Well they were right, the wind dropped!
In fact it fell away to nothing. By the time Bill and I arrived there was hardly a kite in the sky. I think I saw the Scratch Bunnies doing a display, but I think they were moving faster than the kites.
DEfinitely a day for the really light wind kites, so much so that I watched as people struggled int he arena to get a dopero airborne. So I decided to go with a roller (the one with the sunburst pattern), which flew nicely, and at one point, I thought we were going to invent a new sport of roller fighting with a couple of guys. bring it on.
Bill had a bit of disappointement. The new box he had bought from skybums broke as he was assembling it. Boy did the air turn blue. And as no-one had a spare 2m length of 15mm hardwood dowel, he was scuppered for the day. So he tried with a rhombox, but didn't have much luck getting that airbonre either.
Paul tried and failed to fly his new huge mega delta. So the day was spent wandering round, chatting, watching people stuggle and invariably fail to fly. Good journey both ways though. Did the trip in about an hour and a half from home. Hope to meet up with people again soon.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Rougham day 1
And the wind she did blow.
We got there about midday, and were a little unhappy at the £6 each admission!. But swallowing our pride we carried on and spent a day at Rougham wandering round traders stands and watching people struggling with the wind. Paul Brooks had his new large spikey ball in the air, but the wind was far to strong for his new delta. We're told the wind will drop tomorrow so he hopes to put in a maiden flight.
Late afternoon and we decided to fly. I tried the 56 rokakku to lift my camera, but it really wasn't much cop. It wasn't very stable and didn't really generate enough lift. I did get some photos from the public flying area across the campsite and over the arenas. And this picture includes the control tower in the background.
Tomorrow hopefully the wind will drop a bit and we can try again perhaps with a more stable kite. Meanwhile enjoy the pics, you know where they are by now.
We got there about midday, and were a little unhappy at the £6 each admission!. But swallowing our pride we carried on and spent a day at Rougham wandering round traders stands and watching people struggling with the wind. Paul Brooks had his new large spikey ball in the air, but the wind was far to strong for his new delta. We're told the wind will drop tomorrow so he hopes to put in a maiden flight.
Late afternoon and we decided to fly. I tried the 56 rokakku to lift my camera, but it really wasn't much cop. It wasn't very stable and didn't really generate enough lift. I did get some photos from the public flying area across the campsite and over the arenas. And this picture includes the control tower in the background.
Tomorrow hopefully the wind will drop a bit and we can try again perhaps with a more stable kite. Meanwhile enjoy the pics, you know where they are by now.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
St Mildred's on a Sunday
Today children we went to St. mildred's Bay near Margate, where it was cloudy and very windy. Given the conditions one had to be mad to fly a kite. But we are, so we did!
As usual arrived before Bill and when he arrived we headed off to Pav's for lunch. When we came back there were a few of the crew gathered. Heather had arrived with the Mind mental health charity kites that tehy wanted us to fly. Well we fiddled with a few and got some to fly reasonably reliably. Heather managed to get some photos for the Mind event next week.
With that over and done with, it was back to the more normal tasks of flying kites with assorted line junk. Problem was, finding any kite that was stable in the very tricky wind conditions. Deltas, delta conynes, box kites of assorted design all seemed to be darting across the sky. I really wanted to try some KAp, one to get some photos from above the sunken garden, and two to get out over the cliffs and look down on the bay below. The wind was in a favourable direction, but was I goning to be able to find a kite stable enough?
I decided to try the small 1.5 metre premiere rokkaku, heavily bowed, I managed to get it fling at a good angle and just about stable, so set about setting up my rig. I got the rig on the line, but then the kite was visciously dragged out of the sky by a delta. So with everything relaunched, I decided to try and find a gap through the kites and junk, only to get crossed by another delta, carrying pigs, frogs, etc. with it. This tangle was a bit more serious, and we had to come down to resolve it. It was during this interval on the ground, that I got a stunning photo of a ball of string!
Anyway, I found enough space to relaunch, but conditions were such that there was very little lift, and the camera was floating horizontally as I fed line. Occasionally the kite lifted, and more often than not, it sunk towards the ground. I did manage to get a couple of shots of the sunken garden.
You can take a look on my flickr page. Then I tried to walk kite and camera out over the cliffs. Well I got the kite out there, but only managed to get the camera as far as the cliff top path. The wind was extermely fickle and I was loosing all lift, so decided to call it a day. I didn't really want to dump the whole lot in the bay below. ANother time in better conditions, I'll have another go.
As usual arrived before Bill and when he arrived we headed off to Pav's for lunch. When we came back there were a few of the crew gathered. Heather had arrived with the Mind mental health charity kites that tehy wanted us to fly. Well we fiddled with a few and got some to fly reasonably reliably. Heather managed to get some photos for the Mind event next week.
With that over and done with, it was back to the more normal tasks of flying kites with assorted line junk. Problem was, finding any kite that was stable in the very tricky wind conditions. Deltas, delta conynes, box kites of assorted design all seemed to be darting across the sky. I really wanted to try some KAp, one to get some photos from above the sunken garden, and two to get out over the cliffs and look down on the bay below. The wind was in a favourable direction, but was I goning to be able to find a kite stable enough?
I decided to try the small 1.5 metre premiere rokkaku, heavily bowed, I managed to get it fling at a good angle and just about stable, so set about setting up my rig. I got the rig on the line, but then the kite was visciously dragged out of the sky by a delta. So with everything relaunched, I decided to try and find a gap through the kites and junk, only to get crossed by another delta, carrying pigs, frogs, etc. with it. This tangle was a bit more serious, and we had to come down to resolve it. It was during this interval on the ground, that I got a stunning photo of a ball of string!
Anyway, I found enough space to relaunch, but conditions were such that there was very little lift, and the camera was floating horizontally as I fed line. Occasionally the kite lifted, and more often than not, it sunk towards the ground. I did manage to get a couple of shots of the sunken garden.
You can take a look on my flickr page. Then I tried to walk kite and camera out over the cliffs. Well I got the kite out there, but only managed to get the camera as far as the cliff top path. The wind was extermely fickle and I was loosing all lift, so decided to call it a day. I didn't really want to dump the whole lot in the bay below. ANother time in better conditions, I'll have another go.
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