Teston Kite Festival, part 1

Hi folks.

Well here we are another Teston  kite festival, I am doing this in conjunction with Trevor on the other blog as we went and photographed together. The event was held at Teston bridge on the outskirts of Maidstone over the weekend.

I will give a brief detail of the kites as we go along.

First up......

This is a Rokkaku, this is a Japanese design and come in various sizes and are a single line kite with bowed cross menders and is very stable in the air. This was hand made by Len a member of the Kent Kite Flyers.

Next is a Flowform, this one is unique with pockets running vertically so the air flows through them and keeps it in the air. Also single line.

As this was a special weekend we could fly to 1000ft with special clearance from the CAA. Normally it's 200ft.

And now for something completely different, a Revolution which is a 4 line fully controllable kite which can be stopped at any angle in the sky. This kite is used for display purposes and with many used at once as a display and flown to music which is quite a spectacle.

Another Flowform kite used as a lifter. This kite will have very strong pulling power and is used at the top of a display allowing other items not really kites to be attached below with are inflatable and not true kites. This allows them to sit below the main lifter, see the next shot below.

This is a very large display inflatable tethered below the main lifter. This kite was hand made over the winter and the flyer said that it took him many hours and cost him the princely sum of £300 for materials,  normally these would cost the public £3000 as Trevor stated on his blog. Well done that man.

Just for a laugh here is a image of one of the "Grumpy Old Gits" novelty kite flyer. He was staked to the ground and his arm moved up and down, he was flying a small Flowform with a man attached to it, If you look on Trevors' blog he has an image of the kite.

A very good day was had by all followed by a fine BBQ to finish off.

Dont forget to CLICK IN THE IMAGES (twice)

Part 2 will come Tuesday evening

As Henry stayed at home with Ernie, I will say nite nite from me Mike XX