Topic: The first flight

[piersdad]

It was school holidays and dad had taken us 3 boys to a lovely seaside camp where dad had established a semi permanent camp for a construction job he was supervising.
This was boy?s heaven, heaps of sand and sand dunes to play in and long sloping beach and warm days to laze in the sun.

An easterly gale came up and the on shore wind made swimming out of the question.
Perhaps a kite would be a good thing.
The first attempt was not so good as the sticks would break  so off we went to a bamboo grove down the road and back we came wit 10 foot lengths of bamboo  heaps of them as we thought there had to be cool uses for them.
It rained the rest of the day so I just retreated to the caravan and read a technical book.
Now that an idea a man carrying kite.
 That's an idea  the easterly gale and an anchored rope in the sand and a lift off from the sand dunes?
My 12-year-old brain went into overdrive and soon the bamboo was being fashioned into a large biplane wing with a large tail to stabilize it.
Just like the model aeroplans i make.
Covering was a problem till dad said we could have a lend of some bright red cloth that he was going to used as small strips later for survey signals.
So a combination of brown paper and fabric and anything I could use was used to make my masterpiece of a biplane kite.
The next day it was windy but fine and with the help of my brothers we anchored the kite to the sand with a rope and tried to fly it with me hanging underneath it.
A mighty gust of wind came along and up I went 20 feet in the air and what a thrill the design was stable (the bamboo was bending enough to give dihedral) and as the wind died down I was plunked back on the sand.
My younger brothers were too chicken to try it so after several short flights I decided that it would be ok to try a un-tethered flight,
With the rope discarded I ran down the sand dunes at high speed lifting off the ground a few feet and traveling many meters in the air.
Wow this was a thrill I?m the first kid to fly in my own airplane  
Looming in the distance was the local wharf and it was some 15 feet off the sand ?now that?s a great place to launch my airplane from.?
So off I trekked with the contraption of cloth, bamboo and paper to the top of the wharf and looking down the 15 feet looked a lot more now.
Ok here goes and with a mighty run launched myself off the edge and for a moment I was flying, really flying. Hang on that ground is coming up real fast and.
 well, that?s was the end of my flying career as the next 3 days were spent in bed with a very sore knee.
I will never forget that day as it was several years before hang gliders were developed and I always think that had I been a bit older or more careful I would have been the first hang glider pilot

[dbackfan]

Very exciting story, Kay!  What amazing adventures you've had, and all because of your curious and creative mind.  The story catches a reader's interest right away and holds it till the end, which wraps up the story nicely, I think.

Perhaps you have already assembled a large number of these anecdotes through journal-writing or short-stories, but assembling them into book form would be a great project, if not for publication as a goal, then to your grandchildren and theirs.  (And why not for publication as well? I just realized I've never asked you if you have already been published.  I wouldn't be surprised!)

[piersdad]

nothing published yet terri  but as you get time in retirement things trigger a memory and it gradually all comes back

some times it is weird i was reading about a vintage aircraft that i was in 1939 a first passenger and possibly the youngest and the pilot was the first man i had seen apart from my dad( i was 18 months then and had lived in the bush all the time) so when i read that the first pilots name was 'bert'  i realised why that name always seemed to be familiar as dad used it often and as well he was the first person that was called a different name than mom dad  etc.

have to remember and adventurise the giant eel  at the tuai place

[dbackfan]

I want to hear more about that eel!  (You don't have to write a special email or anything, just write it for yourself and your family and let me read a copy.  

By the way, are the pictures you shared with me and I then spaced throughout your story yours or would you need permission to use them if you sought to have the story published commercially?  It's just something to keep in mind.  What I'm doing is, again, just a rough example.  The clip art I added are all (so far) from Print Shop and, if you wanted to keep them, we'd have to check on their regulations.  Actually, it would be better if you replaced them with more of your own pictures.  You can even get artsy with them using certain programs.  I'm proud to have my name as co-writer but if you change the wording significantly, feel free to remove my name.  You are the author of the story, after all.  

Even if publication is not your goal, this is still lots of fun.  All my coursework and collection of writing has been for older kids.  This is my first experiment in picture books for beginning readers.  

Interesting perception about parents having other names besides Mom/Mum and Dad.  My goodness, you remember from your infancy, don't you!  Amazing.  

I have the first 8 pages of The Secret Cave almost compiled (I made some changes).  Using TinyPic.com is wonderful but a bit tedious until I learn what I'm doing.  I'll post the story as soon as it's in order.  

Did Jakob see my response to his story?  Sorry I didn't notice it earlier.  

Terri

[piersdad]

actually the picture of tuai was taken by the same boy(now old man like me) who led me to the ravine and im sure he will waive copyright but will contact him if need be.

was thinking of the art work and  and not sure what to do yet.
still dreaming up a story about a giant eel or maori taniwha monster.

jakob has shifted away from mne and is 3 yrsa old now but he will see the stories ive told and one day he will keep them as a memory of me.
an of course his mum wont forget seeing her precious we boy toddling  along the roof with me