Radical Rok Righteously Rigged

by K.D.
(California)

About a week or so ago, I took out my MBK 2 skewer Rok. It had flown once in moderate winds at the beach. Today, I was at the beach were there was barely a whisper of wind. However, I was still confident that my kite would fly. I made it out of bamboo skewers, duct tape caps, and a transparent painter's sheet that I found in the garage. It turned out to be extremely light. I didn't bother to add a tail because I put the bridle line fairly low on the kite. This resulted with stability. Finally, I was ready to see if my cheap little kite would set sail.(in air).

I saw a few other kites that day at the beach. There was a dragonfly kite whose tail was far too heavy, a pocket sled that would not fly in these extremely light conditions, and a Bora 5 from prism kites. Surprisingly, the Bora 5 would not fly at all in these conditions too. Now, for my kite. This unillustrious and cheap Rok needed only to be slightly persuaded to climb in these 1 mph winds at the beach.

It flew like a dream. It was hanging there motionless on a 80 degree line angle as all the other kites sat grounded in awe. I kept it on 100 feet of line or so. Dreams of flight will come true if hard work is put in. I have never been more amazed at the flight quality of this Rok design. The bridling is so simple and so effective.

Thanks to the Japanese for inventing the Rokakku. Good templates and instructions.
And with that, I conclude my tale of the unillustrious and cheap Rokkaku kite.