Go fly a kite

A stiff breeze blows off San Francisco Bay. A boy's acrobatic kite plummets, soars, and spins in a crazed loop-the-loop. A little girl barely old enough to walk flies a tiny butterfly-shaped kite with the help of her mom and dad. A purple teddy-bear kite and a green-frog kite make a little aerial zoo overhead.

The Berkeley Marina is one of the best city kite-flying spots in the United States. Winds from the Pacific sweep past the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline, sending kites soaring over this grassy park. The marina even has a resident expert, kite designer Tom McAlister. He sells kites from a recreational vehicle here. He also gives advice, answering questions like: What if a vicious kite-eating tree captures my kite?

"Try to find a better place to fly," Mr. McAlister says. "The ideal kite site would be absolutely flat. No obstructions, particularly upwind."

Wind flows straight and steadily over flat areas. Obstructions, like trees or houses, break up the wind just as boulders in a river break up flowing water. Kites fly best where the wind is steady and straight.

McAlister says the best kite-flying wind is about 5 to 12 miles per hour. At those wind speeds, tree leaves move and bushes rustle. If a wind is strong enough to make small trees bend and sway, the wind is too strong for most types of kites.

A kite flies in much the same way as an airplane does. Both depend on a flow of air to create enough aerodynamic lift (upward force) to overcome the downward force of gravity. The difference in pressure between the air beneath the kite and the air above it produces this lift.

Getting a kite up should be easy, McAlister says. "You should be able to just hold a kite up and let the wind take it." If it doesn't go up, you may need to adjust the "bridle point." The bridle is a short string attached to the top and bottom of the kite. The control string is tied to the bridle at the bridle point. The bridle point determines the angle of the kite to the wind. Finding the right angle gives the kite balance in the air. "Adjust the bridle [point] toward the top of the kite for light winds," he says, "and closer to the tail for stronger winds."

So you don't need to run with a kite to launch it? "If you have to run to get a kite started, you don't have enough wind," McAlister says. But there is a simple way of launching a kite in light wind that has the same effect as running - only safer. It's called "longlining." The kite flyer unwinds about 100 feet of string while a helper holds the kite downwind. The helper lets go of the kite, and the flyer, with the spool of string on the ground, quickly pulls the line hand over hand. It "does the same thing as running - it creates wind," McAlister says. "It will get the kite up where the winds are stronger."

But what if your kite nosedives right back down? Again, adjust the bridle point. If it's too high, the kite will go up easily, but then its nose will dip and the kite will fall. Don't move the bridle point down too far, or you may never get the kite airborne! You must find the right balance.

What if your kite stays up, but wobbles, rocks, and rolls? "If the kite isn't stable, add a tail," McAlister says. "A tail will keep the kite from spinning and wobbling. One long tail is the most stable."

Not far away, a boy flies a kite with a rainbow-striped, 100-foot-long tail. The kite dives, rolls, and goes into a spinning curlicue. That's stable?

McAlister looks at the kite and laughs. "Sometimes a kite is just an excuse to pull a tail," he says. It's an acrobatic, dual-line kite. "They are made to be unstable."

An acrobatic kite inspired McAlister to embark on a life of kite flying. As a boy, he loved kites. "I flew kites with friends, and we heard stories about Indian fighting kites. But we never got our kites to do all the things we wanted them to do."

McAlister had just graduated from college when he saw someone flying an acrobatic kite. "I said, 'Wow! That's what I want to do with a kite,'" he says. He had very little money, but finally "broke down" and spent $59 to buy one.

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