AKFA - Adelaide Kite Flyers Association. Every second Sunday of the month is a Fly Day when - weather permitting - members meet to fly kites.
These short flight reports once appeared in the site blog page - that's the one you enter via the 'what's new!' site navigation link. Just scroll down and stop at any kiting detail that appeals :-)
When the weather's good and you have the time, it's great to get out with a kite or 3. But what about on bad weather days? Then it's time to pull out...
"Kites Up!" - my downloadable kite-flying board game! Apart from towing indoor kites, doing a spot of imaginary flying is the next best thing :-)
AKFA Kite Fly – December 2014
The weather lived up to the forecast and provided good conditions for
most of the AKFA members who turned up with their large kites. It
turned out to be a mini version of the Adelaide kite festival, with many
types of kites represented. Foils, Flowforms, inflatable creatures,
soft stunters and sparred kites.
A quick check with a wind meter revealed an average of 20kph gusting to 28 kph from the SSW.
About
the only thing that had trouble in this breeze strength was my little
2-Skewer Barn Door which could have done with much more tail. We were
flying in a fairly confined area, and a row of short trees caught a few
of us out from time to time! Dunes were upwind, and although fairly low,
they still messed with the airflow up to around 50 feet or so above the
grass.
My son (8 yrs) was impressed with the speed of the spinning drogues on one of the flowforms.
All in all, a good fly day was being had by all, as we left to head home which was an hour away to the South.
AKFA Kite Fly – November 2014
Aren and I turned up at the beach near Fort Glanville where at first there only seemed to be one large kite flying. A black scuba-diver with white jellyfish trailing behind moved fluidly as 'line laundry' suspended from the flying line of a large parafoil. Plus a large inflated fish was suspended near the anchor point. Close enough for kids to touch!
After a walk around,
we noticed other kites too, further down the beach. A small stunt Delta
was zipping around silently. Much further to the South, and not
connected with the AKFA event, many kite-surfers were enjoying the
smooth moderate to fresh breeze.
Having found a good open
location down on the sand, we set up the Peter Powell MkIII. The very
latest version of the amazingly successful original which shot to
popularity in the 70's and 80's.
A steerable foil was being
flown just upwind of us. These soft kites apparently pull a lot harder
than sparred stunt kites of an equivalent size.
Finally, we
headed back to the small grassed area where the AKFA banner had been
flying on a pole and kicked a ball around for a few minutes. A couple of
small Delta kites were just managing to stay in the air. The wind
strength was getting a bit much, plus turbulence was coming of the low
dunes nearby.
Having brought the 1.2m (4 ft) long Dowel Box
kite, it seemed like a good opportunity to put it up. No real problems
with that, but it did get forced all over the place in the freshening
breeze, and on a rather short line. Flying low makes for clearer and
more interesting videos you see...
The wind meter registered
23 kph gusting to 31 kph, held above my head. On arriving home and
checking the weather online, the gust strength had climbed into the
mid-forties an hour or two later!
AKFA Kite Fly – August 2014
Quite a lot happened, so I'll have to be fairly concise...
At
a measured 24 gusting to 29kph at head level over the sand, the breeze
was a little fresher than forecast. However, it was good for most of the
kites large and small that dotted the sky. Several AKFA members were
out...
Two KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) sessions were in
progress. A large inflatable Caterpillar gave an impressive although
fairly static display as it sat on the sand, lined up with the wind. As
windsocks do, even the fanciest of them like the Caterpillar. The owner
also had his large Octopus up at one stage, which apparently managed to
drag a 200 pound sand anchor out of its hole during a spell of very
brisk wind!
At least a couple of fairly big parafoils were up
plus a most unusual design which looked like a cross between three
Deltas and a Box kite.
Others were enjoying some fast flying with soft stunt kites.
After
obtaining some video of my own 2 meter (7ft) Carbon Diamond #2, I let
it out on 200 feet of line. This pushed it to the limits of its
tail-less stability, the 30kph gusts forcing it almost to the sand.
First to one side, then the other - so it wasn't a simple matter of
doing a bridle adjustment.
After packing up the Carbon
Diamond, just for fun, I put up a Tiny Tots Diamond on about 150 feet of
polyester sewing thread. It zipped around frantically, coping
remarkably well with the moderate-to-fresh breeze. Others thought it
looked like a mouse on drugs...
Finally, a couple of cliff jumps off the dunes under a large power kite were recorded on video.
All in all, this outing is going to result in at least three videos on Facebook next week!
AKFA Kite Fly – July 2014
The day before, the forecast was for an offshore 3kph breeze. A bit light, to put it mildly! However, on the Sunday morning, 11 to 17 kph was being recorded at two coastal locations South of Fort Glanville. Ideal.
After lunch, we arrived to find several AKFA kites up in light but smooth winds coming off the ocean. All at fairly modest heights to avoid the possibility of contacting cars in the car park, if anything went wrong! A power Sled, a flat Penguin, a 'Firebird' Delta to name a few. Some line laundry under a sizable parafoil too this time, in the form of a scuba diver swimming past a translucent white jellyfish.
We took some photos and video. I'll post a video later this week on Facebook.
More people arrived later. Resulting in a few small colorful Deltas floating around over the sand.
Mike the omni-kiter (he flies everything) went off a sand dune 'cliff' under his largest traction foil. We missed it. However, he said he needed a bit more breeze to do a really good job of it!
Our first kite up was the 1.2m Dowel Dopero, followed half an hour or so later by the 2m Carbon Diamond. Both kites relishing the 10 to 15kph airflow at about 150 feet over the sand. However, sudden lulls downed most of the kites on at least two occasions. To our surprise the Dopero managed to re-launch itself off a low dune while the big Tyvek-sailed Diamond was being packed away! A quick meter reading showed around 6 gusting to 8.5kph at shoulder height at this time.
A good outing in sunny conditions despite the chilly breeze!
AKFA Kite Fly – June 2014
The Adelaide Kite Flyers Association flies on the beach near Semaphore most months, on the second Sunday from midday to 5pm if possible. Today I turned up to find very little breeze but a few AKFA members were on the grassed area. A large Dolphin inflatable was laid out, having some bridle lines adjusted. Apparently the bottle-nose had been looking more like a pug-nose in recent flights!
At first, my 2-Skewer Delta on 20 pound Dacron line was the only kite to really suit the very light and variable breeze. Even so, it managed to end up on the dunes a couple of times. With the line draped over a brush fence which seemed designed to trap kite lines at the slightest opportunity!
Another Delta struggled up a few times but was not able to sustain flight. But then out came an intriguing-looking design, a Canard kite. Two small triangular sails at the front, with a single larger sail behind. Spars were carbon rods, bent to graceful curves. A design from Prism, called the Zero. This was obviously a light-wind kite, and it fared better than the previous Delta.
A couple of kid's Deltas were flying about at low heights, over the dunes. Flown by kids, naturally. One kite was struggling with insufficient tail causing it to loop around a lot. But the fliers were still having fun it seemed.
Another unknown flier had put up a large retail Delta, from down on the sand closer to the water. It just managed to stay up but was evidently struggling from time to time during the lulls.
A disappointing time for the owners of kites that needed just a few extra kph to have any chance of flying. But the 2-Skewer Delta had many minutes of air-time at around 150 feet off the grass and dunes. The sunny Winter weather was actually very pleasant and it was good mixing with a bunch of other kite-fanatics!
As mentioned earlier, there's another alternative to towing indoor kites if it's just not possible to fly outdoors...
"Kites Up!" is my downloadable board game. It's a PDF file which has all the documentation for the game plus images for all the components. Tokens, cards, the board itself and so on. Anyway, just click that link to see more info :-)
It's a printable PDF file. Make a diamond, delta or sled step-by-step. They fly hundreds of feet up for hours on end. Woohoo!
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