I had been watching the weather forecasts all week and was hopeful for a settled steady southerly breeze with some brightness.  We got the breeze but actually had some good sunshine as well.

I set up a full sail 1.5 with race rods and was just about airborne when Martin arrived.  I was then able to collect the additional kit from the car.

My plan was to see how many of the JMH  Rhombus shaped kites 1985 we could put up.  We have flown up to three sets previously.  I had undertaken quite a lot of restoration/refurbishment of the 81 kites.  All the tails had been re-fixed to the ramin spines, the eyelets had been replaced and the reinforcements for the eyelets re-sewn as needed. The flying lines for the pink and pale green sets had been replaced with new line.

And of course, spare spreaders had been cut and finished!

The 16 square metres sail area and the 5mm polyester braid line for the lower sets indicate a fairly heavy load so I set two of the barge pins with a rope link for connection.

We flew seven sets as more would have taken the line too close to the main road.  The angle of flight achieved with seven sets probably took the top kite close to the 60m height limit as well.

The kites were sometimes settled in line, other times they were snaking rhythmically with the coloured tails swinging into view.  Altogether a great result.  I have posted a video here:- 

We did even manage to fly the revs up close…

Felix