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  Seattle’s Drachen Foundation will host a “day on the field” at this year’s American Kitefliers Association Convention in Seaside, Oregon.  The original brainchild of Drachen Board member, Jose Sainz, it will be a day to fly your most special kites, engage in spontaneous contests, earn special prizes, and promote the many joys of kite flying. Originally, Jose thought this might be a way for kitefliers and kitemakers to get together, without pressure, and simply “show off”; flying their newest kites, brushing the dust off their oldest kites, resurrecting failures, and celebrating successes.  Without detracting from organized Convention field activities, this will be a chance to gather, fly kites that might have been stowed away for years, and generally, fly old favorites just for the pure fun of it!  Of course, we might even award prizes for special kites that participate in Convention Mass Ascensions and other field activities.

For almost 20 years, the Drachen Foundation has grown and thrived thanks to our dedicated board of directors, staff and the kiting community.  The Drachen Foundation has supported an investment in people and technology to capture all aspects of kiting and to now bring it online to share with the world.   I have been very fortunate to have been a part of this work, in the role of executive director, for the last 20 years, doing a job which inspired and delighted me daily. As we continue the transition to a web-based presence, we have reduced the amount of outreach and programming that has been such a large part of the job over the years, and as a result, my role will shift to serving as a board member of the Drachen Foundation.  In this transition, I have the satisfaction of knowing that the work we have done has allowed us to take this next step in our evolution, and I am excited that I will continue to be a part of the future of Drachen through my work on the board.  

Cliff Quinn came to kiteflying in the early 1990’s as an adult approaching retirement.  He had spent his adulthood in a variety of “manly pursuits”: welding, woodworking, electronics and just about anything else that you might have found in the pages of Popular Mechanics.  He had a fully furnished workshop where he could escape and create almost anything.  As he observed the early-90’s kite scene, he in effect, said, “I can do that”, and started on the path that many of us have experienced.

In early October, the American Kite Association presented the annual Edeiken Award to the 'Kiteflier of the Year' at the AKA convention in Enid, Oklahoma. This year's recipients recieved the following nomination:

Article by Scott Skinner Photos by Cliff and Jerry Pennell A very large hole in our sky has been created by the passing of Canadian kitemaker Art Ross. Art and his wife, Inge, have been fixtures at so many of the Northwest US Coast’s kite festivals and, of course, he was active in his own British Columbia as well.  Art created and refined large parafoils (his Red Baron was 2000 sq ft in area) and with Westport, Washingont’s Doug Hagaman, made the Northwest Coast the center of parafoil design and flight.  Art’s large-scale creations were designed to pull less than more traditional designs like Doug’s in order to compensate for their ever-increasing size – he also added functional tails that added to the majesty of his creations.

  Jørgen centre right holding his Stairway to Heaven kite on Fano beach. 1986 I was greatly impressed by his beautifully made kites and unique use of graphics. Jørgen Møller Hansen was a wonderful travelling companion and throughout the tour he kept us all amused with his jokes and stories.