Category: Weather

Yet another windless day

I’m beginning to wonder if there is such a thing as wind – we haven’t had any that’s sufficiently strong enough to lift a KAP rig in ages. As there is not much I can do without it, I added a weather

Weather.gif

conditions section to this blog (located on the right side) about a week ago – it is automatically updated about once every hour. As can be seen from the latest weather conditions (as noted in this screen capture.

As you can tell, There is no wind – well, almost. The interesting thing is that the winds are so light that even the weather bureau can’t figure out what direction they’re allegedly coming from. Ugh!

Since I’ve added this information to my blog, I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen any data provided for gusts – if there is no wind, there certainly can’t be any gusts. Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will change – and soon!

Waiting for some wind

Well, it was another completely windless day. Due to daylight savings time, the sun is now up later so I took a quick jaunt to Doheny State Beach (at Dana Point) to try and fly the Rev 1.5 (which is also an extremely low wind kite). Of course, there was no wind again (this is getting to be rather unreal) although I managed to get the kite up for about 30 seconds – that was shear bliss! Anyway, I tried for about an hour and a half with essentially no luck before the sun began to set. While the temperature was in the low 80’s (perhaps a record high for the day), there wasn’t even the slightest ocean breeze – ugh!

Anyway, in honor of the incredibly horrible flying conditions, I’ve now decided to add the weather to my blog – current conditions at John Wayne Airport (the closest National Weather Service Station) may be found on the right side of this blog. Even now, very, very early in the morning, the NWS is reporting zero winds. I’m just hoping and praying for a change in the very near future – I want to fly, in addition to getting my new remote controlled KAP rig airborne. The lack of wind is getting to be ridiculous. I also heard on the radio that this is, apparently, the driest year on record for Southern California. I don’t know if that is true, but it sure seems like it. Keeping my fingers crossed for some wind.

Gray day but lots of wind!


Kites and stuff
Originally uploaded by Bassoon Man.

Unlike yesterday, the clouds were rolling in accompanied by a lot of wind (it was blowing a steady 13-14 miles per hour). That meant that I could launch quite a few things including a Premier Parafoil 15 with a spinning basket tail, two twenty-foot tubes, a spiky ball, and a five-foot piranha. After getting all of that up in the air (I was at Doheny State Beach, adjacent to [south of] the Dana Point Harbor), I launched a Prism Stylus P.2 and flew that for, a few hours while listening to Beethoven Symphonies (6th and 7th). As it was a bit chilly, not many people were around which was just fine as I could really make the Stylus dance. I spent several hours there and only took the kites down as the sun was setting. In fact, it was dark before I was completely packed up.

I had a lot on my mind when I arrived (I’ve got a very busy and stressful week ahead) but flying helped to clear my mind of those things for awhile. As it’s raining now (we desperately need it), I’m kind of doubtful that I’ll be able to fly tomorrow.

Taking Off


Taking Off
Originally uploaded by Bassoon Man.

Okay, okay, I admit, this is getting a bit wild – I’ve now gone KAPing three (3) days in a row! This time, I took a trip down to the jetty at the end of the Balboa Peninsula (which is also the mouth of Newport Bay). The winds were quite mild but steady so I put up my kite thinking that the winds would only pick up as the afternoon wore on (which would be “normal”). Sadly, it was the inverse that happened (the breeze slowly weakened) so I really didn’t get much of a chance to fly. Even so, I managed to get this photo of my kite taking off. Again, while it was a beautiful day, I had to call it quits early due to the breeze – I didn’t want to lose my camera again.