Dec. 22, 1921-April 7, 2003
"Stormy"
was known for having a kite in his bag that would fly when there was
no wind for anyone else. He's made attempts at the world altitude
record, with a larger version of this kite. I met him one year at
the W.S.I.K.F. and asked him some things about flying it. He wasn't nearly
as mean as he looked. It's actually some
sort of sled kite, cross-bred with a high-aspect diamond, or
maybe just a winged sled kite. Either way, I've had about 750' of
line out with it, when there was virtually no wind on the ground.
I take it to all the festivals and kite flys I go to, just in
case there's no real wind around. "Stormy"
made this kite out of his usual high-tech materials: plastic
bags, plastic straws, masking tape, dowels and the
"handyman's secret weapon", duct tape. The following pic is a closeup of the wing decoration. Here's the label, with the
particulars, and Stormy's seal of approval. Note the beach sand
in the masking tape that holds the straw to the sail. I really
like this kite!
This is a
kite I got at an A.O.K. spaghetti feed and raffle, several years
ago. I didn't make many friends by winning this, but have met
plenty by flying it. I didn't know Stormy when I got this kite,
but learned of him when people went out of their way to find out
who was flying it. Lots of people know Stormy's kites. And lots
of people came over to see if he was the one flying this.
I'm pretty sure he told me
he heat welded the different colors of plastic together, with a
soldering iron arrangement. I'm not picking it apart to find out.
