Saturday 5 March 2016

Double Frisbee!

Among a job lot of 1970s kites I recently got my hands on was a pair of 'Frisbee King Kites'. Now I was aware of a 1970s Frisbee Skite, but not of this particular one. The Skite is mentioned in Ron Moulton's book "Kites", which was published in 1978, So possibly the Frisbee King came on the market a bit later, in the early 1980s?

The Frisbee King has a fibreglass frame, no cross spreader, and a thick polythene sail. I got them without tails, but added a pair of original blue Peter Powell tails, as I felt that would make the tail a natural extension of the kite. So here they are on our regular flying field in the New Forest!


How do they fly? Well, they're obviously not as precise as a modern sport kite, but I didn't expect that at all. The trailing edges start flapping quite a bit when the wind goes towards 20mph and above, so they're happier at 12-15mph or so. 


Flying them together works fine, as long as you don't try to fly sharp corners; they really don't want to do that. But loops and curves, multiple wraps and patterns like that are fine. And because of their rather unusual frame design, they really look different from any other kite we have, almost bird-like. We'll definitely fly them for fun after a practice session, and who knows, maybe also at a festival or two. 

And, by the way, if anyone has more information on these Frisbee Kings, such as when they were made, we'd love to hear from you!

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