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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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    • 1,044 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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    • 1,714 views
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

10/08/2019 After Portsmouth

The forecast played out surprisingly accurately.  On Saturday the wind was about 30mph steady but gusting to about 50mph.  We did not try to fly anything. On Sunday the breeze was about 20mph gusting to 30mph plus I think.  We did do a number of ‘routines’ but were somewhat hampered by an underpowered PA system. Ashley did manage to call a routine for a small mega fly along the lines of the Italian black sail performance.  It is quite long but I got the impression that it was appreciat
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

04/08/2109 Blackheath

Writing this on Monday afternoon as I was busy dealing with images yesterday afternoon. It was a diverted outward journey to Blackheath because of the London Cycling event.  Martin had set up a Zen on green race and that was entirely appropriate in the light SE breeze so we flew close, no calls for an indeterminate period of time. Then, as had been previously suggested, I started to put together the JMH Triple Malay stack 1988.  During the course of the last week I had established that
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

28/07/2019 Blackheath

Westerly 13-15mph gusting 20 plus so it really was at the limit for testing kites today.  I waited for a lull and did manage to launch the JMH Flare kite from 1986.  It has recently been spotted with Jørgen in photographs from the 1989 Washington International Kite Festival in the UK. I had replaced the missing lower spreader and was concerned that I had not made it tight enough against the retaining knots.  Indeed, it might be that it was missing because it had fallen out in flight and no
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

21/07/2019 After Shropshire

There was a deluge on the M40 as we headed out for lunch and an after lunch stroll on Friday before the event. The selected accommodation seemed fine on Friday evening. Saturday weather was mostly dry but with a variable wind rolling over the field boundary of houses and trees.  We did, however, manage to launch Expandable box kite 1996 after some helpful advice and energetic contributions from the gathered kite fliers who also confirmed the source of the design, Eiji Ohashi.  It did n
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

14/07/2019 Blackheath

Arrived soon after 10:30 am which was about the time that Jake had suggested he might get to the heath. We had not had the chance to fly the JMH kites together for some time now and this was an opportunity to check some of the kites we may be able to fly next weekend in Shropshire. First up, almost was the 8 diamond Della Porta.  Not quite enough wind again but it is clear that this ‘composition’ is completely viable. The 1990 Parafoil which I have been partly re-bridling was the
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

07/07/2019 Blackheath

A light easterly breeze so Zens with green race today.  The high and low cloud threatened drizzle but it didn’t happen.  The ground was very wet from overnight rain and the plantain heads had sprung up over the last week. Nothing called and there was an occasional lull which had us walking back, every which way, it seemed.  We had a visitor today who had seen the Revs from a passing bus.  He was a Blacksmith student at an institution in Herefordshire having completed the first of three year
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

30/06/2019 Blackheath

Only revs today as there was a running event taking place and the wind forecast did not look great. The high cloud was receding so fair weather cumulus but not very developed most of the time.  The westerly wind was typical summer Blackheath, on the strong side this time, but consistently variable.  Opting for mid vents with green race made a certain amount of sense until the arm ache set in! Very little called as the variability of the breeze really was not conducive to team flying.
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

23/06/2019 Blackheath

I did take the personal revs to Blackheath today but managed to ‘forget’ the handle bag.  As no one else was expected that really didn’t matter but I had also left the SLK toolkit behind as well.  That might have been irritating! The challenge today was to set up the Edo kite solo.  After the kind assistance of the team at the beginning of June I knew that I had to establish a method to accomplish this.  I know that ground stakes are only to be used ‘carefully’ and as conditions were relati
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

16/06/2019 Blackheath

RSS kites today in contrast to last weekend.  Today there were also very localised heavy showers to contend with on the brisk SW breeze.  We were mostly lucky but were dressed accordingly anyway. Extended no call flying watching the highly contrasted clouds passing by. The plantain seed heads that were becoming prevalent in recent weeks had been mown so really no issues today! No JMH kites today as it was clear that conditions would be a bit fierce. Happy to have the ‘drum ki
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

09/06/2019 Blackheath

Zens with green race today gives a measure of the breeze from the SW.  Mostly fair weather cumulus in long standing lines with very high cloud gradually thickening. There were occasional lulls which made a perfect excuse for putting together some of the JMH kites. First up was the re-framed late Delta.  Mainly 10mm carbon tube but with a re-purposed Rev SLE spreader.  This is a very good light wind option now.  I note that this was flown on the rear connection point.  I tried the middl
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

02/06/2019 Blackheath

I had hoped for 8-10mph today but it ended up more like 13-15 with significantly higher gusts.  Full vent 1.5s with green race were ok most of the time.  I had not taken the RSS kites so that was not an option. During the week I had prepared a light wind frame for the large JMH delta and also modified the frames for the two Rok and Rev JMH Rokakkus which need further bridle adjustment. Today I opted to put together the JMH Edo from 1995.  The fact that the bridle took a considerable ti
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

28/05/2019 After Scarborough

The weather forecast for the weekend indicated that Saturday was going to be the day that offered the opportunity to fly JMH kites as well as the Revs and possibly Rev stacks. On that basis we set up with the full banners and tent configuration first thing on Saturday.  Not Zens were the right sail all day with green race as usual. We flew the three large JMH Rokkaku kites with the light weight frames and they looked stunning together in the sky.  There was not quite enough breeze for
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

19/05/2019 Blackheath

Cloudy today with occasional brightness and the threat of a shower.  Light NE breeze which was mostly steady. Zens and CR sails mostly with green race were comfortable but I did feel somewhat constrained having woken today with an aching left leg. Despite the discomfort I did put together the Della Porta: Nine squares 1993.  All seemed ok but there were some questionable knots on the bridle ring and an odd overlay of a couple of the individual bridle lines.  As the last time that this
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

12/05/2019 Blackheath

A quiet day on Blackheath, light NE breeze and a first sighting of swifts against the blue sky and bubbling cumulus. Took the Della Porta: Eight rhomboids 1993 today but didn’t check to see if the tails were in the bag.  As with the other two kites from this period the tails are actually bagged separately… Still, no broken spars in this one and there is a chance to try it next weekend ahead of the Scarborough event the following weekend.  I’ll try to sort the broken 5 spars for the big
Felix

Felix

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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

05/05/2019 Blackheath

We took all the team kit to Blackheath today for de-sanding.  Many hands made relatively light work of this necessary process. Some of the sand dust is well and truly ingrained in the mesh and fabric of the full vent sails.  Only a thorough soaking will remove that! It has been an energetic month with 21 flying days since 5th April.  I did not get to fly a kite today and have been reviewing images from Cervia this afternoon.  Many of them have been posted on Facebook already! Feli
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

02/05/2019 After Cervia

I had decided not to make notes during the event and do find myself somewhat at a loss to find the words and details to summarise Cervia.  It was a very good event, needless to say! Caterina made it known that she wanted to talk about our ‘location’ for the event and had planned to reduce the size of the single line art kite area where we have been for quite a few years now and add a new area to the south of the main arena for the displaced art kites with us as a buffer before the large ‘in
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

15/04/2019 After Berck

It was my 25th visit to Berck according to the records that we have.  Conditions were not forecast to be good but we survived the only one really wet day and mostly coped with the offshore wind spells.  The NE winds were often pushed round to a northerly flow by the sea-land tendency. Conditions were not good for flying the JMH collection kites much of the time and there were space constraints.  It is not good manners to occupy temporarily vacant space where tethered kites have landed…  The
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Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators
 

31/03/2019 Blackheath

Preparations rather than the clock change meant I did not get to Blackheath until 11:15am.  Quite a steady ENE breeze so we did put up full vented 1.5s with green race.  All very straightforwards so far! I hoped to test fly some of the JMH kites today and started with the Della Porta: Four rhomboids 1993.  Not knowing this format of kite (same as Della Porta: 4 squares) I was anxious to find a way to manage the bridle initially and then move the kite to a safe launch point.  The kite is 4 m
Felix

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