Bob and Charmayne's school bus

Bob's and Charmayne's school bus

The school bus is our biggest piece of line laundry.

It has had it share of mis-adventures. Including blowing up like a balloon the first time we inflated it. It was simply a giant sack with no internal structure. It was made in 1999, shortly after we started building kites and we certainly were not experienced in the line laundry department. After all my work, I was totally dismayed and burst into tears. Not to worry Bob told me. We just needed some way to help hold the shape we wanted, which was the old fashioned round-top bus. Out came a seam allowing us to put several panels inside the bus They are stitched to the sides and bottom, leaving the top to billow up. There are holes hot cut in each panel to allow the wind to flow through and inflate the entire bus. The air intake is the radiator. There is nylon netting sewn in place to help hold the shape.

We took our yellow and black line to Fanø in 2002. The wind was up, really strong and the laundry looked great. And it started moving down the beach! The parasled had pulled the anchor and was flying away, complete with a huge amount of ripstop nylon. Anne Huston said, "Look at that sand bag! It is moving!" Oops. Bob and I took off at a run. I was first and jumped on the sand bag. Bob jumped on me and there we sat side by side on the sandbag, discussing the situation. This was one of our first experiences with helpful Fanø kitefliers. Several came over and asked if we had a plan. They helped hold the line as we stripped enough laundry off to allow it to be dragged back to the car. They showed us a wonderful tow hook built into the car and got it attached. The kite and laundry had gone quite a ways down the beach but miraculously it did not tangle with or cut any other kite lines.

To stablize it as it flies on the kite line, Bob used a set of bridle lines going to the radiator plus a line at the front and rear of the bus top. These 2 lines are adjustable to allow it to hang parallel to the ground.

Sometimes getting the line laundry down is difficult but we have worked out a good method for the school bus. It doesn't have a zipper. To get the bus off the line and put away, we leave the front bridle lines attached to the kite line and remove the two tag lines. I run the bus forward, ahead of the tow point and start stuffing it into a big sack, courtesy of Alice Hayden. The tag lines get stuffed along with the bus but the bridle lines are looped and then laid on the top with the end tied to the handles of the bag. Ready to fly again with ease.


We used the neighbor kids as models plus the kindergarten silhouettes of my sons, Anders and Arno, Jr. We finished it just in time for the 1999 AKA convention in Muncie.	Pepe, Jerimy, and Anna on the bus.	Three of the models
Joel, Anders, & Arno on the driver's side	Joel Tafoya
Sometimes it flies high...	...sometimes on the ice. "Hey, wait for me!"	Even internationally, it is ever popular.
Flying in Nebraska. "Rolling" across the plains in the high grass...	...to flying at the beach, we love our bus.