2005 WACKOS Flying Schedule
(Other activities, and where they'll be are also shown)

For more events in the Southeast or others that may not be listed here, click here to visit the AKA Region 4 web site. There are also links to the last few years of the WACKOS at the bottom of the page.

Sometimes, I don't get all the good pictures. But at least Jim & Laura post them for everyone to enjoy. Check out the gallery at Kitefliers Kite Gallery. And Jim Martin sometimes posts pictures on his Photo page - http://www.fotki.com/jmartjr
 
December 2005
We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We'll see you all on a flying field someplace in 2006!
November 2005
5th - First Saturday Fun Fly
12th - 
19th - Third Saturday Fun fly
26th - Saturday after Thanksgiving. Anyone going to be around and want to purge some Tryptophan?
October 2005
1st - First Saturday scheduled fly
8th -
15th - Third Saturday and it was a beauty! Where was everybody? The winds weren't perfect, and they rarely are, but there was enough to fly something. The temperatures were ideal with hardly any humidity. The field was the best we've seen it all Summer. Race traffic really didn't get in the way. The few of us that were there flew pretty much the whole time with a couple single liners keeping the sky decorated when we took a break. We don't get many days like this!
22nd - Some nice lightwind Sunday flying. Until the ex-high school football players showed up. 
29th - 
Festival By the Sea, Holden Beach, NC a.k.a. Grumpy Fest II
 The weather was beautiful! The camaraderie was outstanding! Unfortunately the winds were off-shore and extremely variable. Several kites took a salty bath because the winds kept changing. It was not conducive to putting on our normal single line show. One kite bath was the result of a failed trick on a stunt kite. John, you really are supposed to hang on to the handles, particularly when you're flying somebody elses kite. 

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September 2005
3rd - Blasted gas-buying panic in Charlotte kept us home this weekend. But it didn't stop us from getting together at Frank Liske Park for the first time since June sometime. It has been a long time since our bunch has been on a field together, flying, eating and jawing. We did more eating and jawing than flying but it was still a great time!
10th -  Nothing on Saturday but Sunday was GREAT! Some of us were at Mint Hill Park for a few hours in the afternoon and the winds were super for quads. Poor Hector broke another dual line and had to try Stu's Rev 1.5. For somone that professed to know nothing about flying quad kites, he did pretty well. I sense another soul going over to "The Dark Side".
17th -  Third Saturday scheduled fly. Last chance to fly with your buddies before they go to the convention.
26th - 28th Annual AKA Convention begins in Ocean Cty, Md and runs until October 1st. There will be WACKOS in attendance. Jim Podlasek put some pictures here .and Jim Martin put some here.
August 2005
6th - First Saturday scheduled fly
21st - Third Sunday scheduled fly
July 2005
2nd - First Saturday scheduled fly
9th
17th - Third Sunday scheduled fly
June 2005
4th - 1st Saturday - Was anyone at the park? Guess not. 
11th - 
19th - It wasn't a bad day to fly ... until the thunderstorm showed up. The wind was mostly light and good for UL stunters and fighters. Good crowd of WACKOS, too. No pictures - too busy flying!
25th -
May 2005
7th - If you didn't make it today, you missed a beauty. The sun was warm, the sky was clear, the winds were mild and variable and the flying was pretty good. There were lulls but they were followed by decent winds. Too light for quads but got in some good dual line flying. There was a couple new kiters that joined us for the afternoon. They wondered where everybody was on such a beautiful day.
14th - 
21st - The winds weren't perfect, but kites were flying,  the Sun was shining and Stu got sunburned. Once again, if you missed flying today, and many did, you missed a good day. Dory got a bunch of pictures. Click here to see some of the best. 

A couple of us went to Robinson Middle on Sunday to get in a little more air time. 

28th - This weekend is Memorial Day weekend. If you'll be in town, let's go flying someplace. Some of us want to fly at least once, maybe three times - DOW - Depending On Weather naturally. Write Marty or Stu if you're going to be around and want to fly. But plan on coming to the Southern part of town because the only flyers at FLP this month have lived on the South side. 
April 2005
It's Official: April in North Carolina is Kite Month. Governor Easley says so. The proclamation has been removed form the Governor's web site, but I think I may have a copy floating around someplace. Write if you really, really need to see it. 
2nd & 3rd - Day At The Docks unfortunately was a real blowout for both the WACKOS and the vendors who showed up to display their crafts. Friday night we had winds upwards of 50 mph and heavy rain. Some of the vendor tents were destroyed. Saturday morning we had tropical rains and strong winds in the morning. The rain stopped by noon but the winds were 10 - 24 mph, with gusts to 32 mph. Sunday was pretty much the same. It was very disappointing considering the last two fests at Holden were so perfect. Maybe things will be better this Fall.
9th - Saturday is a National Kite Month event! Now officially called .........  Grumpy's Day Off Fun Fly & Kite Extravaganza
We had a really good day - lots of sun and wind and fliers. We even had a visit from the curator of the NC Museum of Kites and Curious Kite Things. As predicted, a rok battle broke out and was quickly over. Twice. I think the Dave Gomberg - Rok Battle - First Out Hat is on it's way to Greensboro. I believe it has been there before.
16th -  7th Annual Blue Ridge Kite Festival at Green Hill Park - Roanoke/Salem, VA OR the 3rd Saturday Flying day at Frank Liske Park.

This is how I felt about the festival.

"It was an amazing experience.  It was more like a fair than a kite festival. There were food vendors, a kite shop (naturally), arts & crafts booths, face painting and a kids kite booth that gave out 1000 sled kites in the first 2 hours. The line to the kids kite booth was 100 yard long by 10 a.m.  At any one time there had to be 200 - 300 (or more) kites in the air. The festival ran from 10 am to 4 pm and they had over 9000 (!) people come through. There was still a long line of traffic to get in at 3:30 and it took over an hour to get into the place. The flying area is larger than a polo field, well over 8 football fields and wide open. There are some trees around the periphery, but I have never flown in such a big space. We roped off an area for competition-style demos, and put on bear drops and some single line stuff. The bear drops were really funny - imagine 40 or more kids, running in one big group, chasing a small bear on a parachute. The group moved with the bear as it got blown around by the wind, running through other crowds, around booths and among other kite flyers. And nobody got hurt! It was great to watch.

We hung out at the park after it ended and got everything packed up by 6:30 and headed for a pizza joint for supper. Everyone was sunburnt and tired but exhilarated from the days activities.

The Chamber of Commerce ran a first class show and all the sponsors really took care of the kite fliers with great accommodations, a goodie bag of munchies and plenty of water, an event t-shirt, a fine, plentiful Chinese buffet at the park Friday night, a huge breakfast Saturday morning, a great lunch on the field Saturday, and lots of small things that don't readily come to mind. 

Sunday was pretty good, too. About a dozen of us showed up at the park to get in a little more flying and socializing before heading home. I was just going to stop by on the way home and say Hi & Bye to a few folks and then leave. I got there at 9:30 and didn't get on the road until noon. Flew quads about 2 hours straight - it was a perfect end to a great weekend. 

There's a forum on Gone With The Wind that talks about the fest and the link is: http://www.gwtw-kites.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20862."

We have got to set out calendars for the 8th Annual Blue Ridge Kite Festival in 2006!
 

23rd - The Laurels, unfortunately, was a washout. Maybe next time.
30th - Charlotte Museum of History -  Kites To Kitty Hawk exhibit opens. I've added a short page on the exhibit. For information about museum, see http://www.charlottemuseum.org .  As a teaser, I've put some pictures here. And Jim Martin has added some to his photo page under WACKOS.

You really should come down and see the exhibit.

March 2005
5th - Rained out! Had a couple things in the sky but then the wind got cold, the drops started falling and we pulled it all down. Except for our diehard stunters, Stu & Andy. Flying in the rain - reminds me of St. Augustine last weekend. As usual, Louis' lunch was good food & good company. See you all in Tryon next Sunday.
13th - Foothills Equestrian Event Kite Demo
26th - Lake Park Kite Day was another pretty good day even though the winds were very fickle. The gray skies and threats of rain made for a smaller crowd than last year but those that came showed some pretty nice kites. A bunch of WACKOS showed up and all but a couple of us enjoyed lunch at La Unica in Indian Trail. It was a pretty good day.
31st - We hung a bunch of kites in one of the halls in the South County Regional branch of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. The kites will be there until the end of May, so visit the lebrary at Rea Rd & Hwy 51.
February 2005
5th -1st Saturday. Weather projection >> Mostly sunny. Highs around 60. Northeast winds around 10 mph. If you ain't flying tomorrow, there must be something wrong with you!
26th - St. Augustine SKC - http://www.saskc.net
January 2005
1 - Let's fly on New Year's Day and start a new tradition! Begin the new year with something in the air!. Some folks have a "It's too D**n Cold To Fly" party, what will we call ours? Again, let's try Mint Hill Park today.
15 - The forecast looks like: "Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 40s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph." Other than the temperatures, it looks like a pretty decent forecast. Lets get out and fly something. It might be the last chance we get for a few weeks.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It was windy but it was a cold wind. Grumpy & Joe had a couple single lines in the air with some new laundry. Linda  and Marty stood around with their hands in (their own) pockets and complained about the cold. Jim & Laura came for a while, flew Jim's new Skydancers for about 10 minutes. Then we all packed it in and went to Louis' for lunch.
22 - 
29 - Let's have a "Try & Fly" get together at Frank Liske Park today. If the weather permits, we'll fly something for awhile, then adjourn to Louis' for lunch. The main idea is to talk about all the events going on this Spring and get some idea of who's going to be where and when. Considering the weather we're projected to have this weekend, the "Try & Fly" is postponed. Check out the events below and the calendar on 2005Calendar and think about which you want to attend. We'll try again soon to get together and maybe next weekend will be considerably better.