Six Months and 4 days
YES…..Six Months and 4 days….or 188 days….or even 16 million, 234 thousand, and 200 hundred seconds.
That is the exact time since I had last been in a buggy, and almost the same since I have flown a kite. There have been many reasons for this, health being one of the major factors, and my new employment being the other, my shifts have seriously effected my hobby.
I have taken many steps to sort the health issue out during the last few months, and I think I have turned the corner. I also promised myself on New Years Eve, that I would get in the buggy at least once a month during 2012 and hopefully more.
Well today, the winds were no good for our coast, and so I decided to head to the park to try out both the HQ Prodigy’s and my Apexx buggy, over kill for the park I know, but I had to use this piece or art before it seized up completely.
I went with a complete newbie and a lad who had only flown a few times before, I spent the first couple of hours with the newbie giving instructions, the wind was gusty ranging from 7-15mph….Once I could leave him, I decided to get the 3.4m Prodigy out of the bag, yes I know for that wind range, had I been on the beach in the buggy I would have had the biggest one out of the bag, but I was in a small gusty field, recreational flying, and that size was more than enough.
I launched the 3.4 and you could just tell the quality of the build, and the crispness and speed of this race kite…..after flying the other kites with the newbie, this was like a thoroughbred, I likend it to skaters on ice, and this felt like a skater going out on the smoothest cleanest ice, it flew around the window with such speed and power I was quite taken aback, it was amazingly fast considering the wind speed, and considering I was in a field surrounded by trees, not the ideal location for a race kite.
The kite produced so much pull, I decided to take the buggy off the trailer, it had been sitting there since August, and this was now the end of January. I had been itching for this moment for a long while and although it was not the beach, at this stage, I was just happy to even think about getting in the buggy.
Once in the buggy I launch the kite thinking that this would be a waste of time, but what a shock, as the wind was so light I hadn’t even bothered to put a helmet on, but was pleasantly surprized at how much pull this small kite had in such light turbulent air, I was also pleasantly surprised at how stable the kite was in light gusty winds.
I ran up and down the park for an hour, I had flown for the first time a Prodigy Race kite and ridden my Apexx, this is a start in the right direction, I was so happy, an easterly wind and hitting the beach cannot come fast enough for me now, I just hope I am not working when they do come.
I will do a proper write up on the Apexx when I use it with vengence on the beach…watch this space