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 contracting the group as they proceed.
Then the breeze dropped for a while and we selected the penultimate kite from the JMH collection to put together for the first time… This was the Flare kitestack 1987, 10 kites each kite measuring 100 x 140 cm, tails: wind drogues, total size: 1 x 1.4 x 27 metres. While the spars were quite light and reinforced with whipping at the notched ends the flying lines that run through the stack were substantial. I suspected that the overall loading would be quite high and prepared the spectra flying line accordingly.
The first launch from the bridle was relatively benign, but when there was slightly more breeze and a long launch the stack really needed to be anchored, not a hand held proposition!
I note that it has been recognised that 150ft lines could be useful for achieving better results in larger Rev style mega teams.
Felix
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