Kites: Site Blog
Welcome to this Site Blog on kites! Are you looking around for general info on flying or building? Keen to see something made by your own hands floating around hundreds of feet up?
This page will keep you up to date with all the latest changes or additions to this website.
However, if you are more interested in the kite flying activities of Tim, May and Aren, be sure to keep an eye out for posts with Flight Report in the title.
Become Part Of The MBK Site Blog!
It's easy to post your own story here, so it becomes the first link in the list below - until someone else makes a post. However, your post remains on My-Best-Kite.com as a permanent page for others to enjoy at any time. See how others have done this, below...
May 21, 2013
Box Kites Over Lebanon, USA.
Sadly, this was going to be the last outing to the park in Lebanon so I wanted to do something special in view of this. Since then, we have moved from
May 20, 2013
Art kites - my new passion
I love creating these finely crafted pieces of art - that fly!
May 20, 2013
Flight Report:
Don't Do A Lark's Head In The Dark
We were down at Murray Bridge on a short holiday at a B&B (bed and breakfast) for a few days. The sun had touched the horizon some minutes ago and a light breeze was wafting across the property. Hey, why not get out for a brief night-fly while there's still a bit of light!
The Dowel Delta seemed an ideal choice. So in just half a minute or so it was ready, spreader tied on with the shoe-lace tie at each end. Usually I fly this Delta on 50 pound line but tonight the breeze seemed docile enough to go for the 20 pound line instead. It looks like a pretty big kite to fly on such thin line, but it's been proven OK on previous occasions in similar conditions.
Well, in the low light and without the reading glasses on, forming the Lark's Head and slipping it over the towing-point knot of the kite's keel was not quite as straight-forward as usual. But still pretty easy, really. There goes the kite, up up and away. No problem.
Walking backwards and to the side for a few meters, the kite was soon up at a steep flying angle. Sitting nicely at around 10 or 15 meters (50 feet) up, in the cool and fitful dusk breeze. With each gentle gust in wind speed, the trailing edge would flutter audibly and the 20 pound line was quite taught.
Why not let some more line out? Rapidly I pulled line off the winder and the kite responded by sinking tail-first as it drifted down-wind. OK, that's enough now... Mmmm funny ... it's still drifting. Better pull some more line in. What - still drifting? Uhmmmm ... something's wrong - and now the kite is gliding down in circles! Almost as if... Yep, it's not connected!
To cut this little tale short, the line had somehow let go. I suspect the Lark's Head was not properly secure, as the line was in one piece. We eventually got the kite back, despite it coming to rest on the neighbor's property! Read and see more about this kite on the page How To Make The Dowel Delta Kite. Double check that Lark's Head if you make one and take it out at night!
About This Post: These days, most flight reports are in the short format you've just seen, above. However, longer format reports are done occasionally, which also feature photos and video taken on the day. Here is a link to all those full flight report pages on this site.
May 20, 2013
Tetrahedral kite
Q: Ok, I have made the Rokkaku, the Box and the Roller, and all turned out amazing. I will attach videos and photos. But, the tetrahedral is a problem
May 19, 2013
Best kite I've ever had!
My son got a cheap kite as a gift for his 6th birthday, and it broke in about 20 seconds. He was very disappointed, so I decided to build one. With 2
May 12, 2013
Flight Report - Multi Dowel Box Kite Has Successful Test
The big Multi Dowel Box kite had a successful extended test flight today. Plenty of breeze for a change!
Continue reading "Flight Report - Multi Dowel Box Kite Has Successful Test"
May 10, 2013
Flight Report:
How To Calm The Wind
How to calm the wind from 'fresh' to 'light' in 12 minutes flat? Just go out with a giant 2.4 meter (8 feet) long Box kite that requires 10 minutes to rig and nearly 20 kph of breeze just to lift off, and ... The breeze will magically die. Well, it's worked 3 times out of three now!
However, this time I was determined not to miss out on a decent flight, so came prepared with a backup. The trusty Multi-Dowel Barn Door kite. The Box was left sheltered in a grove of trees, fully rigged, just in case.
The huge 2.4 meter (8 feet) span Barn Door lofted easily in the first gust that came through. Wind speed was a bit light even for the Barn Door down low, so a little encouragement via line tugging was required. Soon, the big blue dowel and plastic craft bit into some slightly faster air and went sailing away, up to high line angles.
I just let the big kite do its thing on 60 meters (200 feet) of line for a while. Over 100 feet the air was just perfect for this design with its 9.5mm Oak spars. Line tensions were light enough to hand-fly without gloves. Just occasionally, with the sun peeping through mid-level cloud cover, regions of sinking and rising air would affect the kite. Turbulence too, would buffet the sail from time to time and make the frame shudder.
Finding some extra room in a nearby parking lot, I let another 30 meters (100 feet) of line out. The Multi-Dowel Barn Door kite eagerly took advantage and was soon straining away in noticeably faster air. The line was very tight now, and within minutes the kite soared directly overhead. As often happens at 90 degree line angles, a tight but slow 360 degree turn was the result.
Not long after this, the general wind speed started to increase and boy, was it a hard job getting the kite down! At the risk of getting more blisters I started bringing the line in. With half the job done but no let-up in line tension, I resorted to taking a wrap around each hand in turn as the big Barn Door reluctantly lost height.
Checking the wind meter shortly after packing up, it had registered an average speed of 5.8 kph with a maximum gust to 16 kph. Towards the end of the flight I would say the breeze was in the high 20s, several hundred feet up.
This Multi-Dowel Barn Door kite is the bonus design in the e-book Making The Dowel Barn Door Kite. Why not have a go yourself!
About This Post: These days, most flight reports are in the short format you've just seen, above. However, longer format reports are done occasionally, which also feature photos and video taken on the day. Here is a link to all those full flight report pages on this site.
Apr 29, 2013
Flight Report:
Float-Out Launches With Dowel Delta Kite
Today's flight was a consequence of starting a new e-course. A minimum number of installments will be ready to go when the course launches. When will that be? 'Don't hold your breath' - it will be weeks, perhaps months. Anyway...
The aim today was to float-launch the Dowel Delta kite by continuously letting out line and keeping the kite very low. For as long as possible! Then, simply by hanging on to the line, the kite would be allowed to catch the breeze and take off like a home-sick angel.
A new twist to this outing was the fact that 2 cameras would be recording the flight. Our trusty Samsung bottom-of-the-range digicam would take a movie. Also, our somewhat fancier Pentax Optio WG-2 would be snapping stills, one every 10 seconds.
As it turned out, and as expected, a few little lessons were learned. But we got some usable imagery of the float-out launches. Next time, a 5 second delay should get better results for the Optio, while a second tripod would really come in handy. On this occasion I had to do the stills and the movie during 2 separate kite flights.
The launching turned out to be more challenging than expected due to very light wind strengths near the ground.
After all the camera work was in the bag, it was time to enjoy the antics of the Delta, naturally. It wasn't long before 90 meters (300 feet) of line was out, with the Dowel Delta doing its thing at steep line angles. That included a few wide loops, fast and with some trailing-edge flutter near the bottom, which resulted when the kite lost air pressure and found itself vertically nose-down. But the Dowel Delta kite is quite stable and recovered by itself each time.
During a gust near ground level I popped the wind meter up for half a minute and it recorded an average speed of 5.4kph (3.3mph).
About This Post: These days, most flight reports are in the short format you've just seen, above. However, longer format reports are done occasionally, which also feature photos and video taken on the day. Here is a link to all those full flight report pages on this site.
Apr 27, 2013
Flight Report:
Multi-Dowel Box Kite First Outing
My current approach to flying is to cycle through other website work and then go out when a 'flying' slot comes up in the schedule. This means I pick 2 or 3 kites that will cover the current wind conditions, regardless.
So, yesterday the breeze was gusting up into the low 20s (or teens, in mph) and I saw an opportunity to take the new Multi-Dowel Box kite out for its maiden flight. The wind was definitely down at the bottom of this kite's range, but at least there would be no chance of breaking anything on the first time out.
Aren and I rigged and put the kite up, or at least tried to... The wind was really marginal, and it took three towing attempts at greater and greater line lengths before the big Box could find any reasonable breeze to get its teeth into.
In the end it just proved impossible to keep the kite up since it would sink right out in the first lull that came along. However, everything held together and it was nice and stable. A slight bridle adjustment helped it grip the air a bit better.
The wind meter, sitting on its little tripod on the grass, registered an average of 6.2kph (3.8mph) with a maximum gust to 16.8kph (10.4mph). No doubt the air was gusting to well over 20kph higher up, which would have been a comfortable average speed for the kite! But not today.
Having missed out on any truly satisfying flying with the MD Box, we later packed it away and tried the Dowel Box (fresh wind version) instead. Half the length and a lot quicker to rig! Predictably, with its slightly lower sail loading, it was just able to claw its way to 100m (330ft). It had a great flight, boosted to higher line angles from time to time by some moderate thermal activity.
About This Post: These days, most flight reports are in the short format you've just seen, above. However, longer format reports are done occasionally, which also feature photos and video taken on the day. Here is a link to all those full flight report pages on this site.
Apr 26, 2013
MBK Barn Door Kite - First Flight
This evening was the first feature length flight of my MBK Dowel Barn Door Kite! Construction was pretty much stock according to the MBK plans and technique.
Apr 23, 2013
Flight Report:
Multi-Dowel Sled Dusted Off For A Light-Wind Scratch
The weather has been rather overcast for most of today, with light winds early and late. Hence one of the appropriate big kites to fly was the impressive 3-sparred Multi-Dowel Sled. If you get a hankering to fly this thing for yourself, just get a copy of Making The MBK Dowel Sled Kite. The MD Sled is in there as a bonus design.
Arriving at the large school oval we picked this time, the wind was so light that it was difficult to judge just what direction it was coming from! Nothing for it but to put the kite up and see where it swings.
This is probably the easiest to rig Multi-Dowel design there will ever be. Sleds, even huge ones like this, are quite simple contraptions. So, it was soon flopping around as I vainly tried to get it airborne. After a couple of goes, it seemed a good idea to carry the kite right to the center of the grassed area. Less turbulence and a slightly higher average wind speed hopefully!
Indeed, the kite was soon climbing away. Somewhat reluctantly, but after much tugging and walking backwards it finally clawed its way into marginally stronger wind. Being at the extreme lower edge of its wind range, I was actually able to fly it comfortably one-handed - without a glove! Unthinkable normally, since this design has gobs of sail area and pulls like a small horse in even 15 kph winds. I was wearing a glove on my right hand, just in case.
Another indication of the low wind speed was the kite's tendency to open and close periodically, and brief leading edge collapses on alternate sides. Also, a gentle rocking motion from side to side, as its natural stability struggled to kick in with such low pressures. But this kite is super-stable. I have only seen it fall in a heap once, and that was in some rather full-on thermal turbulence.
The flying line went out to just over 60 meters today, and the huge blue Sled struggled to maintain a 30 degree flying angle most of the time. Purely due to low wind speed mind you, since the kite will fly at over 60 degrees in ideal winds.
I didn't even bother to set up the wind meter on its tripod today. It would have probably averaged less than 1kph! An old guy (well, ahem, much older than me ;-) commented "I thought you were pretty b@##%& optimistic - but there it is. There's no wind!"
About This Post: These days, most flight reports are in the short format you've just seen, above. However, longer format reports are done occasionally, which also feature photos and video taken on the day. Here is a link to all those full flight report pages on this site.
Apr 19, 2013
Brennan's Blustery Hot Air Balloon Box Kite
I've often wondered what is so alluring about building and flying kites. For me, a big part of it is the creation or process if you will. There's something
Continue reading "Brennan's Blustery Hot Air Balloon Box Kite"
Apr 17, 2013
Flight Report:
MD Rok - Line-Working Blisters!
It looks like we might still be waiting for that perfect day to fly the Multi-Dowel Rokkaku, but it looked promising early this morning. A few streaks of mid-level cloud adorned the sky and light breezes were ruffling the foliage from time to time as I looked out the window.
Down at the reserve, there was a light South Westerly blowing. After crossing the dry grass to a suitable point on the opposite boundary, it was surprising how easily the steel pegs went into the earth, anchoring the line reel. Perhaps the tree cover keeps the moisture level higher in the soil around there.
By the time the big 2.4 meter (8 feet) span Rok was ready to launch, the wind seemed to have dropped further. Rather flat Cumulus clouds had begun to form, which was not ideal. This Rok has a dislike for sudden thermal gusts which stress the lower spar before the kite has a chance to accelerate upwards.
For the next 40 minutes or so I struggled to keep the huge kite in the air. The wood file work on the stiffer spar pieces seemed to have made an improvement, but a slight turning tendency was still there. Interestingly, it was only at a particular wind speed, plumb in the middle of the kite's wind range. More filing required! But it's so worth it when it makes a dowel kite fly straight all the time.
More than once, the Rok came right in almost to my hands before another puff of air would tighten up the line and allow a climb-out. Sometimes right up to 60 meters (200 feet) of line. Small birds occasionally marked the regions of rising air as they darted around hunting insects.
Much to my annoyance, a sudden increase in general wind speed plus an almighty gust took out the lower horizontal spar on one side. Down came the Rok in moderately tight circles, but I managed to give it a soft landing by throwing out some line at the last second. By now, the entire sky was filling up with brilliant white Cumulus clouds.
After arriving home I discovered a blister on the fore-finger of both hands from all that line-handling! This kite is not likely to give you line-burn in light conditions, but it's still big enough to make you work a bit when handling the line. Just another 3 or 4 kph of average wind speed perhaps, and the Multi-Dowel Rokkaku kite would have just stayed up there while anchored to a tree trunk.
About This Post: These days, most flight reports are in the short format you've just seen, above. However, longer format reports are done occasionally, which also feature photos and video taken on the day. Here is a link to all those full flight report pages on this site.
Apr 12, 2013
Designing art butterfly kite
Q: Hi Tim. Am designing a butterfly-type kite for an exhibition in an art museum - Cornell Museum, Delray Beach Florida. It will only be a watercolor
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