KiteJan

Wandering around Aldi one day I suddenly noticed a pile of single line kites for the princely sum of £4.99. Digging around I was rather taken by this owl shaped kite. Ok it's cheap, got Fiberglas spars instead of carbon, and single line kites aren't my 'main thing' - but sometimes at festivals and events it would be nice to have a rest and fly something like this. I always think that having the single line kites filling the sky makes an event special. Dual and quad lines kites are (possibly) more fun to fly than to look at, especially for a non-flier, but single line kites always seem to generate positive remarks.

Anyway I ended up buying two of these, with some vague idea about attaching both to another single line kite and flying a train of them. Or something.

Purchased: August 2005

Details

Good Things

• Very cheap.
• Pretty.

Bad Things

• Needs a fair wind to take off.
• Bridle needs adjusting to improve flight.
• Has a tendency to keep turning left.

Final Thoughts

So far the experience hasn't been positive. In test flights it simply turns to the left then falls to the ground. At an event a more experienced single line flier had a look and suggested moving the bridle tow point more towards it's nose. This at least caused the kite to launch and fly upwards, but even then it ended up fluttering down. So either it still needs adjusting, or it needs clean winds (so far it's only been tried in gusty winds), or it's rubbish. Time will only tell which one of those it is!