Even building kites can be a breeze with a little basic know-how.

"You can make a kite that flies [from] a brown paper bag," said Calvin Mills of Allison Park, as he sent a delta-shaped dual-line model aloft at the recent Kites for Kids day at Carnegie Science Center. "They can be as simple or sophisticated as you want them to be."

Mills and other members of the Fly Pittsburgh Kite Club helped with kite-making and flying at the annual event, which is held by KidsVoice to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect.

"We chose kites because they're symbols of soaring hope and happy childhood experiences," said KidsVoice executive director Scott Hollander. "During April, which is Child Abuse Prevention Month, we asked Boy Scouts, schools, church groups -- the whole community -- to make 5,000 kites, one for each of the children we serve in Allegheny County."

Of course, kite flying isn't just for kids and few enthusiasts who build kites from brown paper bags. Most are made today from nylon or polyester and there are hundreds of different styles, for finesse, precision or power kiting as well as ice kiting, kite surfing, even kite fighting.

The traditional diamond-shaped kite with a long tail may be the best known, but is "notoriously unstable" compared to other kites, Mills said, and has given way to more complex designs. There are box kites, facet kites, glider kites, even something called a Japanese "rokkaku" -- a six-sided kite used in battles where the goal is to knock down other kites or cut their strings.

Lee Sedgwick of Erie flew a 9-by-3-foot purple and blue glider kite along the river. Despite its size, it weighed just over a half pound. Smaller kites can weigh a mere ounce.

Among the easiest to fly is a sled kite. Kites for Kids volunteers made them in minutes for children to decorate, using a rectangular-winged pattern stabilized with thin strips of wood and attached to a bridle which is tied in the center to a flying string. The bridle, which is made of two equal lengths of string twice as long as the wooden strips, is a key part of the kite-making process because it provides balance in flight, Mills said.

"If you bridle anything right -- even a paper bag -- you can get it to fly."

Mills grew up in a kite-flying family that vacationed in North Carolina's Outer Banks, where wide beaches and strong steady winds are ideal for their favorite pastime. Mills managed a kite store in the Outer Banks and has flown kites all over the world, including Japan and Malaysia, where kiting is a cultural tradition.

He and other club members let families try their kites on the Carnegie Science Center lawn.

"This is a Ufo," he said, as he worked the strings of a saucer-shaped kite that alternately soared and sliced the air. "It's a relatively new design that works well around here because you don't need much wind to fly it."

Pittsburgh, with its tall buildings and hills, isn't especially kite-friendly, although Lisa Bookman, who helped organize the club's involvement in KidsVoice, said Point State Park can be an "awesome" site when conditions cooperate.

"When the wind comes down the Ohio River just right, with the backdrop of the buildings Downtown, it's a great place to fly," said Bookman, who lives in Robinson. She and her husband Michael Moore travel to Butler County for the club's monthly "flies" at Cooper's Lake Campground near Slippery Rock.

Moore and his flying partner Tom Baumgardner are master kiters who have won American Kite Flyers Association precision-flying events by choreographing large delta-shaped kites to music. Both men are engineers.

"You can fly any shape but a ball," said Baumgardner of Slippery Rock. "With the right amount of wind, you can fly a lawn chair."

Some kites are made to be flown indoors.

"It's not so much the design as the lightness and size when you're flying inside," said Baumgardner, whose club has an annual fly event in the Slippery Rock University gymnasium. "The bridle has to be adjustable and placed just so. You have to manipulate your indoors kite more."

Baumgardner bought his first kite in Ocean City, Md., years ago to pass time on a rainy day.

"I watched a kite store video and was hooked," he said. "When I fly, it's just me and the kite. I'm one with it; it's part of my arm. I'm thinking maneuvers, getting it to do exactly what I want, but there's also the beauty of the kite, looking up and seeing a flock of geese or a cloud formation and thinking, 'Okay, I'll get in line with that.' "

That's advanced stuff. Just launching a kite and keeping it aloft can be a challenge for most novices, especially when breezes are weak.

"This one has low wind range," said Moore, as he placed the dual controls of a blue-and white delta-shaped kite into my hands. "Keep your arms taut and launch with a tug. It takes very little force to make the kite fly. In fact, if you make drastic moves in a gusty wind, you'll pull your kite out of sky."

It took a couple of tries to send the kite skyward, but it didn't stay up for long.

"We call this the walk of shame," said Moore, as he strode to the downed kite, and perched it on its wing tips for a re-launch. My next try went a little smoother. "You want to pull the nose toward you," he suggested. "That allows the sail to fill up with air, then you can steer. The kite will fly wherever you aim the nose. Keep the movements subtle."

Although it takes practice to keep a kite flying high, even a moment or two of getting it to soar is cause for optimism. And kite flyers, if anything, are optimists. As club member-volunteer Marlene Blazczak of West Deer said, "We're always looking up!"