Skewer Kites Great In Light Wind

by Ian H.
(Cambodia)

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 should be enough air to fly and out on the field there was actually plenty so the kite was out on 100m of line pretty quickly. It would generally sit at around 35° to 45° up but occasionally get some liftier air and go fairly overhead. It must be the steadiest flying kite I have. Not moving around a lot or in any rush to go up or down.

After about 15 min flying the breeze dropped to nothing at ground level and the tree tops weren't showing much movement either so I thought that's it for the day. The kite will be down any second. Ten minutes later and it's still nailed up there! No sign of dropping at all. If I had of just walked up I would have thought this must be a trick. That kite can't possibly be flying when it felt absolutely dead calm. In the end I had to wind it in to pull it down. Just amazing!

My 2 skewer box kites, unfortunately, are the opposite. Its hard to get enough wind for them. The 3 sided will get up a little bit easier as its made out of the super-light plastic but 3 out of 4 times I try to fly them they come home not getting enough lift to fly. The plastic sail is identical to the sail of the 4 sided so making each side just a bit longer than on the 4 sided. Both fly well when they can get going.

The 2 skewer sled with a bit of permanent marker art. It's another reliable flyer that I'm very happy with.
One thing I've noticed is I have to keep my eye on the electrical tape holding the spars. I guess in the high temperature and humidity of the tropics they tend to be a bit gooey and come unstuck.

Just lately I've been able to fly most days. Usually late morning when it's changing from morning stillness to afternoon stillness there's enough of a breeze for a fly. On lucky days I get more than that.