Hans Kratky

Hans Kratky - photo by Nigel A.  JAMES

Shooting High

Hans Kratky is a high thinking man, and, one of his ideas almost cost him a very expensive Christmas present – the one that his wife gave him!

It was some years ago that Hans’s wife, Petra gave him a super cam-corder (video camera) for Christmas; and, believe it or not, it was something that he really wanted; and, what he had in mind was something quite daring.

Now, Hans and Petra have a very small house in the country near Vienna, and Hans thought that a bird’s eye view of it would be just the thing; and so, he set to work on his idea.

It wasn’t long before his brand new - home made - larger than life kite was ready for its maiden flight; and so, with cam-corder attached, Hans successfully launched his colourful kite - which he had christened Eagle - into the heavens. Then, soaring on high, it began, by remote control, to shoot their weekend retreat. So far, all was going to plan.

But, things that go according to plan can also go wrong. For, as Hans was about to wind in the Eagle, a great wind arose and snatched the string from right out of his hands! All he could do was to stand and stare as the Eagle danced and swayed and turned and rose and fell with speed as the wind took it on its liberated way. That’s the end of my kite, my camera and my pictures, thought Hans. Things were looking bad.

But not all endings are bad, and, just a little while later the Eagle was spotted in a tree and Hans was able to go and retrieve it. The kite was completely ruined, but, thankfully, the camera had survived its flight into danger and was still taking pictures – and the pictures that it had taken were really remarkable!

From high in the sky, Han’s and Petra’s little house seemed even smaller than it really was; and the surrounding countryside was really quite breathtakingly beautiful. And then came the Eagle’s escape into freedom! There, in full Technicolor and packed with mobile action, was the looping-the-loop, the diving and the swinging, and the ups and the downs and the painful seconds before its final crash – and Hans!

Because the camera had ended up upside-down in the tree, Hans, instead of coming up from below, appeared, instead to be coming down from above. Everything was the wrong way round and back to front as well. A master piece of amateur filming –and Hans had only just started!

But, both Hans and Petra are still laughing about it; the day that Han’s high soaring thinking came back down to earth - and ended up high in a tree!

My e-mail address is, njmailboy@gmail.com