Herne Bay Kite Day

Herne Bay was the third new festival we flew at, and participated in this year, and it certainly was the festival furthest from home so far. Also, it was a unique festival for us. But more on that later.

It turned out to be a relaxed day of flying kites, with the public coming and going. The wind was a bit iffy, going up and down quite a bit through the day, but I think we adapted ok. We flew our now usual pair of routines twice, to Ruthless Queen with our Airdynamics T5 Taipan ULs, and to Adiemus with our Cheetahs first, and Fire Darts later, in both cases with 100' tails. Which reminded us of one of the drawbacks of flying with tails ...

The second of our Ruthless Queen routines was flown with our Dream Ons, and here's why ...

The organisers, Kent Kite Flyers, had asked us whether we would be willing to give some basic pair/team-flying tuition to a few club members. Answer was yes, of course, and that meant we had come full circle ... in August 2010, we received our first pair/team-flying tuition from Allan & Marilyn of Close Encounters, and less than five years on, we were at the teaching end. Only difference was that we got our first taste of pair/team-flying out of the public eye, while Barbara, Mike and Tim did so in the middle of an arena at a kite festival! Here are the three brave souls in action:

We decided to use our trio of Dream On kites, so as to make sure we had identical kites with identical long lines. I would first fly some basic pair-patterns with Irma, explaining what we're doing to the public via a roving microphone. Irma would then hand over her kite to one of the three, and I'd fly basic patterns with them. Then Irma would join in #3 position, giving each of the three a real taste of what it is to fly in the middle of a team.

I think they'd agree with me when I say they were struggling (the wind dropping at times didn't help), and there is of course a limit to what I can do in the roughly 15 minutes I had for each of the three in the arena schedule. It just goes to show that even if you know the basics of how to fly a dual-line kite (which all three did), flying it such that you do exactly what is needed when it's needed is something different. All three told me afterwards that they found the experience mentally exhausting but exciting at the same time (exactly how we felt when we started pair/team-flying), and I sincerely hope they'll take things further, as a pair or team. Offer made to any or all of them to come our way for a day of coaching stands!

Immediately following the tuition session, we flew our Ruthless Queen routine with the Dream Ons, just to show that it can be done with these kites in the prevailing low wind.

More photos of the day are here.