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  • Felix

    2012 events, provisional list

    By Felix

    Oh well, another year! <grins> Nothing is confirmed, as yet. 1st January 2012 12-16/04/2012 Berck-Plage, France 21/04-29/05/2012 Cervia, Italy 05-07/05/2012 Weymouth 26-27/05/2012 Exmouth 25-27/08/2012 Portsmouth Margate
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    • 1,168 views
  • West Australian

    Flight Log and Thoughts about My Rev Kit.

    By West Australian

    No Arvo Flight Yesterday, Responsibilities are beginning to creep in on my flying time Well I Joined up to KiteLife… Very Happy about that. I feel that the Contribution that KiteLife makes to the Community needs to be supported. And all those Sweet Tutorials are Pretty good too I have been Downloading them onto My Ipod Touch. To Paraphrase SparkieRob, I have a John Barresi In my Pocket. This morning was nice, Light to Moderate winds when I set up the STD with 3 Wrap and 80# lines I got i
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    • 1,885 views
Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

29/11/2020 Blackheath

A damp and dark grey morning.  The cloud was not thick enough to filter out all the UV light so it appeared to me even darker through the filtering lenses.  There was a breeze though, 4-8.5 mph as measured but with a few lulls as well. Zens with green race with Miles Davis In a Silent Way and Kind of Blue to keep the silent flying moving.  It will probably be good to try these tunes with a larger group at some point. I’m going to be doing a bit of metal work with the 3mm stainless stee
Felix

Felix in Decs Sunday

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

22/11/2020 Blackheath

Very wet underfoot and covered in worm casts but the suggested 4mph westerly breeze was mostly steady and measured 4.8mph in a ‘gust’.  There was even some sunshine through the varied high altitude clouds with some blue spaces in-between. So Zens with green race rods as expected and for a while the right hand side of the window showed the sparkly characteristic of the white sails. Less apparent back in the centre of the window but some Frisell/Morgan ‘Small Town’ kept us occupied along
Felix

Felix in Decs Sunday

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

15/11/2020

Heavy rain did arrive before 8:00am today with a following band at about 10am.  There were some very heavy short showers later. Given that the forecast was for 15-30mph wind I did not plan to travel to Blackheath today. If the lockdown does end on 2nd December we may only miss two more Sunday sessions.  Last year all four November Sundays had light breezes. I’ll hope to fly solo next Sunday and at the moment one of the forecasts is suggesting a sunny day with a moderate westerly b
Felix

Felix in Decs

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

08/11/2020

The combination of the first weekend of lockdown and the prospect of very light wind and wet, muddy grass led me to suggest on Thursday evening that we should not attempt any flying today.  The breeze on the day was even lighter than that forecast previously so it seems like it was a good call. I did set out to do my usual cycle circuit instead but the pedestrians and others in Victoria Park were out in such numbers that I reverted to my alternative road route. I will certainly hope to
Felix

Felix in Decs Sunday

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

Blackheath 01/11/2020

Took a chance on the weather and while it was wet at about 10:30am the shower cleared and there was a good long break before the next one was closing in about 2 hours later. The wind was measuring 17-20mph on the wind meter with stronger gusts and occasional lulls relatively speaking so the RSS Rev 1.5 sails were a handful but not overpowered most of the time. We continued the no calls video recording but, somewhat as expected, the wind noise was too much for the camera to cope with so
Felix

Felix in Decs Sunday

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

Blackheath 25/10/2020

It was raining quite heavily as I set off for Blackheath from Hackney this morning.  There had been an indication that showers would clear by 10am.  On Blackheath there was some sign of clearing from the west but the shower cloud was slow in moving. We set up full sail 1.5 Revs while it was still raining and were eventually rewarded with blue sky and sunshine.  The wind was SSW and steady but nowhere near the forecast 11-22mph. No JMH kites today as it was just too wet underfoot and th
Felix

Felix in Decs Sunday

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

18/10/2020 Blackheath

The synoptic chart was lacking in isobars so I was not expecting much flying today. Zens with green race were ok when the air was moving. The new meter did show 2.5 - 3mph maximum. Having figured out some minimal editing with iPhone video I have been planning to try the GoPro5 on the field again, on a tripod mount. I will do some more work on this but suspect that the best viewpoint is going to be at head height which should be possible if the tripod is weighted. Did a small trial today but
Felix

Felix in Decs Sunday

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

11/10/2020 Blackheath

There is still talk about changes in the Pandemic regime but we did get to fly today without issue.  The breeze was quite variable when I arrived on Blackheath and it was really full sail 1.5 Revs that worked in the lighter moments. With the Revs it is quite easy to take them all and choose the appropriate one on site.  For the JMH kites a little more planning is required.  The forecast was for 8-9mph gusting 16-20mph.  On that basis I had hoped that we would be able to fly the 1990 and 199
Felix

Felix in Decs Sunday

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

04/10/2020

During lockdown which ended in the middle of May there was one Sunday when the weather would not have been conducive for kite flying.  Since then there was one day when there was no practical breeze so we were walking the Rev Zens.  There have also been a couple of windy days! Today was very wet, relatively cold and very windy so we simply did not make any attempt to fly.  When the remaining projected festivals cancelled back in June a decision was made to concentrate on flying, photographi
Felix

Felix in Decs

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

27/09/2020 Blackheath

Low flat grey clouds occasionally thinned to  fleetingly show the disc of the sun.  There was a Northerly breeze which measured about 11 - 15mph once I found the magic key press on the new wind meter!  It was initially showing ‘hold’. RSS Revs were fine until shortly after 1:00pm when there was a longer lull which provided a convenient hint that it was time for lunch off site.  Terry Riley Assassin Reverie, Tread on the Trail played by Arte Quartett had just come to an end as well… Ear
Felix

Felix in Decs Sunday

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

20/09/2020 Blackheath

The week of the Dieppe festival in 2014 was sunny throughout but we were not there as a team.  It was another sunny day on Blackheath with a fairly steady NE breeze, mostly about 8-10mph. Full vented 1.5s again were ‘on rails’, a pleasure to fly.  After a Terry Riley piece ‘Tread on the Trail’ we had Bersarin Quartett, Methoden und Maschinen, Composer: Thomas Bücker on the sound system.  Quite a change!  Some of the silent calls worked very well today <grins>. On the JMH front I
Felix

Felix in Decs Sunday

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

13/09/2020 Blackheath

Another glorious September day, the last late summer burst of warmth spilling up from the south with a light SW breeze.  I had been following the forecasts all week again and was hoping for the 10mph that the Met Office had been suggesting.  We got a bit less. Even so, it was full vented 1.5 kites that we set up initially although a mid vent was all that was available for an extra flier today.  There was a short called session with Bill Frisell providing accompaniment. The JMH project
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

06/09/2020 Blackheath

A glorious September morning with a light westerly breeze, 6mph and gusting to quite a bit more occasionally. Zens with race rods were sparkly in the sunshine and similar to the clouds that started to form and melted away initially.  Musical accompaniment from the start was Bill Frisell Valentine, a recent release! While I had originally expected to fly the JMH parafoils today, plan B, in the lighter wind was his 1995 Edo.  The 17 bridle lines came clear with only one loop through so t
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

30/08/2020 Blackheath

A similar forecast to last Sunday but the wind was from the North today and the cloud cover gradually thickened. Full vent 1.5s with race rods were fine again.  We did manage to get the sound system set up properly so had the benefit of Bill Frisell for our final flying session which helped cover the background noise from the Bank Holiday fairground on the other side of the A2.  Mr. Helicopter was unusually on our side of the road today doing all his trick flying but fortunately he didn’t s
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

23/08/2020 Blackheath

The forecast was for 10-11mph gusting maybe twice that and for fairly dense cloud and that is basically what we got although there were some brighter moments. Full vent 1.5s felt very comfortable and we even had a bit of jazz piano accompaniment by Andrew McCormack.  A new one for me and might be interesting long term!  For some reason the UE Boom 2s wouldn’t pair up which was irritating so it was a mono playback. I had hoped to fly and video the JMH Della-Porta: Four Rhomboids and whi
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

16/08/2020 Blackheath

We were not anticipating much breeze and there was some doubt as to what direction it would be from. Our initial set-up of Zen sails turned out to be in the wrong direction for much of the time when there was any breeze at all. I had charged the UE Boom so we had an accompaniment of the new Bill Frisell release followed by a bit of John Scofield. As there was so little variable breeze I did not put together the JMH Edo that I had taken, ‘just in case’. As there was a distictl
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

09/02/2020 Blackheath

It was hot on Blackheath as forecast but the NE or E breeze held up most of the time so we had a good starting session with full sail 1.5 Revs. I had decided that any other kites flown should be simple to put together or even requiring no frame at all as in the parafoils. Having prepared a new spreader for the JMH 1987 Delta I obviously was hoping for the right conditions after the previous spreader break at launch. I might have been a bit overcautious today but we set the kite on
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

02/08/2020 Blackheath

Lighter breeze today, 8mph was forecast but it was often less.  Full sail 1.5s with race rods were very comfortable and as there was not actually much in the way of thermal effect the breeze felt steady.  (Quite a bit of sun and I did remember to keep the hat on after last weeks scalp burn!) There were some directional shifts that caused issues when we set about building the JMH Asymetric Stack 1995.  Part of the problem arose from some tangling or looping of the sets as we laid them out an
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

26/07/2020 Blackheath

The forecast suggested 11mph gusting 25 but we probably did not get that most of the time.  We did get blue sky, sunshine and impressive cumulus with only one light shower actually crossing the Heath.  There was one torrential shower that passed north of the river and it did hit Hackney. Full vented 1.5s today so less wind than my expectations.  We did a couple of free flying sessions today as well as a brief fly before finally packing up and leaving at about 3:30pm.  Chris Beel had joined
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

19/07/2020 Blackheath

Low clouds, a light northerly breeze, sometimes the forecast 7mph, often less and intermittent light rain which being very fine/small droplets would be called ‘drizzle’ in may parts of the country!  Even in the light breeze it was arriving horizontally. I set up the small Peter Lynn pilot kite on 4mm polyester braid for ‘target practice’, but really to see how it behaved in marginal conditions. We flew full sail 1.5 Revs with race rods without calls and with occasional interaction with
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

12/07/2020 Blackheath

By contrast with the last two weekends today was almost a flat calm.  There was occasionally sustained air movement from most of the compass points! Zens with green race and a Robertshaw sail were occasionally in the air. I had hoped to fly the early JMH delta kite having been wondering how to re-spar it since breaking a bamboo component at the previous flight last year.  I had prepared some 18mm dowel and aluminium connectors.  I was aware that there was a potential weak point and so
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

05/07/2020 Blackheath

Another windy forecast had me looking back at notes for July over the last few years to find that it had generally been a light wind month.  I can remember Washington Tyne and Wear events with blustery conditions, not least when a Cody train broke loose. On Friday afternoon the forecast windspeed for Sunday was 19-38mph but it was a bit less on the day c16-32mph. So we were all on RSS kites.  These have proved to be a very successful design, lightening the line loading but maintaining
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

28/06/2020 Blackheath

The forecast was for c15-30mph and cloudy.  We had the wind but the cloud was broken so there was quite a bit of sun as well. RSS kites and an Xtra Vent because Martin arrived first.  There were some lulls but mostly it was constant with gusts blowing through. My plan for today hit an early problem which was not resolved on the field today.  The pilot kite that I had planned to use needed tuning and while I found that small incremental corrections to the bridle did make a difference I
Felix

Felix

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