My First Sled Kite

by Brian Evans
(Johannesburg, South Africa)


I have never made or even flown a kite before. For a school project I had to make a kite. I tried making a 'normal' cardboard kite. It didn't work at all. Then I tried to make a big plastic kite shaped kite. It just spun around in circles. I found My Best Kite on the internet and took an immediate fancy to the sled kite.

I made a 30cm sled and a 90cm one. I took both to the park and the one that I had enlarged 3 times flew like a beauty. As I mentioned I have never flown a kite before, but this kite just took with the gentle breeze of the winter afternoon.

The 30cm one didn't fly very nicely. I think it required more wind. I will try to fly it on a more windy day!

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by: Tim Parish

You are right - the little 1-Skewer Sled does need a bit more than a very light breeze to stay up.

However, in moderate wind strengths, and with enough tail length, it is a very reliable flier. In your case, it could even turn out to be the kite to fly on days when your larger one is starting to struggle because of too much wind speed.

Have fun!

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Wind Speeds


Light air
1-5 km/h
1-3 mph
1-3 knots
Beaufort 1

Light breeze
6–11 km/h
4–7 mph
4–6 knots
Beaufort 2    

Gentle breeze
12–19 km/h
8–12 mph
7–10 knots
Beaufort 3    

Moderate breeze
20–28 km/h
13–18 mph
11–16 knots
Beaufort 4    

Fresh breeze
29–38 km/h
19–24 mph
17–21 knots
Beaufort 5    

Strong breeze
39–49 km/h
25–31 mph
22–27 knots
Beaufort 6

High Wind
50-61 km/h
32-38 mph
28-33 knots
Beaufort 7