Boomerang Dave's Boomerang Journal

Kill Devil Hills NC is the site of the Wright brothers first successful flight of the Wright Flyer (Not Kitty Hawk but very close by). The National Park Service has a wonderful park here. The launch point and landings for the four flights of December 17 ^th 1903 are marked off. Replicas of the gliders and Wright Flyers are viewable. Much history of the original flights is available. Then there is that hill and the monument to the Wright Brothers and the first flight, it seems like a place to toss a boomerang to me.

Tuesday September 4 ^th, 10AM, Barb and I park the truck and grab a boomerang and camera and head up the hill. I chose a copy of a Herb Smith Classic Hook, knowing that it made a large circle which I was sure would make it all the way around the monument. We arrive at the top of the hill and notice the breeze is stronger up here and definitely coming from the north. For my first throw I go to the southeast corner of the monument and throw too much into the wind. The boom flies around the monument and down the back side of the hill. While the front side of the hill is a nice slope, the back drops off rapidly at about a 70 degree angle. Fortunately there were some spectators watching my attempt and pointed out where the boomerang landed. There was a path leading down almost to the spot the boomerang landed so retrieval was pretty easy. Barb got a great photo of me, the monument and the boomerang flying.


I went to the south side of the monument and readied another throw. This one was good, much better than the first but Barb did not get a photo due to technical difficulties.

I set up for a third attempt. This time I angled too far off the wind and the boomerang came screaming in front of the monument and just over my head. It sailed past me, then Barb (who got off a photo) and over the worst possible part of the drop off behind us. Barb was close to the edge and saw just about where it went. It was not good. There is a fairly large area covered with a thorny bush, much like a wild rosebush. The boomerang was in the thick of it and no matter how we tried to get to it, we just could not without suffering lots of scratches and cuts. Since I made the boomerang, I felt it was expendable and decided to leave it there as my own memorial to the Wright Brothers. I had done what I came to do, and could take the time to make a new boomerang for myself. I have photos of the event to remember it by and had fun doing it.


If you are ever in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and have a decent boomerang (at least 30 meter range) I suggest you give this a go. Just be very careful of the hard slope on the south side! While in the area, remember to take some time to fly kites at Jockey Ridge State Park in Nags Head. The winds are usually quite favorable. While we were there we thought we might get taken away by our kites!