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MBK Roller Kite Stories
Featuring Sticked MBK Rollers
An MBK roller kite is attractive in the air, with its distinctive upper and lower sails. The smallest size requires a tail, but is still likely to get curious looks from people who are more used to seeing the familiar diamond or delta shape in a kite.
On this site, there's more kite-making info than you can poke a stick at :-) Want to know the most convenient way of using it all?
The Big MBK E-book Bundle is a collection of downloads—printable PDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.
That's every kite in every MBK series.
The Dowel Roller is a steady flyer in light air. It can look somewhat like a model aircraft from a bygone era, just hanging up there and nosing around gently in the wind shifts.
Here's a short-format flight report featuring the Dowel Series kite:
First Vertical Flight
The Dowel Roller hadn't been flown for quite a while, so before I could even attach the flying line, a few extra bits of tape were required. Some damage was evident, which was probably caused by the last flight it had in overly-fresh winds. That would also explain the very forward towing point position of the short-bridle-line knot. Anyway, the bridle was soon adjusted and ready to go.
Almost immediately, the roller started to hang off to the right, quite a lot. It wasn't going to 400 feet in that condition, so it had to come down.
The photogenic MBK Dowel RollerI shifted the bridle-loop
knot quite a few centimeters to the left, just to gauge the effect.
As expected, the kite now pulled off to the left, but I now had a
good idea of where the knot needed to be. Shifting the knot once
again, the roller soared up and it seemed pretty straight up the
middle. Good!
Some line-handling fun came next as I shook line off the winder with one hand while letting line slip with the other hand. A nice controlled 30-degree climb ensued, until the 60-meter flag came off the winder. At this point, I just held on and let the MBK Dowel Roller kite climb out to a 45-degree angle. The gusty light breeze was very light at times.
After a few minutes, I let the line out to 90 meters for a few more minutes of relaxed flying. Soon, the breeze almost died and the roller started to sink slowly, tail first. Pulling in 20 meters of line enabled the kite to contact some more breeze. It was just a little, but enough to climb back out to 200 feet.
A small crowd using the other side of oval got inspired and soon two or three small retail kites were flying!
They hadn't seen nothin' yet:
A healthy thermal came through and lofted the MBK Roller kite right overhead, on 120 meters (400 feet) of line. Ssssh, don't tell the AAP (Australian Altitude Police ;-) ), who would like all kites and model aircraft to stay below 120 meters. These events only last for a few minutes at most though, so the kite soon made its way back down. It sure was nice seeing the kite way up there, upper trailing edges fluttering a little in the warm breeze fanning from directly below.
There's nothing like a decent thermal to make a modest-performance kite look good!
Tim's Blog Posts
Featuring MBK Roller Kites
Since these are short-format reports, they are grouped together. One page covers dowel-sparred kites while the other covers bamboo-skewer kites:
Tim's Flight Reports
Featuring MBK Roller Kites
The links below are full-length reports recorded by me, each featuring an MBK roller kite of one type or another:
Light-Wind Workout, But Still a Height Record! (Dowel)
Successful Test Flight in a Cold Fresh Breeze, With Gusts (Dowel)
Long High Flight in Perfect Weather (2-Skewer)
A Real Workout in Fresh Gusts (1-Skewer)
Reporters' Flight Reports
Click below to see MBK Flight Reporters contributions...
2-Skewer Roller Kite:
Lovely Evening Flying
I had just started a new job this week and wanted to relax with a kite flight in the nearby park.
So this evening began with my box kite, as the winds …
The story or stories above document actual flying experiences. My write-ups are definitely "warts and all" since things don't always go totally as planned. However, half the fun of kiting is anticipating the perfect flight. When it happens, it's magic!
As mentioned earlier, there's more kite-making info here than you can poke a stick at :-)
Want to know the most convenient way of using it all?
The Big MBK E-book Bundle is a collection of downloads—printable PDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.
That's every kite in every MBK series.
