Perfect Flight

by Gary Crenshaw
(Hampton, GA, USA)

With any kite experience at all you learn that a single line kite normally flys at a certain angle with the wind pushing against it with tension on the kite line. When the wind is just right ever now and then I get what I call a perfect flight.

When a single line kite is about two or three hundred feet high and is straight overhead at a ninety degree angle and then has a tendency to do what I call 'over fly' the anchor point, this is the beginnings of the perfect flight.

It takes a good kite and certain wind conditions to achieve this but when this happens the kite seems to just float on its own without relying on line tension to create lift. At this point the kite will keep over flying the nintey degrees angle and then fly big circles like a glider in a thermal.

Of course any kite flight is rewarding but when you get the perfect flight it just seems special.