MBK Delta Kite — The Last Flight

by Eric Lemay
(Tokyo, Japan)

Following up on my first MBK Delta Kite story with the last flight of this valiant kite.

Unable to find sufficiently long 5mm dowels, I resorted to gluing 3 pieces together like I had done the first time, however I also glued a shorter piece of 4mm dowel on one side and a very small metal plate on the other, which resulted in a slightly heavier but definitely stronger spreader. I tested the Delta with this new spreader and it flew very well so I decided to decorate it with spray paint, which in retrospect was not a brilliant idea since the paint came flaking off, making this a very messy kite to handle.

Anyway, I took the Delta kite out today and took a few pictures, one of which I am attaching to this flight report. It was a very sunny day but the wind was difficult to handle, constantly changing direction or speed, and sometimes stopping altogether. But it was fun to fly the kite in these conditions, and I had a great time until I made a mistake and landed my Delta into trees... I eventually managed to wrench it free from the branches but the center spar had snapped at the top connection point of the keel, probably due to all the pulling and tugging that was required to bring it out of the branches.

I guess I'll just have to make a new one, and I won't be using any spray paint to decorate it this time.

Cheers!