Eyeballcarcinogenic Fire Darts!

We recently adopted a collection of (mostly dual-line) sport kites, and among those was an Action Kites Fire Dart.

Now it so happens that we already had a pretty similar one:

Clearly, they should be flown together!

Some bridle tweaking was necessary to match them in terms of speed and general handling ...

... but then they were flying well-matched.

The colours are typical for sport kites from the 1990s .... In Dutch these colours are often called  oogbalkankerverwekkend (eyeballcarcinogenic); you can probably understand why!

Nevertheless, I'm happy that we got a nice pair of matching Fire Darts; what's certain is that we won't easily lose sight of them in a kite field!

'Kites Connect' Festival

The last year that Dunstable Kite Festival took place was 2018. Pity we lost that festival, as we always enjoyed flying there ...

Last year, Dunstable Kite Festival was basically reborn, in the shape of the 'Kites Connect' Festival, again on the Dunstable Downs. We weren't aware of that until after the event, but this year we were made aware on time, so we could register to fly in the main arena!

Who else was there in terms of sport kite pairs and teams?

First of all, of course, our friends the Airheads. Joined, after a long absence, by Doug Irvine. 

Fracture was there, in a 5-man formation.

Simon Franks performed as a one-man-two/three-kites team.

And then of course Flying Fish! Mostly flying our Airdynamics T5 kites, and mostly to "Carmina Mix" and "Adiemus" (we felt like using that music from our early festival days again).

But we didn't just fly as Flying Fish, we also flew as part of L-katz; the team is back on the festival scene!

And not only that ... what we're really thrilled about is that Lisa was back in the team again, flying from her power chair.

Worth noting that we had talked about Lisa flying from her power chair for a while, but hadn't actually done any practice prior to this .... just before the festival, she decided to 'just do it'; talk about throwing yourself in the deep end!

But despite the lack of practice of any sort or shape, it all worked out pretty much ok!

Both days were, of course, concluded with a dual-line mega-team.

Notice Lisa flying in the mega-team as well ...

So, in all, a successful second kite festival of the year for us, and L-katz is complete again! 

Picture credits of us flying: Sabrina Marshall, Val Hancorn

Portsmouth Kite Festival

Some of you will be aware that, due to medical reasons, we couldn't fly at Portsmouth Kite Festival last year, but this year I felt ready to return! Slightly anxious as to whether I would be able to cope with two full days at a kite festival, but only one way to find out, right?

Tent and banners are present on Southsea Common again!

As always, my focus in this blog is on the pairs and teams performing in the main display arena. 

Let's do quad-liners first.

New to Portsmouth was the French Is'Air pair, giving polished performances:

Then there was The Quad Mob:

And Evolver was back in a kite festival arena after many years of absence, flying their Fulcrums in a completely new routine!

Of course, Portsmouth wouldn't be Portsmouth without The Decorators:

On to dual line pairs and teams!

Carl Wright, the one-man-pair/team (aka Team Spectrum) was of course present. 

Back again from across the Channel were our Dutch/Belgian friends from Fenix Pair:

Fracture showed why they are the reigning dual-line team National Champions:

Last but not least (I hope!) Flying Fish! Throughout the weekend, we flew our B-2 kites to "Carmina Mix", "Rise like a Phoenix", "Ivo" and "Can't Stay away from You" (the latter of which we normally use for L-katz performances):

Of course, both days concluded with the customary quad-line mega-team:

I was utterly exhausted at the close of the Festival, despite my initial apprehension, but I did manage a full 2-day kite festival again! It was great to be back on the kite festival scene; as if we've never been away ....

More pictures of the two days can be seen here.

Picture credits of us flying: Marian Linford, Franca Perletti, Carl Wright

Airdynamics Dark Stars

We have been flying a full set of Airdynamics T5 kites for well over 10 years, and we really like flying them. At the UK Nationals last month (we didn't compete, having retired from competition) we were given pair of earlier Airdynamics kite: Dark Stars! Thank you, you know who you are ...

Obviously, we couldn't wait to try them out, but had to wait for suitable wind (the spars suggest them being ultralights or maybe light standards). That wind came soon and we were out with them.

Their flight is easy and graceful, just as I'd expect from an Airdynamics kite.

Of course, the next step was to fly them together.

No bridle tweaking was required to let match their relative speed, drive and pull. They showed good tracking, and felt very similar to our T5s (no surprise, given who designed and built them).

The previous owners insisted we fly them with tails as well, and who are we to deny this request from the people behind the kite?

We had some 30m ribbon tails, in lilac and pink, and these should provide a good colour match with the kites themselves.

Very happy with our Dark Stars, and they now have their rightful place in the kite bag that contains the T5!

Picture credit (Dark Stars flying with tails): Piyush Patel