Untitled - KiteLife

exquisite ripstop and fiberglass creationthat looks like a stained glassbutterfly against the sun, an astonishinglygood flyer, unlike otherripstop fighter's I've flown . Manypotential flyers of fighter kites areprobably scared off by the apparentfragility of paper or mylarkites . An expectation discussed bymany was that Joel's new Butterfighter(and rts frilly mate, the"Butterfly") will overcome thesefears and help stimulate arenewed interest in single-linemaneuverable kiting .The three winners of the event,Robert Loera (Kite Fantasy), RickRoberts (Hawaii), and Richard (ZZ)VanMechelen (Action Kites), allflew Vic's Fighters, a kite no longeravailable. Designed andproduced by Vic Heredia, this foldablemylar fighter is an oldfavorite, the fighter I learned on .Matthew Kim and and friendswere flying their Korean fighters,on cutting lines from nimblyhandled wooden reels . Koreanfighters, unlike Indian fighters,remain rigid, and can be flown instronger winds. Too much windcauses a constant dihedral toform in the Indian, making it stableand unmaneuverable . The differencein flight characteristics betweenjust these two variations ofsingle-line maneuverable kiteshints at many more possibilities .Mel Govig of Kite LinesMagazine was out of there flyingfighters, and it was quite obviousthat he had done it before . Hediscussed the use of various sailmaterials for these and other kites .Weight, porosity, skin friction, andstrength are variables to considerin the design of any kite, includingfighters .Richard VanMechelen feels thatthe fighter kite bridges the gapbetween single line kiting andstunt kiting . Perhaps he and JohnPerusse, owner of Action Kites andmaster stunt kite designer, mayeventually release the hybridfighter we understand they havebeen secretly developing (on andoff . . .) for years .Somehow, in the rush towardstechnological perfection enjoyedin dual-line maneuverable kiting,the single-line maneuverable kitehas been somewhat ignored . Thisis finally changing, and we canexpect quite a growth in the newfuture both in the innovative flyingand in the innovative productionof fighter kites . I've got a fewscraps of graphite, mylar, andripstop I've been toying with, andcan only imagine the rippingspeed and precision of single-lineflying machines technologicallypossible but not yet invented .