launch crew as it went up. The guy with the transmitter is me. Our friends Jim and Dick are to my left.

Our camp as seen from the balloon. This was "Paint Me Patriotic" day so the camp is decked out with the appropriate banners and other decorations. Those included balloons, pinwheels and bubble toys that were given out to the kids. The camp won an award for "Most Inovative Display".

The balloon camera works great when it is calm but gets bouncy when the wind comes up. That is when it gets transferred to a kite. The three blue-top shelters in the left center of the photo anchor our camp. The big balloon is visible at the bottom center of the frame.

The kite camera is facing north toward the "big kite" field. Only a few were up at time but later in the day the sky was filled with them.

A big part of WSIKF for me is the competition for handcrafted kites. I entered only one this year - a cellular kite called a Cross Deck. It has a wingspan of almost nine feet. Construction uses carbon filiment spars and spinnaker nylon fabric.

Judging of the kites takes place on the flying field and includes evaluation of structural design, craftsmanship, visual appeal and flight characteristics.

The Cross Deck in flight. The wind was blowing pretty hard - about 20 mph - but it flew good and won first place in my division.

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