Ponte mud bath

Went to Ponte again today with Paul (antler).

Winds were SW between 14-25mph.
Flying: 9m Atom
Riding: flexifoil buggy
top speed: 29.3mph
Weather: mostly overcast, occasional rain
Ground: soaked through & muddy

It was a muddy session and I got caked in it. :(

RaceKites at Ponte

Morning session at Ponte where loads of people turned up from Birmingham way, at a guess about 15 people in total. Winds promised 15mph from North so it was set to be ideal.

Sadly, the winds had all but disappeared and we struggled for 5mph.

To make things worse, there was also a 'Santa Dash' so the car park was full and there were loads of Santa's jogging about *and* the footy players decided to use the most awkward pitch for us that was right in the middle of our typical run.

I had to leave at 1pm so I hope it picked up after that.

Ponte - 22/Nov

4hr session at ponte
good North winds - 15-22mph
top speed - 32.1 mph
distance - 26 miles
flying 9m Atom
riding flexi buggy
loads of people out for the rare perfect winds for the site.
temp was close on 0 degrees, absolutely freezing

Ponte again

[notes]
Went to ponte for 4hrs, flew Atom 9 & 12, met barry, good boarding session

Quick session at Pontefract

Paul and I hooked up for an afternoon kite flying session at Pontefract. The winds weren't great but it's a long time since we've seen each other and it was good to hook up.

I flew the 9m Atom and the landboard but there wasn't really enough to get back upwind. Paul similarly struggled in his buggy.

Still, there's something to be said for lying around in a field just chatting and watching the clouds scud by.

Waroo @ Ponte

I popped out to Pontefract Park yesterday to roll out my newly acquired 14m Waroo, it was forecast 8mph and a bit of rain so I didn't hold out much hope. I was intending just to give it a test flight and maybe have a bomb about on my trampa.

When I arrived the winds were in the region of 7mph-9mph so marginal for flying an SLE but I decided to continue and just check out the kite, lines & bar.

I set it all up and it looks very nice & clean so that's all good, I'd already test inflated it at home so no worries there. I had it sent on the 1st rear knot (longest lines) and max depower trim.

The winds turned up a couple of notches so it was time for a static fly although, to be honest, I thought it would be a bit much. Paul commented "thats a big f**ker!", which is true and that also got me worried.

So, with some trepedation up it went and to my surprise it was brilliantly behaved and incredibly controllable. It was also easy to cope with the gusts with the massive depower range available and this inspired confidence to take on such a big kite. The safety of 100% depower when letting the bar go was initially a stumbling point for me as you can read in my previous but, again, it added to my confidence in taking on such a large kite.

I built up enough confidence to jump on the trampa and I had a few runs up & down the field with my trampa and I'm very pleased with it. It's great to get upwind with too.

sweet arcs

Today at Ponty was great boarding on my trampa & 16m Venom II; again pretty much the only one out all the time thanks to it's fantastic gust munching ability. I increased the turning speed by changing the settings at the tips and it's pretty damned fast now, centre strap was set to mid-power.

I tend to fly mostly trimmed in on the 'wimp' settings, these allow me to fly the kite with less power but it's enough for my skill level. Trimming out to 'max power' resulted in pure power throughout the window, I don't think I'm quite ready for this.

I had 2 long sessions throughout the day while others with Access, Frenzy, Blades, Beamers and Firebees all couldn't cope with the constantly changing conditions. VII kept me going all day with a smile.

Despite the fact they're a pig to launch solo they're fantastic kites.

Trampa
I also had the first proper blast on my Trampa kite deck, which is *way* better than my previous board. Carves nicely, bindings are good, super bouncy to soak up those bumps and the matrix lite trucks mean for great stability at speed. Another great item.
I also managed a bit of toe-side riding, not very far and not very fast but still I tried.

GPS
I used a GPS to clock the 2nd session and I managed a peak of 18.7mph on the board (not bad in the light winds with a 16m arc) and covered a distance of 3.9 miles.
The image below shows the run @ ponty, you can see the red bits where I stopped/fell off and the yellow bits are usually me walking about.

2/Feb - New RS Buggy riding out

Paul and I went to Pontefract park again for the 1st time out with my RS Speed buggy. Winds were OK and the 8m Access II was about right for the day. Got a few runs up and down and quickly got used to the buggy.
Another day full of grins.

Pontefract Park, Razor & RS Speed

Paul and I chanced our luck at Pontefract Park today for the first time. The winds were quite high and most were on small kites about 2m -> 2.5m.

Paul's RS Speed got it's maiden voyage on this brilliant new location and it certainly looked like he had a whale of a time with his Rage 2.5m. Not bad at all for a first time out in a buggy as the video below shows. :)

My buggy hasn't arrived yet so I had my usual board to knock about on. I also got to have a quick bounce on a Trampa today, I'm very impressed and one is now on my list of things to upgrade to.

The winds were generally too high for me and the only thing I had was my daughters 2.5m Pansh Legend. Trouble is that it's on handles I after trying this out for a while I just resigned myself to the fact that I can no longer fly well enough on handles. I'd left the bar for the 9m GII at home like a muppet.

Razor cuts

My recently acquired Ozone Razor 4.5m made a showing today with spectacular results. On reflection the winds were way too high for such a powerful kite but it was new to me and just begging for an airing.
My intention was to get the kite out, sort the lines out, let it inflate and just generally check it over.
I was foolishly convinced to give it a blast as I'd got it out so I put on my helmet and grabbed the handles. The kite was bouncing around on the ground ready to go. It looked so innocent just sitting there, how could it possibly harm anyone?
I launched the kite straight through the centre of the window and was rapidly launched downwind! Spectators after reported I'd gone at least 10m and a good few feet in the air before landing with a bump. This continued on for a little while longer before I eventually let go and come down on the killers.
Stupid - yes. Would I do it again - no.

Conclusion: don't be fooled into using a kite when it's obviously not the right winds despite how brave you think you are. Mother Nature *will* spank you.

Pontefract Racecourse
Ponty is a great open site, anything pure S->SE->E is lumpy as it comes over the grandstand. Anything around the rest - SW->W->N->NE is fine. W->N totally open with a pure W being the ideal as there's nothing to distrub the wind for what looks like 10 miles. It's also 1 mile from xscape at Castleton so easy to get to.

The field is *MASSIVE* and it's got council designated areas for Kites, Footy, RC aircraft, RC helicopter - kites get the largest area and roam about when there's no-one from the other clubs. Stay in the designated areas and fly safe and you're good to go.

The area is terraced in massive areas so you can do little jumps off the high areas onto the low areas and make your way up the little hills to get back. It's fun.

Apparently out of footy season the whole park is open to roam on kites & buggys.

There's a local club ( http://www.pontykites.co.uk/ )that works with the council and we pay £10pa to contribute to having the grass cut and open access. I joined after my first few sessions. They like the usual, safe flying, PL insurance, etc. Any surplus funds go to events & BBQs in the summer.