Tuesday 30 October 2012

Light Up The Sky (Children in Need)

 
A couple of lit kites flying over Woodchurch Green
Saturday 27th October 2012 was the date for “Light Up The Sky” an event to support Children in Need and the chosen venue for Kent Kite Flyers was Woodchurch Green near Ashford. We got there just after 3pm to find the wind was gusting quite strongly but without any consistency, I tried 3 different kites before I could get one to stay in the air and even then it needed constant tending.
My 3D Box Kite from Emma Kites
I was looking for a kite where the spars were visible so that I could stickytape “Glow-Sticks” to them for the night flight. There were a few kites that managed to weather the heavy wind which was a bit steadier once you got up to about 100 feet.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
My Easy Fly Delta in high gusting wind

 
I had real problems getting my four Deltas to carry the various light sets I had bought for them and all bar one seemed unbalanced, I tried strapping the light set to the flying line to take the weight off the kite itself however even this did not work. Fortunately I had one Delta which I had sorted out mid week which seemed to fly okay.
 



Whilst I was struggling with kites and battery packs others had created a wind garden providing light and sound, with strings of halloween lights between them.
 
 
As dusk fell lights were switched on and the night flight began. Photos are few as I was relying on the preset firework setting on my Olympus, sadly it did not work as well as I had hoped.
 


 

 
 
 
I managed to have 3 kites flying, first off my Delta with multicoloured fairy lights attached.
 
 
 

Secondly my 3D box kite in which the glow-sticks were invisible due to an almost full moon shining down on us so I attached half a dozen red and white flashing key-fob LED’s, lastly my Skull Pudsey which looked good once it had been bombarded with dark light. I was pleased with this as I had spent a week creating and painting it with fluorescent paints the original design comes from pyrogirlx.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


There were quite a few kites in the air with various light displays and sound boxes, unfortunately despite the publicity and hard work put in by the organiser, public attendance was very light.




I have to say thank you for the cookies and cakes which were provided – they were yummy.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Brogdale Apple Festival 20th and 21st October 2012


This way (through the mud) to the Kites
I have never been to an Apple Festival before, however Wendy and I went to Brogdale with Kent Kite Flyers where the club attended to display kites and do “Teddy-Parachuting”. The Festival is a 2 day event celebrating British Apples and what ought to be emphasised is that Brogdale is the home of The National Fruit Collection and isthe World’s largest collection of fruit trees and plants. 






This is one of the two fields put aside for kite flying.

Sadly rain the day before made the ground rather boggy, but this did not deter us from putting a few kites into the air.




 
The first two kites in the air
 
 
 

Sadly the low wind meant that all but the lightest kites had difficulty staying in the air without a tremendous amount of work.













As the morning progressed the wind disappeared completely the calm of the“Doldrums” had hit Kent. Only those kites requiring next to no wind were flown such as the "Vented iflite2 and the Prism Zero G Curuleum below.
The total lack of wind gave us the opportunity to take a look around the other events at the Festival.




The tents in this picture include hand made soaps, Kent wildlife Trust, Fungi and Wood Carving also one of the two bandstands providing live music.








Other stalls had Fairy Cakes, Cheeses and various hand crafted items. The farm shop was also open.












Labyrinth - one of the music groups on stage.


 









As an avid birder my favourite stand was Manyhoots, a centre for disabled birds of prey, here are 2 of the birds they had on display.


 
















I would like to thank everyone who added to my knowledge on this day. I have much to learn about Kiting and every event I attend I pick up a little bit more. This time round it was how to put my cody together, flying an iflite 2, learning about cody's made from one sheet, and various European Kiting events.








What the Festival was really about, one of the many display stands of British Apples in a large marquee.









 Other Kites that made it into the air :-




 


 
 

 

 Wind Garden also Poles with Windsock and Kites.
 
 




















By the way - all photos in my Blog can be seen in a slideshow (smaller pictures can then be seen full size), just double click on any of the photos and you will see the slideshow option.

The next Kiting event is at Woodchurch in Kent on 27th October where The Kent Kite Flyers will be lighting up the sky with illuminated kites to raise money for Children in Need

Lastly three links relating to this post.

Thursday 18 October 2012

One Sky One World - Folkestone - Sunday 14 October 2012



Last Sunday was One Sky One World. It is the event that finally decided me to start flying kites in 2011. The venue for this event was Radnor Park in Folkestone and I encourage others to attend next year when no doubt we will be at the same venue flying more kites. The aims of O.S.O.W. are at the foot of this post, together with a link to their website.

Kent Kite Flyers at Radnor Park (off flying kites)
The weather was lovely but the winds very light and it looked for a while that the kite count for the day would be quite low, fortunately as the day progressed so did the wind and once you got into the centre of the field and gained a bit of height there was a fairly stiff breeze.

Stephen proving you do not need a long line or wind to fly a kite

As the idea of the day was to get as many kites into the air as possible by as many people as we could involve, an awful lot of photos opportunities presented themselves and it has taken me several days to thin the numbers down for a manageable post.

Loan kites being flown by attending members of the public
Due to Blogspot and me not getting on (believe it or not it has been 6 hours in compiling this on the website - Grrrrr) I have had to upload the full set of photos at Flickr. They can be seen at :-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kweevnidny/sets/72157631799052564/
 
Not all kites were captured by the camera – but I think Wendy got the majority of them using my Olympus. Apologies for the few out of focus shots but this camera is a little temperamental with its autofocus.








Where two Rokkakus go, four flotails may follow.

One Sky One World website is at :-
http://www.oneskyoneworld.org/contact.html



Tuesday 9 October 2012

Milton Creek Community Day 6th October 2012

 
 
Last Saturday Wendy and I went to Milton Creek Country Park where Kent Kite Flyers were attending the Milton Creek Community Day. The overnight rain had disappeared leaving the ground a trifle damp with a small pond in a corner of the flying field. Due to light traffic we arrived early and I am proud to say that I was the first with a kite in the air with my Rokkaku (no picture) in a nice light breeze. Others quickly arrived and more kites were soon flying.
 

 
 
 
 
 
Poles with small kites and windsocks together with wind machines made for a colourful display.
 
 
 
 
 
This Bee and Ghost being Just 2 of the many
 
 
 
Steve's Mega Delta
 
 
Most of the day there was very little wind and the only kite that remained up all day was Steves Mega Delta. 
 
My Spirit of the Air Mega Delta
 
 
 
 Several attempts to launch my own Mega Delta met with little success it being quite a heavy kite I think the longest it stayed in the air was about 30 seconds and I wasn’t even flying it at the time!
 
 
 
 
 
 
The lack of wind meant only the lightest of kites could be flown.
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 

 
 
 
Mike's Maple Leaf Kite
 
 
 
 
 

Despite the lack of wind it was a lovely day and quite a few kites were lent out to members of the public mainly children who had the energy to run around and create enough wind to fly them.
 
 
 
 
 
A few attempts were made to fly line laundry, but the wind was not strong enough for the lifter kites to maintain height, however this Large Bee flew for a while.








Towards late afternoon the wind picked up slightly and a few more kites were flown including a couple of people who had brought along their Indian Fighting Kites

 
  
Many other Kites were flown during the day, some I managed to photograph. 
 
 
Power Sled

 
A Brassington designed Flame
As always I know very little about the names of the Kites or their owners and I am more than happy to add or change information attached to any of the pictures, so please let me know - it is the only way I will learn properly.