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, 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, this kites newsletter features:

• some comments about this month's kite design, plus a link to complete instructions for making it out of very cheap materials
• some comments about one of the MBK Skewer Kites made so far, plus a link to a selected blog entry featuring that kite - from this month's posts
• something about single-line kites that has been recently added to the website, with a link to the new page

More About This Newsletter...

The construction of kites is a big part of this website. In fact, a different kite made from skewers or dowel is featured every month! Hence the title, 'MBK Flying Skewers And Plastic'. These materials are probably too fiddly for very young kids to work with.

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!

Very minimal tools are required. Besides the spar material and plastic, just about all you'll need are scissors, sticking tape and wood glue. Plus an inexpensive small saw and file for the Dowel kites.

Also, all measurements are in terms of one length of skewer or dowel. For example, half a skewer length or 0.3 of a skewer length. Your skewers might be a different length to mine, or you might choose to use slightly longer or shorter dowels than I do, it doesn't matter.

Finally, just about any kind of light plastic will do the job. Our small 1-skewer kites are made from freezer bags, which are extremely light. However, the bigger 2-Skewer kites and Dowel kites use orange garden bag plastic. This shows up much better against a blue or gray sky!

Last updated: 16 Dec 2008