Jean (aka kayakjazz) and I saw the most extraordinary demonstration in a park near Fisherman's Wharf Sunday afternoon.

Some people were flying kites, and I saw the most amazing kite and flying skill demonstration I have ever seen.

Attached is a crude drawing showing sort of what the kite looked like. The triangles weren't flat -- they were elaborately shaped triangular airfoils, connected by strings. Each airfoil had a long (15--20 feet?) streamer attached to it, and I would guess the whole kite was perhaps 12 feet long. The control strings were much larger than the interconnecting strings, and when the flier was working the kite hard, say a strong climb into the wind, he would be leaning back at about a 30 degree angle against the pull of the controls. I would estimate perhaps as much as 50 pounds of pull. Winds were about 10-15 MPH, with gusts to 25.

Each control string was connected to a handle -- looked like a piece of 1" PVC pipe, about eight inches long -- and the flier was playing with and teasing a group of little kids who were chasing the kite. He would swoop it down over them, dragging the streamers across their backs as they dove flat to the ground because they just *knew* that the infernal contraption was going to hit them. His control was exquisite. He could (and did) swoop the kite down towards the kids, then pull it up and instantly bring it to a dead stop, hovering over their heads, with the streamers dangling down just inches out of their reach. I saw him fly it in complete 360 degree circles around where he was standing. He would drop the kite apparently dead, flat on the ground, and the kids would run towards it and just before they got there, he would twitch the controls and the kite would shoot straight up into the air, maybe 40--50 feet in the blink of an eye. He would do loops, rolls, bring it diving straight down towards the ground at (I would estimate) 40 MPH, airfoils rattling audibly and ominously, to the point where I was positive it was going to smash itself to bits, whereupon he'd pull it out of the dive, run it flat along the ground maybe three inches above the tips of the grass, then zoom just about vertically straight up until it looked like it was directly over the his head.

He could do anything with that kite that you could do with a string-controlled [powered] model airplane.

It was absolutely *incredible* to watch him, and Jean and I stayed there, fascinated, for the better part of an hour while he flew it.

If I lived in a place with more wind than we have here in Fairbanks, I would happily pay $200 for one of those kites, if I knew where to find one. A google search for "kite" gives too much information -- the kite business is much bigger than I would have imagined.

Have you ever heard of such a kite?

tanstaafl.