RS @ Mablethorpe - 1st beach buggy session

Got back earlier from my first session at the beach with the buggy. The intention was to go to Cleethorpes but there was fencing around the beach when Paul and I got there so we headed south to Mablethorpe.

When we arrived there was very little wind and what there was was coming cross-off but we'd come a long way so we chanced it, especially as this was our first beach outing with our buggies.

There were a couple of other lads there but none of the regulars so we setup.

I tried a bit of everything, started out with a recently acquired Ozone Razor 4.5m - just a pain to handle and too twitchy for me.
Next out was the 16m Venom II but the winds were just too light so it just kept dropping out of the sky and refused to relaunch when heavy & wet - more wind required for that I think.
Finally resorted to 'old faithful' and the 8m Access II, it was underpowered but enough to trundle about.

I had a great session but rapidly discovered why people wear drysuits on the beach as there's so much wet sand gets thrown up and the low seat is at exactly the right angle to catch everything the front wheel throws up. I ended up completely soaked with a face full of sand but that was part of the fun.

I headed towards what looked like a shallow sea channel to find it was actually quite deep and I ended up sat in waist high cold sea water with the buggy seat holding it in. Turns out I was sat on the drain hole so it wasn't going anywhere! A quick weight shifted resulted in the water draining away but I was soaked.

Despite the soaking, light winds and constant kite swapping it was still good to get out and have a blast in the buggy. I think Mablethorpe is a little too far unless the weather, tide and time guarantee a long session.

Roll on good Easterly winds!

Quiver

I was looking at the range of kites I have today and I reckon my quivers a bit like the list below (using mx5alans wind range calc for the arcs). There's loads of overlap in there so some of it will have to go.
The bottom end of the VII is mis-leading as it's a heavy kite and needs quite a bit of wind to launch but once it's up and moving it aint coming down.

     0 2 5 7 9 12 15 18 22 25 29 32 36 39 43 46 50  mph
 G2-9 -----------------XXXXXXXXXXXXX---------------
V2-16 ----XXXXXXXXXXXXX----------------------------
A2-8  -------XXXXXXXXXXXXX-------------------------
LGD-2 ---------------XXXXXXXXXXXX------------------
OR-4.5 --------XXXXXXXXXXXX-------------------------

G2-9 - 9m Guerilla II
V2-16 - 16m Venom II
A2-8 - 8m Access II
LGD-2 - 2m Pansh Legend
OR-4.5 - Ozone Razor 4.5m

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.

Ozone Razor 4.5m

I've just bought an Ozone Razor 4.5m Race Kite.

I've been looking out for a race kite ever since I ordered my buggy but I'm not sure how I'll get on with it as it's quite a while since I've flown fixed-bridle on handles. The intention is to get something fast for the buggy.