Muncie, Indiana is, to say the least, a quiet town!! Just corn fields and more corn fields! Very friendly people however and a great place to fly kites!

The Muncie convention center was a really nice facility for the various workshops and seminars plus the banquets.

The national model airplane association's headquarters is located in Muncie, and that is the location of the kite flying areas. It is about 60 acres of grass, with some slightly rolling small knolls, so just about perfect for kite flying!

The fighter kite flying field was about 400' square, really a good size!

My estimate of the total number of fighter kite participants is about 35 people. There were 3 separate competitions, one for each of 3 flyer skill level, novice, experienced and an open/masters. With the novice and experienced levels, there were line touch and skills competitions. With masters, only line touch, however the people entered in the masters division of line touch did fly in the experienced skills competition, so everyone got to fly both line touch and skills.

Since none of the flyers considered themselves "masters", we originally didn't have anyone entered in that group. But Andy Selzer from NJ suggested that he and I enter and just duke it out! Sounded like fun, so I agreed. But by the time of the actual competition, there were 6 people entered into the "masters" category.

The weather was really perfect for the first few days of the convention. That is when the Novices flew. The wind was variable in the 7-12mph range and sunny! On the day of the experienced and masters events it rained. The decision was made to postpone the competitions until Saturday and "fly or die" regardless of weather. Well, you guessed it, it began to rain as the experienced line touch began and continued to rain through the masters line touch competitions.

For the 1st time at an AKA Convention, a fighter kite category for comprehensive kite making was offered. There were about 12 people who entered fighters they made. There were 6 judges judging the comprehensive competition. The fighters were judged 50% on performance, 25% on construction, 25% on artistic or innovation. I think this is a category we should encourage all kite festivals to adopt!

The results of all the fighter kite competitions are at the end of this update.

I gave a workshop about making a modified buka. It was scheduled for 30 people and about 40 were eager to make the kites, needless to say, some just watched. Everyone who made the kite seemed surprised and really pleased at the way it flew. Only a few of the attendees of the workshop even knew what a buka was, so it really opened up their eyes to a "new" style of fighter! I hope they will spread the word!!

One of the most interesting things at the convention was the indoor flying! Indoor fighter kite flying in particular! Paul Barard from Boston, has discovered how to make fighters really perform indoors!! Most of the flying is along the lines of kite ballet, not line touch, well, not yet! Maybe some of the NFKA members can figure that out!!

In talking with fighter fans from around the country, I was frequently given high praise and compliments about the NFKA and how we have developed such a large group of fighter fanatics! I think a few other fighter groups will begin to emerge around the country!! That would really be great!!

Being at the AKA convention made me think about how incredible it would be to have a similar event but exclusively with fighter kites!! WOW what a blast that would be!! Fighter kite heaven for sure, well at least for 3 or 4 days ;-)

PRECISION

Novice
1st: Dave Young of Owasso, OK, Kite: Mylar (d26) made by Bruce Lambert
2nd: Barb Hall of Absecon, NJ, Kite: Steve Bateman design made of Mylar
3rd: Jeremy Johannesen of Albany, NY , Kite: Stafford Wallace Mylar

Experienced
1st: Nelson Borelli of Chicago, IL Kite: Stafford’s Mylar
2nd Mike Steele of Carpenterville, Ill; Kite Satfford’s Mylar
3rd: Mike Coons of Albany NJ; Kite: His own design made of Icarex with applique

LINE TOUCH

Novice
1st: Dave Young of Owasso, OK, Kite: mylar (d26) made by Bruce Lambert
2nd: Bill Schumacher Alto Michigan, Kite: his own design “Knock out” made of Icarex
3rd: Pam Hodges of Maplewood, Minnesota Kite: Stafford’s Mylar

Experienced
1st: Steve Bateman of San Diego CA, Kite: his own design, made of mylar
2nd: Nelson Borelli of Chicago IL Kite: Stafford’s Mylar.
3rd: Mike Steele of Carpentenville, Il Kite Staffor’s Mylar

MASTER-OPEN
1st: Bruce Lambert of Olympia WA Kite: His own design “Slow Dog” made of Orcon
2nd: Jeff Gandee of Columbus OH Kite: Jeff Howard’s Icarex fighter
3rd¨Bruce Jarvie of Oak Park Michigan, Kite: Stafford’s Mylar

KITE MAKING
1st: Bruce Lambert of Olympia WA, Kite: His design, “Small Slow Dog” ,made of Orcon, painted with design master paint.
2nd: Mike Coons of Albany NY, Kite: His design, made of Icarex with beautiful applique.
3rd: Gordon Schmidt of North Canton, OH, Kite: Merlin Scamp kite design that Gordon made using a geometric pattern in what I would call a beautiful patchwork design made from mylar of various colors.

cravin'wind!!
bruce

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