A Flying Kite

On The End Of A String...

Is a wonderful thing! Is watching a flying kite one of your hobbies? Seeing your own creation up there definitely adds a new dimension to the experience. This page is devoted to a whole bunch of flight reports with my own collection of home-made kites.

You just never know what random incident might happen while your kite is up. Nothing earth-shattering generally, but often enough to make you (or a number of the by-standers) crack a smile!

Nearly every flight report features 10 seconds of video, plus an in-flight photo of the flying kite.

Each section below is devoted to one of the MBK Series:

• Multi-Dowel Bonus Kites (very large and tail-less)
• Dowel Series (large and tail-less)
• 3-Skewer Bonus Kites (only available in books - see over there on the right)
• 2-Skewer Series (modest sized, but high-performance)
• 1-Skewer Series (tiny, but quick to make)
  
  

BIG Is Beautiful!

'Big' has recently been re-defined here at MBK! So far in the Multi-Dowel Series are the Sled, Barn Door, Rokkaku and Box kites. The Sled and Box are 2.4 meters (nearly 8 feet) long, while the others have a span of that same amount.

Sled:

A Learning Experience With My First Truly BIG Kite.

Barn Door:

Rough As Guts Up There!

Steady Climb-out, Soaring High At Last

Rokkaku:

A Slow, Ponderous Climb To 250 Feet

Box:

Successful Test In Plenty Of Breeze

The Multi-Dowel Sled

A Flying Kite Of Dowel And Plastic

... is likely to do pretty well in light winds, as long as the dowel isn't too thick and heavy. The designs in the Dowel Series were made with adults in mind, who want something of a decent size to fly.

The first thing you might notice about a flying kite of the Dowel variety is that it doesn't have a tail. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from adding a tail just for looks! These kites will fly a little higher and steeper without tails though.

Enjoy browsing through these accounts of outings with a Dowel Kite...

Sled:

Fewer Collapses, Much Higher And Longer Flights

Just Hanging As The Sun Goes Down

Diamond:

Long Climbs In Light Warm Breezes

Flies Like A Dream - If Thermals Not Too Extreme!

Barn Door:

Lolling About In Large Areas Of Lift And Sink

Awesome Performer In Smooth Moderate Winds

Straight To 80 Degrees In Gentle Winter Thermals

Rokkaku:

Straight And True Over The Whole Wind Range

Had To Fly Higher To Find Slower Air!

Flying High In Smooth Breezes - After Some Drama!

First Test Flight In A Light Gusty Breeze

Sode:

Frolicking In Moderate Winds And Thermals

Smooth Stable and Predictable!

Delta:

Dicing With Sudden Wind Increases And Cloud Suck

Trimmed Out And Flying High

Amazing Flight In Almost Zero Wind

Smooth Stiff Breeze Keeps Line Straight And Spars Bent!

Roller:

The First High Flight

Light-wind Workout But Still A Height Record!

Successful Test Flight In A Cold Fresh Breeze, With Gusts

Dopero:

Eventful Outing - Pelicans, Failed Tape And More

Simply Superb Thermal Floater!

Promising Test Flight In A Sharp Winter Wind Gradient

Box (moderate wind version):

Winds A Bit Light, But Still Flew HIGH

Box (fresh wind version):

An Exhilarating Fresh Wind Single-liner!

The Dowel Rokkaku

Ultimate Skewer Kites

There will eventually be 3 designs here. They are Bonus 3-Skewer Kites which will be included in the downloadable book Making Skewer Kites, but not available on this website. However, you can certainly read about them here, and watch the videos!

So far...

Sled

Rough Moderate Winds - No Problem!

A-Frame

Exploring The Lower Wind Range

Exploring The Upper Wind Range

The 3-Skewer A-Frame

A Flying Kite - Smallish But Efficient

I've had some fantastic flights with kites from the 2-Skewer Series on light-wind days. What I love about them personally is that despite being fairly small, they hit a performance sweet spot. Here's what I mean...

Two bamboo BBQ skewers end to end turns out to be a very ideal combination of strength, rigidity and light weight. Add extremely light single-ply plastic, and you have one super light-weight flying kite! Saving weight is what it's all about, as any kite-maker will tell you.

See what some of these kites get up to, on a long 20 pound Dacron line...

Sled

First High Flight In A Gusty Breeze

Diamond

When Is A Hole In The Sail A Good Thing?

On A Taut 70 Meters Under A Leaden Sky

Barn Door

Strong Thermals And Branch-Bending Gusts!

Gentle Flying Near Its Wind Range Lower Limit

Rokkaku

Rok Rockets Up, Aided By Thermals And Light Wind

Pushing The Envelope In Moderate To Fresh Winds

Sode

Gusty Moderate Winds And One Heck Of A Thermal

Roller

Long High Flight In Perfect Weather

Dopero

Gusty Fresh Winds Spring Up From Nowhere

Box:

Sitting Pretty Above The Wind Gradient

The First Flight

Some of this series are due to be re-made, with design improvements. When that happens, more flight reports will be added above.

A flying kite in a class of its own, somewhere between the 2-skewer and 1-skewer designs, is this...

Tetrahedral:

Floated Way Up In Almost Perfect Winds

The 2-Skewer Diamond

A Flying Kite - Tiny But Interesting

Particularly if it is an MBK 1-Skewer kite! These 1-Skewer Series kites have wing-spans the length of a single BBQ skewer. The Delta is actually a little wider than that, but both leading edge spars are a single BBQ skewer. Most of the designs in this series are rarely seen in such small sizes. But I thought it would be fun to re-create them anyway!

How about a ... 29cm (1 foot) wide Dopero? Just for moderate wind fun. It's simply too tiny to lift a camera of any kind, unlike its much larger cousins.

Sled:

First Time Out, And Loving The Moderate Breeze!

Diamond:

2 Orange Diamonds Flash In A Blue-Gray Setting

Barn Door:

Short But Successful Flights In Meagre Breezes

Rokkaku:

Winds A Bit Light, But Thermals Helped Out!

Sode:

High And Stable In A Moderate Breeze

Delta:

Almost Zero-Wind, But Still Some Interesting Flying!

Testing Conditions, But A Great Little Flier!

Roller:

A Real Workout In Fresh Gusts

Dopero:

Moderate Winds, And Not Too Gusty - Perfect!

Box:

Floating And Darting In Gusty Fresh Winds

The 1-Skewer Dopero

The Smallest And The Simplest

Eventually there might be a small collection of stories here, documenting how some very simple and/or quick to make kites perform. Just 2 for now, the spar-less Paper Sled and the Tiny Tots Diamond...

Paper Sled:

Floating Aloft On Light Thermal-Induced Gusts

Tiny Tots Diamond:

High Up In A Gusty Fresh Breeze

The Tiny Tots Diamond

Have you browsed a few flight reports yet? OK, then have a guess which type of kite is featured in the video below...

For MBK Flight Reporters only...

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