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  • 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
    • 3 comments
    • 1,759 views
  • 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
    • 0 comments
    • 1,059 views
Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

19/01/2020 Blackheath

Just enough breeze for Zens with green race but not much else today. I had taken the Peter Malinski Hex stack pilot copy as more work is needed on the bridle.  It was not to be!  Yesterday I had been working on the connectors for the Malinski Tetreader.  40 or so still to do so that is 120 knots to tie before starting to fit them; 4 to each of the 35 sails.  The line I was using was being re-cycled from the 2007 JMH design Rev 1.5 bridles.  I do have a reel of bridle line somewhere! I
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

12/01/2020 Blackheath

There really was a brisk SW wind this morning despite forecasts suggesting otherwise up until about 24 hours previously!  While there were quite extended periods of 10-15mph it did blow c30mph quite often during the time we were there. So RSS Spiders 1.5 were just right! In the circumstances I was not ‘brave’ enough to attempt to put up the JMH Double Malay stack 1994.  We have flown it before but not with a good sunny backdrop such as we had at times today. We flew the RSS kites
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

05/01/2020 Blackheath

A bit of a grey day again but there was some SW wind and the drizzle I saw driving towards Blackheath held off.  I.5 full vents with green race were comfortable but mid vents would probably have been fine. I had hoped that Jake would be able to join us today for the first un-wrapping of the JMH Asymetric Kite Stack 1995.  I had brought the kite along with some 2m lengths of dowel in case of breakages and as the ground was not wet and the wind speed felt low enough we did go ahead with assem
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

29/12/2019 Blackheath

Southerly breeze, some sunshine and blue sky in parts today.  The forecasts were about right with a base speed of about 4mph - 8mph.  Full 1.5 sails with race rods and a mid-vent, just because!  Nothing called as is usual but we did get to discuss events for 2020, just a bit. We put together the Peter Malinski Flare Kite (ex Hamburg) with its substantial tubular frame in c120cm units, so c240cm high in the four vertical sleeved pockets with press stud closures and the c360cm horizontal secu
Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

22/12/2019 Blackheath

A fairly consistent Westerly breeze, about 10mph so full vented with green race again.  The stronger winds stayed to the south of the UK this weekend. A short fly with accompaniment today and then we set about putting up some sections of the JMH Rhombus shaped kite train from 1985. I have re-strung the fifth and sixth sets with 4mm polyester braid as the 3.5mm had been overstretched.  We only got as far as the three top sets today but even they needed an anchor point really.  The Eddy
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

15/12/2019 Blackheath

SSW at about 12mph so 1.5 full vented with green race this morning.  It was sunny and a mostly clear sky so I was hoping to do ‘something’ with JMH kites today! After a gentle warm up fly it became apparent that we were not going to get a ‘full’ team by any stretch of the imagination. As the overnight rain had soaked in and the steady breeze had taken any remaining ‘wetness’ off the grass it was only slightly muddy underfoot.  We staked out the Double / Single Eddy stack and proceeded
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

08/12/2019 Blackheath

WSW 17 - 34 mph but mostly sunny rather than cloudy.  RSS kites were fine, just a little bit noisy in the stronger gusts, merely a sail rattle, not a roar! Not the wind for flying trains but we did unwrap the 2 square metre black lifter and fly it from the bridle.  It seemed to be well set ‘out of the bag’. I also pegged out the top few sets of the PM Yakko Stack in an attempt to find out how much lift these sails can develop.  They were certainly ready to go but the top sail really ne
Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

01/12/2019 Blackheath

NNE breeze today, fairly steady and probably about 10 mph so finally a change from the Zen Autumn.  Full vented 1.5 with green race was just right. The sun was directly in our sightline and there was a slight warmth when the breeze eased.  When there was cloud cover it was distinctly colder. I had hoped to fly the JMH Double / Single Eddy stack 1989 but it was a bit too muddy and damp underfoot so we flew the single Eddys that I put together recently that need further tuning.  One of t
Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

24/11/2019 Blackheath

Foggy in Hackney first thing and on the approach to Blackheath from the Greenwich Peninsula it looked as if it was foggy at the top of the hill.  It was grey and gloomy on arrival and very wet underfoot but not actually foggy. Wind from the south was light, probably 3mph to start but as the cloud lifted and brightness approached so the breeze increased; slightly. So, Zens with green race once again.  We did spend quite some time today meandering in close formations occasionally with Te
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

17/11/2019 Blackheath

Lighter again today, maybe 2mph from the north but with little thermal variation so the Zens with green race stayed in the air, if nothing else.  That will be the fifth week running so a bit of a Zen autumn!  We did some quite extensive no call flying against a slowly changing high cloud background with some curious almost lenticular like features. I did not expect to get very far with the Hexagonal pilot kite but we did get it in the air briefly, enough to make some adjustments and then br
Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

10/11/2019 Blackheath

North easterly breeze today starting with mostly clear sky but cloud gradually developing.  Once again, a light breeze so mostly Zens with green race.  Despite their age the Zen sails still sparkle when flown into the sunlight. I took time out to see if there was a quick solution to the bias in the two Eddy kites that we flew last weekend.  I did find a fix which worked, as if by magic, and just need to translate it into something more permanent.  Needless to say it was counterintuitive!
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

03/11/2019 Blackheath

Our regular field was being cleared of firework debris and crowd barriers so Martin had set up to the east of the road. Zens with green race again and a south westerly breeze meant that we were not looking into the sun today. Clear blue sky above to start but a bank of low cloud loomed from the west.  I had hoped to test fly the two Eddy kites in ‘sunny’ conditions and  that almost happened.  The first one that I put up seemed fine at first but then it became apparent that it did have
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

27/10/2019 Blackheath

I should probably have stayed in bed today but determined to take advantage of the clock change and get to Blackheath at about the ‘normal’ time. Light north westerly breeze was lighter than last weekend so the Zens with green race were in use again. There really was not enough breeze for the JMH Double / Single Eddy stack 1989 so I resorted to checking the Vienna pocket sled in lighter breeze.  There is a point where it does not inflate fully and can spontaneously go into a spin as a
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

20/10/2019 Blackheath

A light northerly breeze so Zens with green race were comfortable but sometimes just a little overpowered really. I had in mind two possibilities for today and in the event we put up four sections of the Peter Malinski Eddy kite train that had been collected from Hamburg recently.  I have been making sleeves for the five sections of the train, one more to do when the fabric arrives. Some of the sails have been seriously stretched but only one seam has given way.  I’ll attend to that so
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

13/10/2019 Blackheath

I had almost given up on the weather today but the forecast improved somewhat during the course of Saturday.  In the event there was a delay in the arrival of the rain so we were able to do a small OSOW ‘fly’.  Full vented 1.5s with green race eventually felt overpowered as the rain approached. The trip to and from Hamburg during the week was somewhat arduous.  Visits to the Elbephilharmonie building, the Kunsthalle Hamburg and the Deichtorhallen were rewarding even if we managed to walk ab
Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

06/10/2019 Blackheath

Solo today for the second time this year.  So after a quick spin with a full vented 1.5 with green race I put up a section of the JMH Rhombus-shaped kites 1985 81 kites. I had taken the three top sets of the train and found that the orange set had an extra length of line after the last kite suggesting that maybe a pilot kite had been used previously.  It was my intention to try adding the pocket sled in the Vienna Kite Club colours that we had each been given last weekend as I suspected th
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

01/10/2019 After Schloss Hof, Austria

We had a good trip to Austria.  It was a bit wet on the Saturday with a little wind from the north west but sunny on the Sunday with a good breeze from the south. The highlight was probably flying the JMH Triple Malay stack on Sunday but we also flew the 1999 Rev 1.5s, the original Decs JMH Rokkaku, the late Delta and the 2008 1 and 1.5 Rev stacks on Saturday, the big Parafoil, the Della Porta 4 Rhomboids along with the 2009 vented and mid-vented 1.5s on Sunday.  We had taken the late set o
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

22/09/2019 Blackheath

A medium southerly breeze this morning, about 9 gusting 16mph or thereabouts so full vents with green race.  Must get a new anemometer, the last one wore out its bearings! There was a short time this morning between belts of rain so I was back in Hackney by One. No JMH kites today.  I have completed repairs to the 81 kite train and plan to try combining elements from it and using a pilot kite.  I will start by trying a small wind proven delta and if that works will make some neutral co
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

15/09/2019 Blackheath

Mid September anticyclonic weather patterns made for a full on sunny day with light west to north westerly breezes.  Zens with green race were fine but did not get a lot of air time. The 1995 JMH Edo was perfectly suited to the conditions so having put it together and sorted the bridle lines we all took time on the line. This kite pulls up fast and then floats away taking even more line.  I was flying on the 3.5mm spectra for ease of handling as opposed to weight considerations. T
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

08/09/2019

It did not actually rain today, saving it for Monday morning by the looks of it. Central Hackney was closed for the Carnival and I had decided not to make a big deal of making alternative arrangements for getting kites out and back.  Just have a rest and reflect! We are still waiting to see how the BA pilot strike unfolds and whether our flights on 27th September will be cancelled and if alternative arrangements will get us to Austria for that weekend event. A week after that I wi
Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

01/09/2019 Blackheath

Back to normal temperatures today but in the sunny conditions we still saw evidence of the Blackheath thermals spinning past us, not a real dust devil but windblown material looping about. Full Rev 1.5s with race rods and some relaxed and sometimes intricate no call flying.  The rule is that no-one speaks and the evidence is of a concentrated effort to do nothing that is inconsistent.  The kites ‘interact’ moving together and apart, rolling across the wind window and back, expanding and con
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

25/08/2019 Blackheath

For a change the weather was back to summer mode today, unusual for a Bank Holiday weekend.  We were on Zens with green race rods except in the lulls.  I had brought a chair for those occasions! I knew that the JMH 1987 Delta kite was framed in bamboo and so we might be looking for replacement components or different framing.  Given the size of the kite I was not able to pre-assemble it at home. There was a slight puzzle in piecing the frame together as one of the ‘notched’ ends had be
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

18/08/2019 Blackheath

At the last moment I realised that there was going to be heavy rain coinciding with our usual arrival time on Blackheath so delayed departure.  I was then able to finish putting back together the blue section of the 1985 JMH kite train that we flew briefly at Portsmouth last weekend before setting off. Light westerly/south westerly breeze so full sail 1.5s with race rods.  I had expected stronger breezes. We put together two sections of the 1985 JMH train and had some good flying time
Felix

Felix

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