First GTO flight

Accompanied by my assistant Stephanie, I ventured up to Presque Isle, where the GTO would have its virgin flight. Presque Isle is quite large and has many potential launch locations, so I chose Sunset Point with the help of the park office.

I set up on the moderately wide sandy beach there, and put the kite in the air. The wind was around 12 knots, enough to sustain the kite. It went up with no problems, and I decided to attempt some body drags. This is when you go into the water with the kite and let it drag your sorry ass around.

By the time I had put on my wetsuit and actually gotten into the water, the wind had come down to around 7 or 8 knots. Unfortunately, you can barely keep the kite up with this amount of wind.

More importantly, without enough wind the kite is almost impossible to relaunch from a crash.

My biggest fear was the presence of giant rock mounds slightly offshore. These preserve the sand, but would probably not preserve my life. Due to the dead wind, I didn't have to deal with them (this time). I suppose next time I will go when there is more wind. By the way, the "popping sound" Steph mentioned was not the kite. It was my head exploding in frustration.