My new bird

[Kerry Perkins]

This is my new Sky Bird, a very colorful and majestic addition to the sky of southern California. This is not your average plastic kite from Wally World. This one is 8 feet tall with a 16-foot wingspan and is made of rip-stop nylon and carbon rods. It is flying on 300lb test line at 200 feet. Yesterday was its maiden voyage, after a four-month wait to get it from China. Big fun in 10mph winds!

I know it is impossible to get a sense of the size, but imagine a person standing in front of the kite with their feet at the end of the tail. That person's head would only be at the top spreader bar, just under the neck of the bird.

[James Shadle]

How many lbs pull to you think it builds?
Looks like a great fun. Tough to find a place around here without power lines.

[Kerry Perkins]

James, 300 lb test is the minimum recommended line for this one. I think it would pull harder than that if the wind gets up over 20 mph or so. It pulls pretty hard even at 10 mph. I am fortunate to be able to fly at an established kite field next to a beach, so we have nice green grass and about 250 feet of range. My friend who is an old hand at this as well as a deep-sea fisherman made a knot-less loop at the end of the line, which is very cool! The harder the wind pulls it, the tighter the splice gets.

[Christopher Miller]

That's quite something, Kerry. I've only flown a kite a few times and that was a number of years ago. Have fun with your bird!

[Julie Kenward]

I saw some of these giant beauties at our Great Midwest Balloonfest a few weeks ago. They are incredible to watch and I couldn't get over how much strength it takes to handle one of these kites!

[Judy Howle]

Wow Kerry, that's gorgeous! It must be fun and quite challenging to fly it!