Kites Newsletter

'MBK Flying Skewers And Plastic'

This kites newsletter arrives in your email on the last Friday of every month. It's a fun publication for single-line fliers and builders. Is that you?

If you do choose to sign up to the newsletter, I would like to show my appreciation by offering you...

Power, Chinese, Box & Stunt Kites

This free 87-page PDF eBook conveniently draws together the 4 sections of this website that cover those types of kites. It's a 1.3Mb download.

The comprehensive Table of Contents makes it easy to find any topic of interest. Every titled section of every web-page is indexed as a separate chapter in the eBook.

When your subscription is confirmed, it's easy to download the eBook via the supplied link. Enjoy!

In its early days, I thought this newsletter would only be of interest to totally novice kite builders and fliers. However, it seems the full range of single-line kite people are enjoying these plastic-sailed creations!

So even if you are a designer from way back, consider signing up to keep up with the latest kites from MBK. Do you do workshops? You can't get much cheaper than skewers, plastic and tape! Even the bigger Dowel kites are relatively inexpensive.

Currently, in addition to a short editorial, this kites newsletter features:

• Some comments about a notable kite flight during the month. Also, a link to the relevant flight report on the MBK website. This page almost always includes some video footage and an in-flight photo.
• Some comments on a visitor's contribution to the site, plus a link to the actual article they submitted. Sometimes the visitor leaves a photo as well.
• Every month, something new is being built at MBK! I make some comments on my latest building and flying experiences, and link to a relevant page on the website.

More About This Newsletter...

A word anout the 4 series of kites featured on this site...

The 1-skewer series have very low pulling force. The 2-skewer kites can also be flown by kids in any age group, provided wind strength is low enough. The Dowel kites are definitely for teenagers or adults, given their much larger size and considerable pulling power in fresh wind! The Simple series (Sled, Diamond and Delta) fall somewhere between the 2-Skewer and Dowel series, in terms of sail area and pulling force.

Just about any kind of light plastic will do the job, for making sails and tails for the MBK designs. Our small 1-skewer kites are made from freezer bags, which are extremely light. However, all the other designs use orange garden bag plastic. This shows up much better against a blue or gray sky!

Although there is no longer a 'kite of the month' as such, I am in the process of revising and improving most of my existing designs. Hence there is still plenty of building and flying news each month...

Last updated: 9 Dec 2009