Kite Lines - Vol.1 No. 2 - KiteLife

What's New(Continued)zines . These are good and necessarysources, but they fail to inspire thefresh insights available from mixingwith real kiters .Is a chapter of kite history reallynecessary? Dickson's job on it wasbetter than some, but I found myselfdozing over it as usual .The chapter "The Joy of Flying,"containing kite "types" (a strangearray of them), is very brief on actualflying techniques, though mostly correct. But some of the drawings thatappear in this section are egregiouslyflawed ; the "Delta Winged Kite" wasan unparalleled oddity .But let's look at the assets of thisbook, which are several . One is thethorough coverage of the 1970 confrontationin Washington, DC, betweenkitefliers, representing freedom andpersonal rights, and the police, representingarchaic laws, bureaucracy andrepression . The kites eventually wonout . Dickson gives us a needed andcomplete documentation of it . Alsothe book has a nice collection of kitequotations .But by far the best feature is Dickson'sprofile of our own Bob Ingraham .The founder of AKA is well and sympatheticallyportrayed, and his productionof Kite Tales (predecessor ofKite Lines) is at last appreciated in apermanent way.The appendices include three plansfor kites to make (taken from KiteTales), and lists of kite books and shops .I've probably developed standardsfor kite books that make it hard forme to enjoy them . I had a lot morefun reading the chapter on yo-yos .