I want to report my extreme satisfaction with, and delight in, my new custom
kite: a Jordan Airform 200, built for me by Dean himself. Occasionally this
satisfaction devolves into a gloating pride of ownership, but this is the dark
side of delight, and the kite fights it.
When I originally inquired about a Jordan Airform, I mentioned a price and said
I liked rainbow-colored kites, unoriginal as they may be. I was thinking, kind
of vaguely, of the usual parafoil/flowform alternation of colors on the tubes,
but dimly. Dean responded as follows:
my own design...we will use red, yellow, blue, orange(yuck), green, and
purple(yay!). I will make it like no other, and it will be way cool!<<
I didn't have a specific look in mind, and my notion was so vague and
pedestrian that it didn't qualify as design input, so I said swell.
I'm really really glad I did. I received the kite almost three weeks ago, but
what with the lack of wind and some medical problems in the family, I didn't
get a chance to fly it until last Tuesday. That afternoon was perfect --
clear, cool, light breeze -- so I shut down my business at 3PM and my wife and
I took the kite to Lake Erie Metropark (a point of land where the Detroit
Rivere enters Lake Erie) and located an area large enough to set up the kite,
with enough clearance that the very long tails wouldn't get caught in the small
trees standing around. These trees were only 1012 feet high, but wouldn't
have been easy to climb.
The kite soared up so dramatically that neither my wife nor I could speak.
Very quickly the seemingly-deserted park produced several onlookers, who zipped
over on bikes, on foot, in cars, or on motorcycles, to see what was happening.
The park cop came zooming up on his golf cart. Everyone stood and stared
upward, and no one said a word for about ten minutes. Then I got a few
"where'd ya get it?" questions. No one asked how much it cost. No one asked
what it was. Eventually the younger ones said "awesome," and the older ones
said "how beautiful!," and I took it down before a veering wind could put it in
the water.
I flew it again yesterday for my mother and sisters, who are visiting for the
holiday, and even they (who are inclined to suspect me -- so unreasonably -- of
being prodigal and improvident with respect to the acquisition of kites, among
other things) were stunned into awed delight, as was everyone within viewing
range though, again, everyone seemed content to just stand and look, without
interruption -- the way you'd expect folks to behave whilst Bach was being
played at Tanglewood.
I've got a few photos which I'd like to put on someone's website, if they'd
email me with instructions on how to upload, and what format they prefer
(bmp,jpg,gif,tif etc) and what file size is advisable. Meanwhile, to describe:
the kite has eight tubes, there is no bite out of the trailing edge, making it
a rectangular airfoilish curve in flight. An outside tube is black, the next
two tubes are composed of four*** (I think) diagonal rainbow stripes, the
center two tubes are black, then two more tubes of reverse-diagonal stripes,
then another black tube. The four colored tubes on the top of the kite,
corresponding of course with the four on the bottom, make the effect
kaleidoscopic when the sun is behind the kite.
Then there are the two hundred-foot-plus tapered tube tails, or drogue. Those
of you who may have seen the kite at Wildwood didn't see the tails. I was only
half-interested in the tails myself, until they unfurled. I thought of them
as add-ons. But they complete the kite, rather than decorate it.
The kite is a masterpiece.
Brock Vond