ron lowery, the nfka official scribe asked me to write this
months report......ron....poor fellow....had to spend a week in palm
springs, ca. !!
chuck lund was the guy who found the location for the may nfka fly........steilicom park, tacoma washington. it was a great place to fly.......very large open area.....the winds were like most inland winds.......variable and somewhat unpridictable in what direction they blow at any given moment!
13 nfka members showed up for the fly.......only one did not participate in the competition.....he arrived too late.....in the midst of the single elimination line touch competition.
the compeititon was really great. the initial
draw of names seemed to put together flyers of pretty comparable flying
skills in the 1st round!! purely by chance.....but a great
way to begin a competition! the format for the competition
was a best of 5 single elimination.
many of the points lasted for several minutes in almost every
match....some were won by the kite coming around from behind the loser
and touching the loser's line and at the same time wrapping itself
around the loser's neck, ear, hands, etc......a ton of fun watching
each one of the matches.....and especially these specacular points!
one of the more interesting matches to watch were matches dennis
crowley flew in.....he used one of his 10" x 15" bukas to fly
during the entire competition.....what a great flying kite the buka is,
especially in the hands of an expert buka flyer such as dennis!!
the single elimination tree had 3 people who had not lost a
match......dennis crowley, chuck lund, and me......so a round robin
between the 3 was decided to be the way to find a winner.
the matches were 5 points. all points count and the highest
score at the end of the round robin was the winner.
for the second time in a row.....king chuck lund won first
place.......buka king dennis crowley was second and i was 3rd.
congratulations to all who participated!!
after the competition, the participants recieved some kite
making materials as prizes for coming in 15th or better ......lots of fun
for all.
chuck had scoped out a hot mexican resturant for lunch and
did he do good! the food was excellent! thanks
king chuck the champeen of nfka april and may fly!!
as usual, ed alden was showing off his latest venture into
the pure science of pushing the fighter kite envelope with his new
vari-fighter design derivative.....what a killer kite!!
i never have figured out how ed comes up with the great
ideas he uses, but he sure keeps them flowing......and continually
surprises all of us!!
another wonderful surprise design modification was from
steve. he changed the amount and location of spars in a
buka and increased the forward speed by at least 15%.....but has some
continuing work to also keep the spinning the way he likes it.
good work steve!! can't wait to see the final model when
you are completely happy with it!
as is the case at all nfka flys.....a good time was had by all! hope to see you at the june meet.....check the website for details.
grinnin' reallybig,
bruce
And a Northwest native iris in the back yard