22nd October Hylands Park and 5th November Rivenhall Airfield

I checked the weather forecast which said rain was going to come and probably stay. Nether-the-less, I arranged to meet Simon at Hylands as I wanted to try my first creation on my sewing machine, a Halloween Cube, made from vinyl bags from Woolworth's that Courtney gave me last year. Halfway to Hylands and the rain started, but I carried on, hoping there would be a break later - Simon phoned and said he hadn't left as the rain had started at his house. I arrived at Hylands and when the rain eased I had just enough time to say "Hello-Goodbye" to Ernie, Vernon and Margaret, before giving up waiting for clear skies. I headed for Simon's where we made his "DHL" kite from tough polythene bags on his brand new Aldi sewing machine (mine is a Lidl one - both less than £45 - but good enough for the job). A good learning process.

This DHL square kite was responsible for cutting down Colin's compound Box kite at Rivenhall on the 5th November, due to me launching Colin's kite under Simon's Line !! Sorry Colin !!! My Halloween kite also debuted there, until it tried to take on Tony G's Tri-D ? Will get round to patching it up one day! Tony's fireworks cheered me up though! The wind was light at home, but gathered pace across the airfield, I had to put my waterproof top on to keep warm !! A lot of people were there that day, notably a group of us radio hams lifting wires and taking measurements till it was nearly dusk ;-)


Graham Leggett

August 6th 2006 15th Royston Kite Festival, Therfield Heath, Royston, Hertfordshire.

Another first for me. John Dodson, Mum and I drove about 60 miles, in an hour and a half, to get to this event. We would have been a bit quicker, but took a wrong road, not helped by some golfers at the nearby golf course, who when asked for directions said, "just look for kites and follow the lines down" !
It was a lovely hot summer’s day, so the event was well attended, with about 5,000 visitors supporting the festival and its chosen charity for this year, the Alzheimer’s Society.

The event is set on the side of a steep hill, so park near the bottom of it, near the disabled car park and use the entrance at the bottom if your legs don't do hills anymore. Some of the charity stalls are set up the hillside, but toilets and food are at the bottom of the hill.

The programme, (10:30am to 4:30pm), included displays by Stuart Fletcher with a stack of Flexifoils, Dark Star... Multi Kite Flying, Team Spectrum, Team Adrenalize, Eastern Rocketry Display, Stafford Wallace - Indian Fighting Kite display, Great Ouse Fliers, Royston Power Kiters (RPK), Teddy Bear parachute drop and a kite workshop.

The hot day meant the wind wasn’t much more than a gentle breeze, which caused a few problems for the arena displays. However, there was just enough wind to get most kites in the air, and whilst the exhibitors weren’t always able to do everything they had planned, they did a great job of keeping the spectators entertained throughout the day, the RPK teamed up with Dunstable-based PowerKite display group Team Adrenalize in a series of high-speed downhill buggy and board races, something that may well become a regular fixture at the festival – although spectators sitting at the bottom of the hill may have found themselves rather too close to the action for comfort! The wind did get up now and again, just as the Rocketry people started their display, but it turned out OK !!

I bought a strip of raffle tickets, from the Royston Power Kiters stand, which was busy for much of the day selling raffle tickets for kite-related prizes donated by manufacturer Flexifoil and retailers Surface Tension and Extreme Kite Shop as well as many others. This year the RPK managed to raise over £380 to share between the festival charity and the East Anglian Air Ambulance. "Doddy" bought two strips of tickets and later on, just before the raffle was to be drawn I thought I'd get a couple of more strips, as they were only a pound a strip. I think someone must have been looking down on me, as with my last lot of tickets, I won first prize, a Flexifoil Super 10 dual line power kite, a Flexifoil Book on Power Kiting, and a cap.
The Festival location is also the regular flying site for the local Royston Power Kiters club, RPK set up their stand displaying information about their club and showing off some of their kiting equipment. The RPK also had a slot in the arena and used this to showcase PowerKite flying, kite buggying and kite Landboarding, as well as allowing spectators to sit in buggies and balance on boards to find out more about this aspect of the sport.

The RPK meet on the Heath most weekends weather permitting, and also occasional weekday evenings in the summer. They also undertake regular kiting trips to more far-flung destinations such as Hunstanton and France.The RPK has around 15 regular flyers local to the Royston area, and over 60 members on its web forum. The club also has four qualified power kite and kite buggy instructors among its members, who offer various training sessions.For more information regarding the Royston Power Kiters contact Shaun Higlett on 01763 249199 or visit the club website at: www.therpk.co.uk

Photos can be found at http://community.flexifoil.com/archive/index.php/t-101508.html with pictures at http://www.flexifoil.com/company/newsitem.php?article_id=102123 . The Royston Power Kiters website http://www.therpk.co.uk/Events/RKF%202006.htm has links to other websites with photos of the day, i.e. http://www.media.roystonpowerkiters.co.uk/main.php?g2_itemId=4552 so you can try to get some of idea of the festival site.

Graham Leggett

June 4th 2006 Ashdon Kite Festival "Waltons Park",5 miles NE of Saffron Waldon, Essex.

This was the first time we went to this event, scheduled for 11am to 5:30pm. Mum, Dad and I hitched a lift with Mary and David from their house. It was a nice day, but only with a gentle breeze at best. This was a bit of a problem for the stunt kite displays - Dark Star, Team Spectrum, "Bruno and Stuart", but didn't bother Stafford Wallace's Indian Fighting Kite display! Piscean were also there. The Eastern Rocketry Display were supposed to be there, but didn't arrive, can't remember why now!! There was also an Archery display.
Some of the members who we bumped into were Lynn and Courtney, David, Jean and Hayley, Stan and Norman.

The Great Ouse Kite Group were performing Teddy and sweet drops, can't remember how successful these were in the low wind now! Bouncy castles, hot-dogs, ice-cream and Silly Billy Blue Hat kept children quiet-ish. Courtney and David M were kept quiet by Kiteworld, after buying some 56" Rokkaku kites!! Stan and Norman were joined by me helping them to launch Normans large Flowform/Parafoil, which had some success depending on the wind!

All in all a great day out, finished off by a pub meal on the way home.

Graham Leggett