YOUR Pictures of Kites!

Your Biggest, Best, or Most Colorful

The pictures of kites featured below were contributed by visitors to this page. Except for the huge white delta further down this page, which I snapped at a large kite festival here in Adelaide.

Pictures of kites - this one was contributed by an artist, who made my MBK 2-Skewer Roller design.MBK 2-Skewer Roller

In my view, the visuals contribute a lot to the pleasures of kite flying. How these creations fly, homemade or otherwise, is only half the experience for most people.

The photo of the roller with a gold-colored tail was contributed by an artist.

I loved it when visitors sent in images of my designs that they dressed up like this!

If you trawl through the rest of this site, you will see that nearly all my homemade sails were shades of orange or blue. Plastic bags in those colors were the only ones available from the shops here!

So, the choice of colors is limited if you stick to plastic bags for sail material. But Tyvek and paper are also worth experimenting with, to provide a better canvas for art.

Or you could get really fancy and do applique with ripstop nylon, like professional kite designers do. Are you handy with a sewing machine?



 

The BIG MBK E-book Bundle!

On this site, there's more kite-making info than you can poke a stick at :-)

Want to know the most convenient way of using it all?

The Big MBK E-book Bundle is a collection of downloads—printable PDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.

Every kite in every MBK series.


 


Kite Pictures Left By Others

Click below to see photos of some interesting kites from other visitors to this page...

My first home-built kites, circa 1980 
Good ole newspaper and sticks! These were my first successfully home-built kites. I would have been 10 or 11 years old.

Vented Rokkaku Kite 
I built a vented Rokkaku using mostly MBK methods. It is 5 feet tall, 4 feet wide, and 3 feet between the horizontal spreaders. The spine is made out of …

MBK Dowel Delta 
We are flying one of your kites :) It is amazing that she flew one day 150 metre in windy day and she wanted to fly over but the string's length did not …

Its all Yellow 
Freezing temps cant keep us grounded🌞 If the groundhog were flying a kite, there would be no thought of shadows and fear to sending us running back to …

Multitasking 
It had been a calm day. It was the early afternoon, and I was just starting some planned yard work when seemingly out of nowhere a pretty steady 5 mph …

Guinness World Single Kite Altitude Record 
Set in 2014 at 16,009 ft. above ground level. My team used a 12.34 sq. metre DT Delta. It took about 50 flights over 8 series of attempts on a sheep station …

Homemade Genki 
Hi all. Sometime back I built a genki called 'Migenk' (from KitePlanBase). It, like all my mbk kites, I built as a solid one piece kite as my flying field …

Dowel Dopero and Big Brother Dopero 
I have built a few of your dowel series kites: delta, barn door, and dopero. I liked the dopero so much that I decided to learn how to use a sewing …

Back To The Air! 
After the lockdown period caused by the Corona Virus, we can finally move more freely. These days, thanks to a summer weather even if it is almost windless, …

Yesterday a Tiny Delta Kite 
Yesterday a tiny delta, in a chinese shop I found, the line, the reel, all is included, cheap the price just a pound. Many kites I have already, …

MBK Ind...outdoor ;-) 
A second sample of MBK Indoor Diamond has just completed, with spars modified in bamboo... Small, it's a micro-kite, weight is less than 2.5 grams bridle …

MBK Soft Sleds 
I'm on holiday in India and thought about bringing a kite with me as I knew I would be on the coast quite a bit of the time but then thought 'I'll probably …

The little Diamond kite didn't want to fly 
My grandson received a gift, a small diamond kite, rainbow color, a very long red tail, a line of about 100 meters in a very simple handle. Useless …

Delta wood dowel kite - 3/4 scale 
I purchased the E-book on building the MBK Delta (Light) wood dowel kite. Highly recommended and I am an experienced kite builder. Here where I live …

MBK Dowel Barn Door ..... super! 
In a late afternoon, after the first test had failed due to the breakage of one of the rods (made of beech ..., finally a slight breeze on a beautiful …

Genki Build 
I've been busy building a few more kites for the growing collection. Normally in the tropics its calm. Not the last 10 days though so my stronger kites …

Dopero Super Sport :-) 
Some days ago, I made one MBK Dowel Dopero, scaled 1 meter x 1 meter due to my available materials. Today I tested it, sunny weather, 12 deg C and wind …

A Conyne Build 
I was looking to build something a big bigger than all my 2 skewer mbk kites. But I didn't want to make all my 2 skewer kites redundant by building bigger …

Skewer Kites Great In Light Wind 
I've flown the redone 3 skewer diamond a few times now and you're not wrong about it being good in light air... Late yesterday arvo I thought there …

2 skewer sled success 
On my home the other day I could see a group of young guys out flying their homemade kites on the field behind my place so I had to grab a kite and join …

Two 2-Skewer Kites Have Maiden Flights 
Wet season is ending here in Cambodia, as the water recedes and the ground hardens on my flying area. I've returned from Australia with kite making supplies …

First Flight Simple Delta 
Here in Cambodia its a bit difficult getting basic kite supplies. I found a garbage bag just big enough for the simple delta. There's no dowel but clumps …

Throwing Caution to the Wind 
My wife and I are working on a STEM science unit about kites and kite building. I bought the Big Kite bundle and so far we've coached two elementary age …

Diamond Kites and Turkey Vultures 
The simple diamond kite design worked perfectly for my Turkey Vulture family program! We learned about vultures, read a great children’s book called Vulture …

MBK Octopus Kite In Fabric 
Just to let you know I finished the kite! I ended up making it 20% larger as you suggested! It flies pretty decently, as expected it does need a bit more …

My Bazzer Asteroid 
One of those kites that I sought after and was finally able to add to my bag. I do not possess the skill to make something of such caliber.

Red Baron ..Look Out! 
Several years ago I bought a G-Kites Red Baron. We took it to our local kite fest here in Two Rivers, WI. and flew it for the first time. After looking …

A modern material delta kite - the Morpheo 
This kite is for no-wind or little wind (usually) - lovingly made in Florida. In the photo the kite is handling 15 knots winds without need of a tail or …

Kite Fly at Victor Harbour 
Date: 29th May 2016... Adelaide Kite Flyers Association members were invited to fly at Victor Harbour's Whaletime Festival. This Festival celebrates the …

Christmas Day in Illinois 
I have flown my kites in December before, but yesterday was my first Christmas Day flight. Beautiful day.

Kiting in Illinois 
It was an incredibly beautiful day here in Illinois before winter arrives. I had my Dragon tail Delta up over 50m when I realized how beautiful the sky …

Kea Kites - Can a kite help to save an endangered species? 
Yesterday the Kea Conservation Trust launched a kite to help raise awareness about Kea, an endangered parrot in New Zealand. The handmade kite set comes …

Delta Double Box Kite for Fishing 
Here's two pics of a kite I made for myself for surf fishing. I just Googled 'Lifting kites' and so much stuff came up it was incredible. Anyway, the …

Great Flying Painted Kite 
Thanks for the great kite instructions. We had a big kite flying event at the school and my son wanted a big kite that flew well. We decided to build …

Second stab at making the Simple Delta 
Yo! Thanks for your designs, tips, and this site in general. Good to see someone having honest, simple fun, made me want to try it too. Our parents …

Flying With No Wind 
One of my goals is to fly kites in every month of the year, not just when it is warm. This was inspired when I saw kites flying in China in temperatures …

My Best Kite 
I am spoilt for choice, however the mini-Photon is the pick of the bunch for me. It is a superbly made kite of micro-size carbon fibre, spectra laminate …

My Flat Diamond Kite 
This is an experiment building flat Diamond kites without the usual bowed or dihedral form and keeping the spine unattached to the cross-spar. This …

Rogallo Flexible Kite (Flexikite) 
Replica of a Rogallo Flexikite. Tarp material was used as Mylar was rather hard to find in the proper thickness. Completely sparless single membrane plastic …

Eddy Currents 
“Spring is here, the sun is shining… well…now it’s raining.” “Let’s wait five minutes” “Now it’s kinda sunny, but super gusty” Much were my frustrated …

Adelaide Kite Flyers
February kite fly
 
Sunday 9th February dawned windy and stayed that way all day. On the beach you could stay there for one hour or two and save on your ? weekly ? monthly …

Adelaide Kiteflyers
November Kitefly
 
Last Sunday saw several of us down at the beach near Fort Glanville (Semaphore Park). The wind was around 18 to 20 knots with gusts up to 25 - as capably …

My Original Bird Kite 
My attempt at making a bird kite - with inspiration from George Peters' kites that I viewed online.

Traditional Indian Kites 
If you want to see kite-making in India, using traditional methods, please come to Hyderabad. These fighter kite designs come in a range of types and sizes. …

Simpler Power Sled 
A while back I asked about the function of the partitioned cells in the Power or Double Sled Kite. I decided to test the design with simple cells instead …

Balsa Box Kites 
I have made a couple of box kites with balsa and heat shrink Mylar - the kind model airplanes use. They are super light but I have not found the right …

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 …

Art kites - my new passion 
I love creating these finely crafted pieces of art - that fly!

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 …

My new 6-foot Barn Door kite 
After my initial success with the 4-foot Barn Door kite last fall, I decided to build the 6-foot version next. I finally got to fly it at the local riverside …

Fresh Winds Dowel Box Kite 
I finished making your fresh wind Dowel Box kite. I used 1/4" dowels for a little extra strength. The kite was flying in 16-20 mph winds. Gusts were …

Ring Kites at an Indian Kite Festival 
This is my ring photo. Both ring kites were made by me. Black ring diameter is 55 feet & orange ring diameter is 30 feet. I flew them at the International …

My 2nd Cody Warkite Success 
Hi there, me again Mark from the philippines. This is my 2nd Cody kite made from bamboo sticks, japanese paper, paste and string. There's a kite making …

Cody War-Kite Success 
Success Tim! Success! It is made from bamboo, Japanese paper, paste and triple sewing string. I can't believe it... it flies stable. Many people want …

The home made twisted box kite 
There is a long story behind this unique specimen. Although this type of kite is found fairly often in the high end kiting stores, to me, spinning box …

Tetra Kites 
Inspired by a recent question about tetrahedral kites, I found some 'spoon straws' at a local variety store. I gather the spoon bit on the end is used …

The Listing Rhomboid Box Kite 
At one point in time I thought newspaper would be a good sail material... Then I tried using it on a box kite. Let's just say my use of newspaper sails …

A Kite Building Challenge... 
...A delta-style kite without a horizontal spreader spar. From playing around with some kite designs in folded A4 paper and use of straws for spars …

"A" Form Three Stick Kite made with Tyvek covering 
My wife had cancer and I wanted to contribute something for the cause of cancer survivors so I made a kite. It is a basic A frame. See pictures. …

Fish Dopero 
I made this Fish Dopero from the MBK plans over the last 2 evenings. I adapted the techniques a bit for some ripstop nylon I had (from an old spinnaker …

Mini Gallery - Multiple Kites In Flight  
9 Foot delta with laundry plus small Wild Horses delta. Lake Michigan, Muskegon, in Michigan

Big Diamond Kite 
I took the kite plans on Tim's site here (thanks Tim) and stepped them up. This big Diamond kite is 8 ft. at the tips. I just flew it in Tybee Island …

New Kite Tails 
I made the tails for this kite from nylon. The kite is 7 feet across the bottom. The tails are 2 ft. wide x 10 ft. long. I just went to the beach 24th …

West Coast Park Kites 
A few days ago now, we were at West Coast Park in Singapore for some kite flying. We are on holiday over here for a couple of weeks. My brother-in-law …

Seaside, OR, US 
Just a tiny kite, one of several on this trip. This is a DC made from mylar wrapping paper and small (2x30 mm sticks). The size determinate was the mylar …

Mini Gallery - Static Kite Displays 
Pictured - myself, Paavan Solanki, one the leading international kite flyers from India. I have participated in the Borneo International kite festivals …

My first attempt at kite building 
After finding "My Best Kite" web site and reading the monthly updates from Tim for months, my kids gave me a Christmas gift of a kite building book, "Kites …

Rock My Rok 
I've had so much fun with your kite instructions, and the Rok caught my eye because I've tried several versions. I like your bridle ratio, easy and foolproof. …

Mini Gallery - Single Kite In Flight 
Donned my coat in 40 degree (F) weather and headed out to the beach. What a lovely day.....! Rekindling the kite flying bug from childhood. Purchased …

Dragon kite 
This 23 ft dragon kite took me about 4 months to design and make and over 30 hrs to sew it. I have shown it in the past at Weymouth and Bristol kite festivals. …

Kite-flying at West Coast Park 
Today is the 3rd time we went for kite-flying at West Coast Park, thanks to my brother-in-law, Tim who made us a kite when he came to Singapore with May …

 



These were the guidelines offered to potential contributors:

  1. Photo of a good-looking homemade kite. On-the-ground closeup or an in-flight shot, it doesn't matter. Just fill the frame with the kite, and try to ensure it is well lit by sunlight or flash.
  2. Nice photo of a shop-bought kite or kites. Some of the pricier ones are very tastefully designed!
  3. Great kite photo, where the art is in the photo itself. In this case, it doesn't matter if the kite isn't in the foreground.

Overall, they did great!


A huge white Delta we saw at a festival.

 


 


As mentioned earlier, there's more kite-making on this site than you can poke a stick at :-)

Want to know the most convenient way of using it all?

The Big MBK E-book Bundle is a collection of downloads—printable PDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.

Every kite in every MBK series.