Classical fighter kite flying is surely an aerial
martial art – where individual flyers demonstrate and test their flying
skills in non-lethal combat between kites. In a kite fight the manual
skills of kite control are combined with strategy into attack and
defence in the sky – but malice has to be left outside the contest.
In
the simplest terms freestyle fighter flying is what we do with a
fighter kite in the sky when there is no “opponent” for combat.
Freestyle fighter flying is the intimate and personal process of communicating with the kite in the sky – learning to understand how the kite and the wind communicate with each other, and how the flyer can react and make his intentions known to the kite.
A fighter kite designed and built for combat has to combine speed and control for the flyer to impose his strategy, and to counter the strategy of his opponent. A fighter kite designed and built for freestyle flying does not need the same speed of flight, but it must incorporate agility, stability and instability whenever requested by the flyer. Freestyle flying is all about a constant dialogue between the kite and the flyer – the flyer has to know exactly what the kite is doing and how it is placed to the wind before initiating a control command.
Fighter kites are light and flexible (they have to be in order to work with single line control) – unlike the larger multi-line precision and trick kites they do not generate enough power to put the flyer in charge of the wind – a fighter kite will not power through the wind, the flyer has to fly with the wind.
Freestyle flying is the constant learning process of exploring the limits of agility and control of the kite – with only one line for communication and control.