Charlie's Window

Only ~1hr of flyable wind at Dallas today and Charlie gets it!

(click image for more photos ->)

Those of you who know me, know that I have a 'thing' with coincidences. Either they tend to follow me around and pop up on a regular basis (my theory) or I just see serendipity rearing it's head where it really hasn't (skeptics view). In either case, spend some time with me and you'll see what I mean.

Now Charlie is someone who seems to be rivaling me in the fate department. Take today, for example. He called me mid-morning to say that he thought Dallas Road would be good "at least for kiting, if not flying". I checked my sources and agreed that it was possible, and then packed up my light-weight Dallas gear as well as Charlie's son Fynn's brand spanky new ground trainer, the TACO, jumped in the Delica, and headed to Dallas.

It was POURING rain just north of town and there was no wind of any kind on Elk Lake. Not good signs.

I tried calling Charlie to see if he'd turned around himself, but no answer.

The wind downtown was light NE so I did some errands. You can imagine my surprise when I finally turned off Douglas Street to see Charlie, soaring away!

As I pulled up, I could see that the Beacon Hill flag was turning NE and suggested Charlie land. He had a bit of pitch and yaw to deal with as he touched down but his huge grin was of the non-erasable type! Turned out that he'd been flying for just over an hour.

I pulled out Fynn's TACO and, after some line configuring, we had it up kiting in suddenly gusty west, then northwest, then north, then east winds (all within a 10-15 minute time span).

Charlie definitely landed at the right time and made the absolute most of his window at Dallas today!

Check out a YouTube video of him kiting the TACO: