Smithsonian Kite Festival, MD, 1995

So you say, well, another article about the Smithsonian Kite Festival. First, thank you, John Ruggiero, for writing the other one; I was not fast enough };-) but now to my story. My wife and I started driving on a rainy (and even snowy) Friday in Boston, and went on a long way towards Baltimore where we were to stay at a friend's home. For me it was the first trip in this region of the USA. The first thing I saw when arriving at the Festival site in Washington the next day was the Monument. It is really impressive when you see it for the first time.

A tremendous amount of banners were already placed at the flying field. And there were Paul and Ronny who already had their colorful and eye- catching Arches up. In addition, Archie flew his nice "Phantom of the Opera" Rokkaku. The sun was shining the whole day. Wonderful weather! The sky started to fill more and more with kites, spread widely over the large area around the Monument. Since I am kind of not extremely familiar with the kite scene here, besides the New England folks, I only knew [Rageb] Reza and was very happy to see him unexpectedly. He presented his wonderful [kite] art the whole day in a corner of the flying field. During the day a lot of activity was going on besides the competitions. A Team (High Fly?) demonstrated stunt kiting in a very impressive way for the spectators. In addition some buggying was performed. A Japanese group presented a very big Edo-Dako (see last Flypaper for a name discussion, I don't know a better name) [see below] fighter kite. This kite was built with typical traditional materials. It is always amazing to see how these big kites get transported rolled up like a carpet. Some people did fly some small fighter kites. After a while the fields were surrounded by spectators, often with their eyes wide open seeing so many nice things going on. And I should not forget the little ones, the kids, happily flying their little kites.

I had to prepare for the competition and therefore assembled my new patchwork Hakkaku (about 430 pieces or so...).

The wind was extremely gusty that day and I had tremendous trouble with my kite. After more crashes than I liked to have I finally got the thing stabilized and was the ready for the competition. Oh, what a long line! I stood there with Bruce [Kapsten] and his quad-liner {nice little thing :-) } and we waited and waited and waited.... Very nice kites were entered in the competitions. Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of most of the persons. Pete Dolphin had a box kite with a magnificent appliqui which won the prize for the overall highest score in the age group 16-59. A couple of very nice figure kites were also presented. I also remember a rectangular kite with beautiful, church-window like applications. [Made by W. D. Connors] Flying was really difficult that day. It was really gusty; a number of kites were not willing at all to fly! Lucky me. when it was my turn to fly, the wind was OK. Gary & Maggie Engvall were flight judges the whole day. At least, I can state that for me that waiting in the long line had its reward; I got the First Prize in the Single Surface Category (nice medal with Dr. Paul E. Garber on the front and the Smithsonian symbol on the back), and the 3rd Prize in the overall highest score in the age group 16-59. I was very happy and surprised.

After this I finally had time for the fun things and entered the Rokkaku Battle with my wife Maryam and a guy from Into The Wind with my Eye-Rokkaku. I was the pilot and maneuvered my kite consequently in very difficult situations (all blame on me, my crew was excellent). In the first run, where the K.O.N.E. Rokkaku (Archie, Gary, Paul, John, and Kevin) gave a very good impression, we came down early - in a wonderful maneuver I tricked myself and was trapped in a bulk of 5 other Rokkaku's - and lost my line. We had so much fun and the crowd (news reports said about 50,000 people over the whole day) enjoyed it so much that we had a second battle. So second strike, new line, and at least we survived longer. It was a lot of fun. I have some wonderful photos, taken by a friend, of the 29 Rokkaku's in the sky.

After this everyone got their prize - and the Festival was nearly over. I chatted a little with Gary and then helped Paul lift his Parachuting Bear with my 21 foot Delta Conyne (which, thanks to the wind, made its first loop in its life). Then it was really over and I was one of the last people to leave the fields. It is always kind of sad after such a beautiful day to see the sky empty again.

EDITOR'S NOTE (Gary Engvall): The kite in question was a Shirone City O'dako (see last month's Flypaper) being flown by Tamura-san and 11 high school students from the Shirone area and their escort.