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!
Comments for MBK Delta Kite - The Last Flight
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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!
Could you do me just a small favor though? If you're over 16, please sign up for Tethered Flying - my free twice-per-month publication. Here's just a sampling of the total content...
* 3 "tips of the month" (for beginners, parents & experienced)
* A fresh "photo of the month" (+ link to big hi-res version)
* A fresh "flight report of the month" (my personal flying)
* Updates on the latest board game from my-best-kite.com
Any questions? Here's more info on both the e-book and the newsletter.