April is THE month for kite flying. It is the perfect activity for the family to get out and get active when the temperature is too cool to lounge in the sun and it is too windy to throw things to each other. The range of styles can boggle the mind. Everyone is familiar with the old fashioned diamond shaped kite with a long tail made of cloth strips. You may even have flown one of the bat kites (a delta wing) in your youth. These days you can find kites of every shape, material, color and size. Will you be flying a diamond, delta, sled, roller, rokkaku, sode or box kite? Will it be small, medium or gigantic (and I mean gigantic)?
Equipment
This activity is relatively low tech. To start, you will need a kite. While many retailers will be stocking kites for you to purchase, you can also expand this family activity to an exercise in cooperative and creative engineering by building your own kite. Websites like this have plans for just about every kind of kite; many of which can be made out of found materials around the house. (Just make sure you have purchased a back up kite or two to bring with you. Nothing is more disappointing than a kite breaking into little pieces before you get a chance to really get it flying.)
Then, you will need string. The more string the better. The less technology used to roll out string the better. (Like fishing line, it can be a mess to untangle.)
The Basics
Kite flying starts with putting your back to the wind. When the wind is strong enough, hold the kite up by the cross bar while slowly letting out the line. When you pull on the string to bring the kite toward you it will begin to climb as the wind catches it. Keep pulling and letting out string to get your kite to rise until it catches a steady wind. In lighter wind conditions you will need a helper go downwind and hold the kite up. (A cooperative activity for siblings!) When you are ready to get started, holler at the holder to release it as you pull on the string to get the kite to rise. Or, you could use the more traditional technique which consists of the kite flyer suddenly and unexpectedly breaking into a sprint while looking back over their shoulder as either 1) the holder neglects to release the kite in time resulting in it being transformed into a mass of broken sticks and plastic or 2) the kite promptly spins incredibly fast up and then down impaling the helper or crashing point first into the ground thereby becoming a mass of broken sticks and material or 3) the kite flyer steps in an unseen depression in the ground while running headlong across the field and thereby slamming face-first into the turf, rendering themselves unconscious. Either helper technique is fine. It’s all part of the fun.
Rules of the Air
Before you send your kite into the air, there are a few safety precautions to observe. Make sure you are flying the kite in an open area unobstructed by trees or power lines. Trees will eat your kite. Power lines will electrocute you to death. Both can put a damper on the fun.
Don’t fly kites in stormy weather. These conditions are ripe for atmospheric electrical activity, otherwise known as lightning. This would seem to be an obvious restriction given the cultural myth of Benjamin Franklin and all. But it is worth mentioning anyway. (Does it also need to be said that tying metal objects onto the string of the kite to attract electricity is a bad idea?)
Make sure there aren’t any people in the general range of your fully extended kite. It can sometimes be difficult to appreciate how high the kite is (though there are a couple of handy formulas provided below for calculating this). When that sucker comes down, it is like a missile. Don’t fly the kite where it might land on people or stampede animals.
Weather Conditions
It helps to know if the wind will be up on the day you are going to venture out with your miracle of ancient aerodynamics. Our tax dollars fund a wonderful service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that provides information on weather conditions in your area, including wind.
Kite Flying Alternatives
While most people find kite flying to be a satisfying adventure in its own right, kite flying might not hold enough risk and excitement for kids who have been raised on leisure activities marked by simulated violence and aggression. Luckily, kiting has some activities just for them. Your little warrior might enjoy the sport of kite fighting. As practiced in Asia, kite fighting is a battle between two kites in which the contestants try to bring down their opponents kite. This can be done by entangling the lines and actually crashing the kite to the ground. In other forms, a knife blade or crushed glass on the kite string is used to cut down an opponent’s kite. Either way, the blissful and contemplative act of kite flying is transformed into an aerial blood bath. To each their own.
More adventurous families (who also have more money) can turn kite flying into the more dangerous and thrilling sport of kite surfing. In this activity, you grab hold of a large, almost parachute like kite with your feet planted on a surf board and skim across the surface of water under the power of the wind This sporting activity is often practiced on the ocean though it could work as well on a lake. Kite surfing has also been adapted to snow skiing and could even be modified for skateboarding. (Make sure your health insurance is up to date.)
There are organizations dedicated to the art and practice of kite flying like this and this where you can learn all you need to know about this fun family activity. And, if you really want to ruin it for your kids, NASA has made it possible for you to turn kite flying into a lesson in aerodynamics, engineering or math. (Kids will LOVE this.)
But mostly, have fun!
