Flying Kites

Kite Loss Stories Plus Much More

Anyone who's been out flying kites will have a story or 2 to tell. Particularly, it seems, if a favorite kite managed to find it's freedom! Also, in this age of cheap and convenient digital photography, plenty of good kite imagery has been taken. Some of it ends up on-line, on sites like this one.

Feel like typing something in right now? Soon, you'll see your story pop up in the site blog page, which is under that what's new! link at the top of this page.

After a few weeks, your story will end up under one of the several categories below, as a permanent page on this site.

There's a few real gems to be found amongst the tales of flying kites and photos people have already added to this site...

This site has been collecting these real-life kiting stories and photos for some years now. Mainly single-line stuff, since this site reflects my personal preference for flying kites on one line. However, contributions from multi-line fliers are more than welcome!

The 4 sections below group all the older contributions together by category. Enjoy...

Kite Loss Stories

Kite-loss stories! Oh yes, but don't laugh too hard. Something similar just might happen to you one day.

You couldn't make this stuff up, honestly. Like the self-destructing dowel-and-plastic light-wind kites tearing up the sky during a much-too-windy day at an Austrian kite festival. And then the last one managed to take out a couple of exquisite (and expensive) retail kites, sending them into the Blue Danube. But you've got to read the whole thing, it's quite a yarn!

Or, how about a young lad, many decades ago, managing to lose his box kite into an air intake on a landing military aircraft. I kid you not.

Can you top any of this? We're waiting for 'the next great story'. It has to have that ring of truth to it though.

Kite-flying Or Kite-making Stories

All the other single-liner stories, but there are still some nice ones in here.

I guess the key-word here is variety. From night-flights to snowy-weather flights into cloud, to high-altitude excursions over sea-water, to Sunday School outings. I don't think any 2 stories here are remotely like each other.

If you're into flying kites, do yourself a favor and read some of these. Do us all a favor and contribute something yourself :-)

Pictures Of Kites

A whole range of amateur kite photography on show. Mainly single-surface single-liners - but there are some magnificent exceptions!

Many of these photos are just plain spectacular! In most cases, that means physically big kite.

For example, there's a monster Butterfly from some enthusiasts in the Czech Republic, Europe. Also, an incredible 3D Dragon from England (see left) and an interesting large design from the Ahmadabad International Kite Festival in India.

Drop in here for a truly international selection of kite photos!

Stunt Kite Stories

Stunt kite stories is a new category. Designed to collect reports of incidents or other interesting happenings either during a sport kite's flight or perhaps at its abrupt termination!

There's not much in there right now. But there's so much sport kite flying going on out there, it's just a matter of time. Maybe 2 or 3 of my regular contributors could help me out here, to get things moving... Thanks in advance!

Aerial Kite Photography

Kite aerial photography is another new category. This is for anyone who has ever hoisted a camera with the aid of a kite, or would like to view the results of doing that. If you have ever obtained an intriguing result, this is where you can upload it for the rest of us to see and think 'I wish I took that!'

It seems that everyone has their own spin on flying kites to get a different photographic perspective on our surroundings. Some of the results are really intriguing, whether obtained with a featherweight camera and ice-cube shutter release, or the latest concepts in radio-controlled KAP rigs.

Tell us all about your own methods and gear, and back it all up by posting some photos! Different people will be keen to read about different aspects - the kite, the KAP rig, the photo subject or even all 3.

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