Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1993 03:43:15 -1000 From: pat@cs.strath.ac.uk (Patrick Prosser) Message-Id: <219b5j$2cm@kelvin-02.cs.strath.ac.uk> Organization: Comp. Sci. Dept., Strathclyde Univ., Glasgow, Scotland. Subject: Festival of the Air (Washington) I'm just back from the "Festival of the Air", aka the Washington Kite Festival (in England). Friday ~~~~~~ I arrived mid afternoon, and decided to fly something (because, I reckoned this could be the last chance of the weekend). I set up my ground anchors for my red flow form (4 metres across), got everything ready, and did a high start. Everything went "Ping!!". All the shroud lines pulled out of the keels, at the same instant. This happened half way up in the launch process. This was it's 4th flight, but the wind was very gusty. I made a design error. In my pfoils I sew a small alloy ring onto each keel (21 in all) and connect shroud lines to these. When building the fform I thought that this was gross over-engineering, so I left them out. They do serve a purpose. They cut down the sheer stress. So, back to the sewing machine. Also, I used spectra for the shroud lines, sleeved at each end (20 ends to sleeve). This also is a (bit of a) mistake, as there is minimal give in the lines, passing all shock load to the canopy. I left my gear out and let Jack fly his 256 sq ft fform of this. The gear is well up to the job, however I am convinced that his fform has much less pull than one of my 100 sq ft pfoils. Saturday ~~~~~~~~ There were about 20 people there from our Kite Club (of Scotland), so this was really nice. The wind was just too strong, too gusty. There were 3 arenas, one set aside for stunt kite displays, one for large single lines, and one for the public. We stayed "public". To be honest, there wasn't much that caught my eye on the stunt kite front (generally I find these displays quite uninteresting). However, there were quite a few displays given by the buggy boys (Andrew Beattie being one of these). I spoke to one of the designers (I think it was "Spider"), and he reckons that they are marketing the buggy in the same way/price as sail boards. Expect about 1,000 quid for buggy, kites, line, helmet, ... Personally, I couldn't see where the cost lay. The buggies looked simple stuff, and the kites don't look that hard to build either. Maybe next year we (Kite Club of Scotland) will cobble something up (wheels from a Silver Cross pram, fish box, nailed together, Peel made from old bed linen) and show them the low cost option. There were some really nice big kites there. Martin Lester was there with his mega legs (I am now bored with these), and quite a few of Peter Lynn's kites (tho PL was not there). Andrew had the BIG Octopus (24 metres?). I took Olly (my 24 footer) up to meet Mummy, "The Great Octopus in the Sky". I lay under the Blow Fish (I chased the kids away first). Snoopy was there, the BIG Turtle, a few Jurasic's, a BIG Foot, a Giant Seagull .... Honestly, how can the stunt kites compete with this? And, we had Schimmilphenig ..... and George Peters I flew a Pfoil on about 30 feet of line, and spent all day chasing it about, keeping it in the air, playing with it. Someone else brought out a 4metre Fform .... and guess what ... all the shroud lines ripped out of the keels!!!! We exchanged notes. Then, there was the ROKAKKU Challenge. In case you didn't know, the Scots like a wee bash every now and again (but unfortunately when we do it in England, its usually us that get bashed). We had 3 entries in the 1metre class. I came second in the first round, beaten by Paul Morgan. The third round was won by Graham Shirlaw, one of our boys. The rok fight is a gas. It is great fun. Unfortunately, many people take it all wrong. They have these lovely applique roks, and move about the field so that no one will cut them down, slice into them. Then at the end you have 2 individuals, avoiding each other. This is not the right way. The rok is DISPOSABLE. I was delighted to see that Paul Morgan's rok was plain white (the commentator said it was boring). Mine was grey with dots (the dots were circles cut-outs from sleds), Stephens was white with dots, Graham's white with a large red circle (Jap Flag, Hata) with Chinese writing down one side (says "Tomato"). I built these and they are all considered as disposable. I also gave them the line. We all fought vigourously, cut and thrust >From the word go, allowing ourselves as much altitude as we wanted. My rok was totally destroyed by Paul Morgan, so I failed to enter rounds 2 and 3. Stephen's rok was Zeroed in round 2 ... the frame was smashed. Next year I will build 3 roks for each of our competitors, so that if you are "totaled" in one of the rounds you've still got one for the next round. Next year we aim to win each round, 1 and 2 metre. Sunday ~~~~~~ Again, the wind was strong, and all over the place. I flew a small Peter Lynn Manata Ray (called Man Ray), tethered onto 2 lines, and this worked quite well. Our guys got whipped in the 2m rok challenge (Graham Benson, Colin Black, Graham Shirlaw), but they did go for it. Would you believe it ... George Peters also had a rok in there. To me, that's like taking a Bugatti to a demolition derby. Shirlaw's rok was "sliced", the sail is potential drogue material. I saw a really beautiful stunt kite, so I went up to the guy and got him to land it so I could have a look. It was a Prism Radian. Beautiful bit of work (hard to get over here). I was surprised to see that it did not use lap seems in the construction, but just laid one piece upon another, and then used a zig zag stitch. Funny, I used to use that technique, until I started to study Tim Benson's kites. The "lay on top and zig zag" allows you (in my opinion) to do things with great accuracy, iminimal weight, with little effort. I thought the bridle was ingenious. And the colours were great. There were more big kites, somebody flying one of them on 2 lines at about 300 feet up. It was nice to see that these big things can actually fly (and that the owners aren't frightened to fly them). Overall ~~~~~~~ Great fun, but don't expect to fly kites. It's funny. If the weathers good, so many of the public are out there flying their kites that it is just plain chaos. Alternatively, if the weather's a bit heavy, kites are all over the place, bumping into each other, getting tangled. This is inevitable, and should be accepted. I didn't go to the festival to fly my kites. I went there to fly a kite now and then, compete in the rok challenge, and just be there. The public (those enthusiasts not paid to appear) put up a really good show. There was some guy flying an old "ram air" parachute, about 20feet across. He'd re-bridled it, and it flew quite well. He also had a Hagaman Pfoil (correct spelling) about 10 feet across. I'll be honest here, I don't think it was as well made as I would have expected, and I didn't think that it flew particularly well either. There were quite a few Cody's about, large box kites, a whole load of pfoils, basically what you'd expect in strong wind conditions. The most beautifull thing I saw whilest I was there .... In one of the tents they had a Japanese Room set up on a small stage. You gave the girls a quid, and they would dress your wee girl up in the traditional Japanese clothing, give her a fan, and then take a polaroid photo. It was unrestrained joy for all involved. When I got home I took a long hard look at Zoe's buggy, you know, the baby walker thing. Now, if I could just get round to teaching her how to fly a Peter Powell, she could give a demo next year (she'll be 19 month old then). Patrick = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1993 02:56:03 -1000 From: ye79@gec-mrc.co.uk (ye79) Message-Id: <1993Jul7.125643.14938@das.harvard.edu> Organization: Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University Subject: Re: Festival of the Air (Washington) Patrick Prosser (pat@uk.ac.strath.cs) writes: >There were some really nice big kites there. Martin Lester was there >with his mega legs (I am now bored with these), and quite a few of >Peter Lynn's kites (tho PL was not there). Andrew had the BIG Octopus >(24 metres?). I took Olly (my 24 footer) up to meet Mummy, "The Great >Octopus in the Sky". I lay under the Blow Fish (I chased the kids away >first). Snoopy was there, the BIG Turtle, a few Jurasic's, a BIG Foot, >a Giant Seagull .... Honestly, how can the stunt kites compete with >this? And, we had Schimmilphenig ..... and George Peters Can anybody describe these kites, so I have a better mental picture as to what they look like? I've seen the legs but the others are left to my imagination. Are there pictures of any of them on the ftp site? Or will I just have to wait until I can get to one of these huge kite festivals to see them? >The public (those enthusiasts not paid to appear) put up a really good show. >From this I take it that some enthusiasts are paid to appear. Sounds like an enviable position to be in. Chris -- Chris Willis (ye79@uk.co.gec-mrc) GEC-Marconi Research Centre, Essex UK = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1993 21:03:30 -1000 From: andrew@tug.com (Andrew Beattie) Message-Id: Organization: /usr/lib/news/organisation Subject: Re: Festival of the Air (Washington) In article <1993Jul7.125643.14938@das.harvard.edu> ye79@gec-mrc.co.uk (ye79) writes: >Patrick Prosser (pat@uk.ac.strath.cs) writes: >>There were some really nice big kites there. Martin Lester was there >>with his mega legs (I am now bored with these), and quite a few of >>Peter Lynn's kites (tho PL was not there). Andrew had the BIG Octopus >>(24 metres?). I took Olly (my 24 footer) up to meet Mummy, "The Great >>Octopus in the Sky". I lay under the Blow Fish (I chased the kids away >>first). Snoopy was there, the BIG Turtle, a few Jurasic's, a BIG Foot, >>a Giant Seagull .... Honestly, how can the stunt kites compete with >>this? And, we had Schimmilphenig ..... and George Peters > >Can anybody describe these kites, so I have a better mental picture as >to what they look like? You *really* want to see them for yourself, but: The Legs are a pair of footballer's legs, from the waist down, carefuly sculpted so that they look right (with knee and calf, not just straight tubes). When flying, the legs have a convincing running motion. The blue shorts are appliqued qith kite designs and he is wearing odd socks. The Octopus has a 5m? diametre soft round head, with bulbous eyes on the underside. The eight inflated tentacles (complete with suckers) take then length to 27m. This continual movement of the legs gives the appearance of it swimming through water. The blow-fish is basically a sphere, with spikes, tail, eyes. It bounces slowly due to effects that are still under debate. If you stand underneath, the fish will land on you, squash against the ground and then take off again. Snoopy is flying a soft bi-plane. The Jurassics were soft monsters with wings (also: dracula and a winged pig). The seagull had about 10m span. The foot was a pink 2-line parafoil, with a foot outline. There was also a flying grand piano. The turtle is simply a big soft turtle shape. It only flew for a short time at Washington because it was lifting the VW camper van that it was attached to. George Peters? I'm not going to attempt to describe his stuff! Andrew -- Work: gaffer@plx.com Phone: +44 793 614 110 Fax: +44 793 614 297 Play: andrew@tug.com Phone: +44 256 464 912 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =