About East potomac park, its only a good place to static fly if the winds are light because the river helps make them a bit more consistent. For any kind of traction, its tiny, and if the winds are topping ten and you have anything above a 3m its just to small to have fun. However there is a field at West potomac park thats over 1000 feet long, so if the winds blowing the right direction, its a good place for traction.

You mean where the multiple baseball fields are? I've contemplated try that one, but haven't yet.

I've played around the baseball fields at Colmar Manor. Fun place to ride, but you have to learn very quickly how to avoid the fences, the backstop, and anything else in your way. Not a bad spot to fly, but winds are a bit gusty there... Not that you could expect much else... I might have to check out hte east potomac park, never been there before. I also know of a couple guys who landboard around the washington monument... This is really sketchy as the park police will chase you off. And if you are crazy enough to go at night with a big kite, you might get arrested by the Secret Service and accused of parachuting into DC...

East Potomac Park only has Hain's Point, which is too small. I think the spot he means in West Potomac Park is --> http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=38.883233,-77.045274&... The area on the peninsula may be useable (other than backstops), but the larger area above it is fenced into three sections.

Gotcha... Might be good on a SW, or a full W, but north is gonna be a bit gusty with all them trees... Where do you park?

Ragden, you mind changing the name of this thread to just "DC Riders"? We can just use it as a kind of continuous thread for discussions and planned meets like they do with the Sullivan's Island thread. That make sense or am I not thinking something through?

There's parallel parking along Ohio Dr SW. Though it's often busy. I haven't actually flown there yet and I might be tempted to take the Metro to do so. Just take my sherpa bag and a single depower...

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Originally posted by Maven454 Ragden, you mind changing the name of this thread to just "DC Riders"? We can just use it as a kind of continuous thread for discussions and planned meets like they do with the Sullivan's Island thread. That make sense or am I not thinking something through?

DD (done deal) bud.

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Originally posted by Maven454 There's parallel parking along Ohio Dr SW. Though it's often busy. I haven't actually flown there yet and I might be tempted to take the Metro to do so. Just take my sherpa bag and a single depower...

Where would you get off on the Metro? The blue line? Yellow line would put you at either the Pentagon, or L'Enfant Plaza, neither of which are very close to that spot. Not sure where the blue line stops are located in relation to that spot. I know there is a smithsonian stop, but thats still a bit of a walk to that spot... I hate driving in DC but this is an odd spot to get to... We could always carpool, meet up somewhere outside the district and drive in...

I've walked there from both the Arlington Cemetary stop (just head across the Memorial Bridge and then down Ohio Dr SW or from the Smithsonian stop. Though, come to think of it, I'm not sure I'd want to do it while carrying my board and kite... So yeah, I'd likely drive. The big reason that I haven't kited there yet is simply because there's no way to tell ahead of time if people are using the ball fields (and they see a lot of use) and I hate showing up and then finding out that I can't fly . That'll be the upside to winter, no one playing baseball/softball .

As for meeting and then driving, my apartment complex would be great for that. It'd be easy to get there from my place and my building always has parking (though I'd have to get people some temporary parking permits, easy to do).

Yeah... I went to Colmar two weekens ago, and all the fields were in use... Did some static flying with the wife.. but didnt bother even assembling the buggy... Nothing worse than lugging all your stuff somewhere to find out you cant do anything...

Once the cold sets in, it'll all be gravy.

Course, I'd rather go to Wildwood on a weekend then into DC, but we'll see how it works out.

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Originally posted by Maven454 ... As for meeting and then driving, my apartment complex would be great for that. It'd be easy to get there from my place and my building always has parking (though I'd have to get people some temporary parking permits, easy to do).

What part of town do you live in?

U2U'd that. I always hate putting anything too specific on the net.

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Originally posted by Maven454 U2U'd that. I always hate putting anything too specific on the net.

Agreed.

I was wondering what the closed forum meant, was that just because of the date in the subject line?

The peninsula, East Potomac Park, has not been too bad for me as long as the winds are blowing East or West. Right now I am only doing some broad reaches on the board and working on transitions. Any major jumping and it feels like you will end up in the Potomac. Winds from the North or South make the field for me a lot smaller and difficult. Static flying is great either way though. After work on the weekdays the field is empty, on the weekends forget about it. There is usually a game of some sort going on all day.

If you are thinking about flying on the baseball fields, West Potomace Park, then you may have or had better luck than me, but I tried flying there one time and within 5 minutes I had three secret service cars and two cop cars hurl towards me across the fields and yelled at me over the intercom to take down the kite. They told me to go down to East Potomac Park and not to fly me kite there because it is in the helicopter flight line. I assume the president was going to be flying overhead soon since the secret service was involved. It was a rather interesting event and attracted a lot of attention, even managed to stop traffic.

The only spot I know of on East Potomac Park, as mentioned before in this thread, is Hain's Point. And that's in the helicopter flight path as well. Though you're usually not in trouble as long as a heli pilot doesn't call in a complaint. It's a good idea to ground your kite when they're in the area though.

Hence why I just go out of town to fly... Easier all around...

Anyone going to be around tomorrow morning? I have a plane to catch at 3, but was going to try and fit some flying time in beforehand.

Wind looks like it will begin to build around 8:30; if the rain holds off.

I've got to work, but ragden is "working from home"

Anyone going to be around Sunday? Looks like it might be a good day to try Anacostia Park.

I'm probably gonna be around. Where is Anacostia Park?

The same place that ragden linked at the beginning of this thread. Anacostia Park

Weather forecast is now predicting rain all day Sunday.

Nope... not looking too good

Wind is going to be up in the 20's so it says...I need to by more kites.

Im going to be heading to central pa on Sat to catch some snow. Snow Shoe pa reported 6-12 and winds should be good. Im checking more into it nut thats the plan right now.

I think the forecast has changed. There are supposed to be some strong winds and according to accuweather there's no rain predicted.

Wunderground is still predicting rain... I now have Saturday free from what was originally planned, but it's supposed to rain then as well. I guess we'll have to keep an eye on it. Power, if you end up in DC to fly, give me a call.

You bet. Saturday's not lookin so good though.

Well, had the 4m Reflex (static) out at Anacostia on Sunday for half an hour. The field is a reasonable size, though I'm not sure you'll ever get really clean winds on it. If it's been raining, the field will have swampy spots. But it is a usable alternative to Potomac park when the winds are from the north/northwest.

As for the Reflex. I'd say that the 4m flew about like the 3m Scout that I had. It's faster than you'd expect from a 4m, but not insanely fast. It does go all the way up to the edge of the window and still provide power and did a reasonable job with gusts and lulls. I don't think that I was impressed enough with it to want to pay the price tag that's on the Sky Country kites though.

I flew at west potomac park on Sunday. Weather forecasters really blew it. Wind rarely got above 14, but even at that speed, it was too variable to even have fun flying static. Of course thats because I had a new landboard, and the winds were obviously not going to permit me to use it.
Maven-Do you buggy at Anacostia Park? How consistent are the winds there compared to west potomac? I find that at west potomac, unless the winds are coming off the water its almost not even worth flying.