Wednesday 14 September 2016

Jurassic Kites

This summer I found a kite design by a company called Jurassic Kites.  Having sent for one, just for fun, I had go.  The design was developed by Sibyl King and it is manufactured by Peterkin UK Ltd.

 The kite comes neatly folded in a thin sleeve and is ready harnessed, just needing two pins fixing to brace the wings and a line (supplied)  attaching to the harness loop.
 Then its up to the top of a windy Knoll - in this case the hills under Thorpe Cloud at Ilam, Derbyshire, UK - Then up it goes.
 The first attempt was in low gusty winds and the kite was easily stalled.  It took some skill to keep it airborne.  With a smaller relative surface area than a conventional kite, this one needs a constant 5+ knot wind ( at least 6 miles per hour) to keep it aloft.
 This was no problem as the wind speed increased.  At a distance, this is a quite convincing kite.  The streamers are needed to stabilise the kite direction.  Without them it will loop wildly.  I am tempted to try it with shorter wing streamers, but that will wait until I have some lighter ribbons of clear plastic.
 With a little more wind, the kite becomes much more stable.
Bringing it down is easy if you peg the cord to the ground and walk along shortening the cord until the kite is near ground level.  Much quicker to crash the kite, but I want to fly this one again.
It is years since I seriously flew a kite - What fun.