American Kitefliers Association

Greeting from your new AKA Region 8 Director!

  Many of you know me, but those that don't know about my kiting past experience, I was the AKA Region 8 Director in the 90's. In the year 2000, I decided that I no longer wanted to be Region 8 Director, and chose not to run for reelection. You may be asking "What happened to Rick Hawkins? Wasn't he just recently elected"? Well, do to unforeseen circumstances, Rick Hawkins had to resign his position as AKA Region 8 Director. This left a vacancy, and the AKA Board of Directors started a search for someone that would be willing to serve as Region 8 Director for 2012, and I agreed to step in and fill the position. I'm Back! If you want to learn more about my kite flying past experience, you can view my kiting profile, on the TKO Sport Kite Team website, at:  http://TKO.Sportkite.Team.tripod.com/Troybio.htm
 
  I don't promise that I can attend each and every kite related event in AKA Region 8, but I will go to as many as I can physically and financially make it to. I live in Wichita Falls, TX, which is far North central Texas, and about 20 miles from the Oklahoma state border. I'm located almost dead center in AKA Region 8, which includes the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

  I hope all of you have plans to make it to as many kite Festivals, Kite Club Fly's, Kite Workshops, etc... as humanly possible! Speaking of kite Festivals and other kite related events, if you don't know where and when all of the Region 8 area kite events are, you can visit the Region 8 Kite Events calendar web page that I have been maintaining since 1997, at http://TKOGunn1.tripod.com/kitecalendar.htm    As with all kite events that are scheduled each year, sometimes kite events change thier dates, get postponed, or get cancelled, for various reasons. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you contact kite event organizers before driving out of town or out of state, because sometimes an event organiser's decision to postpone or cancel an event, can happen at the last possible minute, because of weather, and various other reasons, and often, I don't receive the festival change information in time to make changes to the Region 8 Kite events Calendar.
 
  I'm always open to questions, ideas, concerns, from all of you, so please feel welcome to contact me about any kite related topics that involve AKA Region 8! There's no such thing as a dumb or silly question, unless it comes from my wife or kids! You can contact me by e-mail, at:  rd8 at aka.kite.org   
Or by phone, at: Home 940-691-8522   Cell  940-224-0934.

  Just a heads up, I work nights Monday thru Thursday and thus I sleep during the day, so don't expect any communication from me before about 1pm each day. I answer all e-mail and phone calls asap. If you have an issue that is somewhat an emergency, I always have my cell phone with me at work, and can talk or call you back when I'm able to.

   Please, if you have any kite related news, reports, stories, that you think I should add to the AKA Kiting Magazine report, please forward them to me. If I don't know about your news, or if I wasn't able to attend your events, I can't write about it.

Fly High, Fly Safe, Have Fun!