KiteJan

My first ever single line kite project ! I found this in a Dorling Kindersley book of kites that my wife found for sale cheap (25p) at the local library. As well as some nice pictgures and information about single line kites there were some simple plans in the back - including this one for the Tumbling Snowflake. At festivals I have always been partial to these kites and so I decided I would make one mainly, it must be said, to practice 3D kite making. Once finished I picked a quiet moment to try flying it for the first time and found it was great fun to fly.

As soon as the line is slack the kite tumbles and rotates until the line is tight and off it goes again. I guess it is not as controllable as a fighter kite, but there is a surprising degree of control for it. And it looks fantastic in the sky!

Made: April 2005

Details

Good Things

• Beautiful in the sky.
• Flies in light wind.
• Fun to fly.

Bad Things

• Extremely gusty winds simply knocks it out of the sky.
• Quite small so on a long line it will look lost.
• Quite fragile (the spars easily poke through the fabric).

Final Thoughts

Much more fun to fly than I thought - what started as stitching practice has ended up as a nice kite which has had appreciative comments from people who have seen it. A "real" kite at last!