Anderson County Fair & Fun Fly, April 29-30, 2000

A small group of WACKOS headed south again this Spring to Anderson, SC to join other Carolinas flyers for some fun in the sun and on the fairgrounds. Friday night there was a 'welcome' buffet (with particularly good barbecue) for both kiters and balloonists followed by a balloon glow. Marty was the only one who made it for the balloon glow so these are his pictures. Saturday and Sunday, the kite flyers, ruled however. The winds were just too strong for the balloonists and sometimes for the kiters, too. At one point Saturday, several banners were almost horizontal and Okra Central actually took off, flattening a couple banners on its way. If we had bridled the thing, we might have been able to fly it!

Friday night balloon glow - you can see the surprisingly rapid process of inflating the balloon from flat on the ground to full inflation. I tossed in a couple pictures of the fair at night for interest. The final glow picture is about 9 p.m.

Saturday pictures - not much to show since the winds got real flaky. They were coming over the stands behind the flying field and got real squirrelly. It was almost impossible to get kites over the turbulence at the level of the top of the stands.

A couple of round things were seen in the sky. Jim's Claddagh circoflex and Marty's new 3-ringer.	With a new spine, the Supreme Dragon flies again.	This happened to be the red, white and blue mass ascension. Marty made it for this weekend.

Pretty good display of banners including the WACKOS and SAKE (Suburban Atlanta Kite Enthusiasts)	Keith flew his Pro Wren pretty much all day and it didn't seem to matter how much wind there was.	A little different view of the wind farm allowing you to see the throngs that came out to watch the kite flying.

After Saturdays winds, Sunday flying was pretty futile. The winds started from the northeast (the open side of the arena) then came back around from behind the stands, then pretty much stopped. Must have been time to go home.

Harlan Groover tried all day to get the Sutton in the air with little success.	Jim reflects on an aborted attempt to fly a flock of fighters.	A sad sight indeed - the Claddagh got hung up on the fence as we were packing up. Fortunately, the only harm was to Jim's ego - the kite was fine.