Rev Kite Team Notes, The Decorators

No sign of spring today.  Low grey clouds, wind north easterly with light precipitation, not quite sleet! Full vented 1.5s, (my frame was green race) but it sometimes felt that the Xtra Vent would have been the warmer kite to fly given more movement on the ground. Once again a mix of uncalled free flying with called episodes thrown in occas...

On Blackheath this morning we had a tantalising ten minutes of spring sunshine.  The low convection cloud that soon re-formed burned off later in the afternoon just to prove the point by which time we were long gone home.Full sail 1.5s with race today but when the sun was shining the easterly breeze dropped dramatically.   Mostly free flyin...

The prospects were a bit grim.  North easterly breeze, snow flurries and all that.  As with last week the re-instated football pitch was in use and ML opted to set up to the east of the road as the NE breeze was not obstructed in any way.  We've flown on this field before (notably on one snowy AGM winter weekend) but it does feel stran...

Canary Wharf was seemingly hiding in the mist as we hit the A102 towards the Blackwall Tunnel this morning in bright sunshine. On Blackheath there was a slight breeze from the SE but a football pitch had been marked out on our usual flying site and was very much in use so we walked a bit further to the west.  Jacob arriving a few minutes later c...

The forecast was fairly dire so it was with a certain level of optimism that we drove to Blackheath this morning in light rain.  The gondolas were evident in the rear view mirror approaching the Rising Sun roundabout so it was not 'that' windy. Standard vented 1.5s with race/ultra light(3 wrap) dealt with the occasional lulls in the S/SE breeze....

It looked like a high cloud grey day travelling towards Blackheath this morning but the cloud base was soon below the Heathrow approach flightpaths over the 'heath'. Another Xtra Vent day although somewhat more marginal than last weekend.  It was a less consistent breeze so occasionally the 4 wrap spars felt very heavy.  Cold again so occas...

I did not notice that the cable car across the Thames was not operating this morning on the way to Blackheath.  This, apart from flags along the way, would be an indicator that the close isobars on the weather map were an accurate forecast. So it was Xtra Vent with 4 wrap that kept things sane as Jacob called some close moves in what would have...

Heavy snow (for London) today makes it look like our gamble on the weather for the Shipley meeting last weekend really paid off. A steady N/NE breeze with full sail 1.5 Race or 3 wrap worked well today.  Some plaiting of lines was un-done gracefully in the air.  The lines were a bit discoloured from last weekend but not enough to show up in...

We had a great afternoon on Saturday mostly flying 12 (full 1.5 Race Rods) and getting up to speed with some of the 'familiar' team moves in the larger format.  It was a bit muddy as in the attached image. Occasionally we came up against the limitations of 'in-line' flying and we did switch to grid for a while.  I think that ease of movemen...

The anticyclonic gloom had descended on Blackheath today but fortunately the drizzle held off.  The grass was very wet though so we had very tightly bound lines to contend with while setting up.  It always amazes me just how much adhesion can result so quickly.  It was a marginal breeze today which did not help matters particulary. We...