American Kitefliers Association

Greetings -

I hope everyone who knows Charlie will help in this project.

While we are at it, do you have a favorite story about Charlie to share with the group?

Many years ago at the Junction Kitemaking Retreat, Charlie made a miniature kite for my wife, Annie.  There was no wind and we wanted a picture of him flying the kite.  So, Charlie had the kite line attached to a wand and began spinning around and around getting the kite to fly.  We were able to get a good picture just before Charlie got too dizzy to stand.

I've heard from lots of people who are busily working away on pages for the scrapbook.  For international participants sending their pages by Airmail I would strongly recommend mailing first thing Monday morning (Jan 7). Airmail on average takes 5 days but .... it could be a few days more so mail soon.  For domestic US participants, the sooner the better but I would not recommend sending by first class any later than Thursday.   There is also a three day US Priority Mail options for around $5.00.  After that the prices start getting more expensive for one and two day delivery options. So I'm hoping people are making lots of progress this week-end and will have their pages in the mail asap.

Charlie story ... 
In 2001 the Bay Area Sport Kite League (BASKL) invited Charlie out to the San Francisco Bay Area to teach a miniature kite making workshop.  Charlie happily accepted and we flew him out for a week-end. We showed him some of the sites, in addition to the workshop.  A few years later Charlie told me had been quite apprehensive about a "sport kite" group wanting a mini kite workshop. He had fears that none of us could make mini kites but he wasn't going to pass up a free trip to San Francisco. The workshop was a big hit, yep even sport kitefliers like mini kites!  We had so much fun we invited him back a 2nd time and showed him more sites.

melhickman,
Hey Mel!  I had the same experience with Charlie at Junction, but I was on the dizzy end and Charlie got a good laugh out of it!  We took his class and made a 3 stack of hatas.  Charlie attached the line to the flying wand and gave it to me to fly, after about 45 seconds I was ready to sit down! LOL

A very big THANK YOU to everyone who participated.

Photos of Charlie receiving the scrapbook, along with a picture of each page can be seen here on the Miniature Kite Guild site