Strings Attached to This Hobby
4/24/2010
MUNCIE -- "Go fly a kite," is not a derogatory dismissal to Dick Claycomb.
"I try to do it about once a week or so," said the 66-year-old Redkey native and Hartford City resident, who is retired from 3M Corp.
Come April and May, though, Dick''s kiting activities speed up like spring westerlies, energizing the members of groups like the Hoosier Kitefliers Society, of which he long served as president, and is now membership director.
The group will sponsor the Ansel Toney Memorial Kite Festival -- the namesake of Farmland''s legendary kite maker and flier -- May 1.
Such business notwithstanding, the key attraction for kiters like Dick and his wife, Terri, is relaxation.
"I like to be out on a day like this when there''s blue sky, white clouds and plenty of wind to keep my kites up," she said, while her husband watched one of hers float serenely on the breezes.
This sunny spring day found the Claycombs on an expanse of lush grass at the Academy of Model Aeronautics, colorful kites aloft, 16-foot-tall decorative banners rapidly flapping in the breeze and their folding chairs set up alongside the trailer in which they haul their kiting gear, including a kite that looks and flies remarkably like a goose.
The scene seemed comfortably natural, but kiting has not been a lifelong love for Dick, who grew up on a dairy farm.
"We had a lot of work to do," he said, noting he was even encouraged to take up basketball as a kid because it was played in the winter, when farm chores were less pressing.
It was years later, watching some kiters fly on Mackinac Island, that his interest was sparked, but not until 1999 when he encountered the HKS at a Summer Heat festival that he and Terri fully embraced the hobby.
"We joined the club that same weekend," Dick said.
An aficionado of two-line kites, he now figures he owns 30. Terri, a fan of single-line kites, owns about 30, too.
Five very special kites
Lately, they''ve become a little tougher to finagle.
"Since then, if I see a Toney and somebody doesn''t seem to want it, I ask them, ''You wanna sell that?''" Dick said.
To his thinking, they remain the gold standard in single-line, delta-shaped kites of that type, though there is something to be said for modern, lighter designs.
"They were nice kites," he said, "but it took a lot of wind to fly them, because they were heavy."
By every conceivable measure, kites run the gamut. You can spend $10 on one, Dick said, or $4,000-plus.
A decent two-line kite like he was flying, he added, can be had for $60-$70, including line and winder.
As part of his club activities, he runs workshops where kids as young and 2 or 3 get to build their own kite, even if a child''s sole contribution is lending a finger to hold down a bit of tape.
Once its built, even a child can fly a kite, though not necessarily well.
Skill levels run from novice to master, Dick said, humbly assessing himself as the former while extolling the skills he has witnessed in the latter.
"It takes a lot of practice," he said, of flying well.
But what''s easier, he added, is to find the pleasure in it.
Sending a kite aloft, he likes to turn on his 
Of course, sometimes his kite flying gets a little jumpier.
"I like the old ''50s and ''60s music, too," Dick explained.
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