Big box kite on 100 lb line

by Annette
(AZ, USA)

My husband and I often fly kites together. While flying our latest creation, a six-foot nylon box kite, we knew it would pull HARD, so we used 100 lb. line. And the wind picked up, and the line broke.

We were flying in the street, in a suburban neighborhood, and the kite wasn't very high when the line broke, so my husband went off looking for it.

He found the kite a couple of blocks away, in a small tree, and there was a little girl, maybe six years old, jumping up and down and asking her daddy to get it down for her. It's a good thing my husband showed up when he did; that kite would have dragged her right off the ground!

The next time we flew our box, we used 250 lb line. The only way to get that beast down in a strong wind was to loop the line around a broom handle piece and walk it down.

We've built and flown a number of large, six-foot kites. Our favorite is the French Military variety, as it seems to enjoy a wide range of wind speeds. A six-footer we were flying in more open country came loose in a strong gust, and it had been out on about 700 feet of line at the time. The kite still had several hundred feet of line attached to it, so we figured, “How hard can it be? We'll just look criss-cross the wind line until we run into some 150 lb. Dacron!”

We searched back and forth for MILES, and never found a trace! I think someone must have seen it and snatched it before we could find it.

Another French Military kite (Smaller this time), was lost, and it had our phone number on it. Sure enough, it was found and returned about 8 months later. Someone had found the line draped over some power lines. Of course, it was a bit the worse for wear, having been out in the desert sun for all those months, and sunlight is not kind to nylon. Still, it was fun to get it back!