A low turnout today despite the promise of early morning sunshine. The sunshine proved to be unreliable with a band of high level cloud drifting to the east but regenerating on the upwind edge. Just when you expect the clear blue sky to arrive another band of cloud appears limiting the effective warmth of the sun.
Standard vented with race rods fitted the variable wind speeds today. Light wind inputs appear to work very well with this configuration and the long arm moves help in keeping warm.
Today was one of those where nothing quite works. Blackheath was off limits because of a music event. Our fall back site at the north end of the Olympic Park was, we found, all too late also unavailable due to an event yesterday. There was a slight breeze on the remaining ‘lawn’ but little room to manoeuver.
We could have gone to the east end of Victoria Park but somehow the prospect of finding a route home around Hackney Carnival put paid to that as well. Some times it’s best just to ‘go w
ATM flew in with Jacob, Jade and I today.
He had been flying the 'on the spot' 90 degree turns including 'leading edge down' earlier. (following on from last week)
Jacob called The Decs 'opening manoeuvre' as well as 'ladder-up/down' which call for some focus and space limits. ATM said he could do the moves as long as there was plenty of escape space. My observation would be that it is possible to get an inexperienced flier to do some very cool moves (read that as 'not trivial') so long as t
A great week in Berck with mostly light breezes except for the final day, Monday 25th April, when the vented kites came out of the bag for the first time at c9:00am and we stayed with them until leaving the field finally at about 3:30pm. (OK there was a short break for lunch <grins>)
I just checked, in so far as I can, and it looks like the team have attended the festival 16 times since 1990. I do not know why we missed the other years!
Off to Cervia in the morning so will probably be o
A late start today, c11:30 as I am still slightly on Florida time. Did get a last fly last Tuesday on Miami Beach in the super smooth on-shore breeze. Back to grey skies, intermittent drizzle, rain and a proliferation of worm casts on Blackheath today.
Switched back to 120ft lines without issue but noticed a disparity between the bridle configuration of the iQuad training kites and the Bazzer Pro. I had tried reaching forwards and pulling the top lines to get a launch with the training kite
Back to Blackheath today but obviously conditions were a little unusual for October with the thermometer at 29 degrees Celcius! I left the Heath at about 1:00pm to seek shelter from the sun.
Stephen Versteegh has proposed Scheveningen as a Mega Team event for 2012 which is very exciting. I hope that everyone will be able to commit...
Today was almost a 3 kite day - I started with 1.5 SUL (Ex iQuad) as I did not have the Zen in the bag. Subsequently Zen and then the Race 2. I'm more convinced n
After the excitement of the super-16 windmill counter rotations and the arms of the windmill rotating last Monday it was back to the more relaxed, positively lazy flying on Blackheath today.
However, under mostly complete low grey cloud coverage we did look at some configuration issues in respect of the Rev1 and the CR version. We know that reducing the billow in the 1.5 sails by tightening the bungees 'just so' (thanks to Lee Sedgwick many years ago) freshens up the response of the sail. I hav
It was a bright frosty start in Hackney but by the time we arrived on Blackheath c10:45 the grass was frost free. On the way the flags were hanging down but the forecast breeze cut in as we walked onto the field. Mid vents with race and full vents with race worked today.
Rowan flew his new sail* and eventually found that inverted hovers were a bit difficult with the gradually increasing wind speed. An extra ¾ inch brake step made the kite much more controllable for him. We went on to run th
The weather did not look promising this morning, it was raining lightly and the forecast was for more rain.
On the way to Blackheath I saw two cyclists doing the Blackwall tunnel. Crazy people!
I was not quite sure which 1.5 kite would be best today but the bag that came to hand was the mid vent and with green race rods it worked very well. As the team do not all have mid vents it is not a kite that I fly very often. There were only a couple of moments when the gusts stressed the frame to any
The very thin high cloud was only just obscuring the sun but was effectively filtering any perceived warming effect. As the weather front was approaching the high cloud thickened and eventually a band of lower cloud rolled in.
The forecast c18mph breeze from the SW was reasonably consistent so Xtra Vents with race were only occasionally underpowered.
I really enjoy applying ‘low wind’ techniques in high wind conditions without getting ‘arm ache’ from struggling to hold on to the kite so c
The predicted ridge of high pressure arrived so it was a sunny day again with very light breezes sometimes dropping away altogether.
We flew the Zens and remarked again how effectively they can glide away to make up ground. Some spontaneous parallel flying brought applause from passers by.
A police operation involving coach loads of 'football fans' was a distraction today. A dozen or so coaches pulled up in groups and then were escorted away.
I did not get around to tying knots during the wee
The overnight front that had shown thickening high cloud on Saturday evening was still just evident retreating to the SE as we arrived on Blackheath. We had a period of mostly clear sky before the cumulus set in but there were some curious lenticular clouds to the NE in the meantime.
The westerly breeze was variable, mostly towards 20mph but often dropping to 10mph or less so we were flying Xtra vents with race rods mostly.
Not really conditions suitable for team flying so we made no effort i
We flew the new 1.5 JMH sails on 100ft lines for a short while on Saturday in a light southerly breeze at the Aquarius event. Jacob then had to go and play his set with Jonah’s Raft. By the time he came back onto the flying field the rain had set in and wet lines and kites were not going to work.
Today on Blackheath there was a consistent Easterly breeze, about 6 – 7 mph under featureless grey cloud cover. After the disappointing conditions over the last few weeks it was a real pleasure to ‘
It was a perfect summers day on Blackheath.
The wind was light but variable swinging through 90 degrees.
It was just right for putting up the JMH Roc.
Good for the Robertshaw kites as well.
Felix
A quiet day on Blackheath under low grey clouds with the trees turning colour around the heath.
A steady NE breeze with occasional light drops of rain. Standard 1.5 with race or 3 wrap worked fine. Amongst other things face to face 180s was good to rehearse as it is a move that requires confidence as much as anything else. 'Just do it' in the vernacular...
We're almost all set up for the event at Yorkshire Sculpture Park the first weekend in November. Anyone looking for overnight accommodation
While it was only about 3 degrees centigrade in the shade the light c3mph NW breeze and the clear sky meant that it did not feel too cold on the Heath today.
Full 1.5 sails with diamond rods were mostly fine for free flying. Holding the diagonals for team moves did occasionally prove difficult but we did persevere to some degree. I didn’t actually wear gloves but that was probably because I had taken serious measures to avoid getting cold; lots of layers!
Conversationally we realized that in
A no fly day. The rain might have stopped at midday but at that point I had set about unscrambling a ‘password’ issue and could not let that go until I had resolved it. Ironically it was all about the number of characters allowed…
We are almost set for Cervia and Berck is shaping up subject to the team confirming individually.
I still do not have details of the new kite from Revolution. It will be interesting to see how the bridle works!
Felix
The rain started just before leaving Hackney and was steady during the c15 minute drive to Blackheath. Didn't expect much flying today given the weather forecasts leading up to the weekend.
Out on the field the Canada Geese had made their presence felt after a couple of years when they did not impact the site. I wonder what changed?
Some good free flying with standard 1.5s with three wrap/green race and extra brake in the steady easterly breeze. Some treacle flying was in evidence which I alwa
The forecast was not promising for today and although we had a good hour flying from 9:00am the rain then set in. The wind was WNW so not very consistent. Soon after 12 the sun began to break through. We began to set up to fly with Team For Fun but it became clear that it would not be viable so ‘went for lunch’.
From bagno 111 we watched the clouds burn off and the wind turn to the NE. From 2:00 to 3:00 pm we flew in the arena with a little encouragement from Lupo. A great session with som
True to form it was a bit cool on Blackheath this morning from about 10:30am in the southerly breeze especially when the sun was obscured by the lines of cumulus.
Initially mid-vents with various frame sets worked OK but there was a gradual increase in the variable breeze and we switched to full vents, again with various frame sets.
I had started with the Diamond Rods in the mid-vent and should have tried them in the full vent as well for completeness.
That will just have to wait for next t
An early start today in anticipation of 'afternoon' showers.
Blustery conditions '18mph plus' provided the opportunity to try some long arm, treacle effect flying with the vented 1.5B. How slow can you go?
I wonder if we should actively avoid any 'following' team routines. Apart from the line wraps it is not really very interesting IMHO.
Heavy rain later after rising wind speed justified the early start.
PS Jade showed me the Prussic knot which could provide incremental adjustment for lead
Another cold day with a variable NE breeze that just about justified the use of the mid vent 1.5s. Sometimes too light, at other times too strong. I was on 'long handles' so the light was easier to cope with than the strong.
The 'not called' free flying is becoming more 'elegant' as the capabilities of the fliers increases. This will be a source of increasingly complex team moves but for now we looked at the possibility of rolling kites 1 and 3 back over 2 and 4 while continuing the overall lin
Another late start but there were some sunny spells…
Full 1.5 sails with race rods in a Northerly breeze so straight into the sun.
I had hoped to put up the JMH roks and did fly the 3m kite and one of the 2m kites as well deciding that they really are ‘light wind’ kites now. I would not feel comfortable tying them off, they are ‘hands on’ kites!
Ashley has been calling various quick sequences recently and this continued today. It will be interesting to see how a complete routine will develo
It was Lee Sedgwick who suggested that we tighten the bungees back in c1990. 'More brakes' was a consensus which arrived very early on. Hovering horizontally with the leading edge up should never be easy... <grins>
Today on Blackheath the breeze was variable in that confounding inland summer way. Vented 4 wrap one minute, full sail race the next. (Not as bad, though, as Sunderland/Washington last summer where the extremes were unbelievable)
I had a lucky break today just when it really d
It was Johnny Claffey's 50th birthday party celebration last night and while I had not expected him to be out flying kites today I had not anticipated that I would be the only one from the team to turn up at Dunstable c10:00am for a casual attendance at the two day event.
At Long Beach last year it was apparent that most of the fliers were in possession of all the JB Sails and they quickly took the 'mid vent' option in intermediate conditions. At Dunstable today almost all of the fliers made th
