MBK Sled Kite Stories

Featuring Sticked MBK Sleds

Every MBK sled kite is very easy to set up before flying, this being the beauty of sleds in general. Just attach the flying line and you're away. Even the giant Multi-Dowel Series version is very quick to rig compared to the others in its class.

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 diamond-shaped cutouts near the lower edge of the sail were a bit of an experiment at first. But I received feedback that kids liked the look, so the cutouts stayed!

Here's a short-format flight report featuring the Multi-Dowel kite. There are no cutouts on this design, which pulls too hard for a child to handle anyway.

The MBK Muscle Kite

I refer, of course, to the MBK Multi-Dowel Sled which at one point cranked the spring scales up to 15 kilograms (33 pounds) today. That doesn't compare with most multi-line parafoils during a typical workout, but it's exciting stuff for a single-line enthusiast! The wind was light and gusty, but the average strength crept up as we flew for an hour or so.

The hard-pulling Multi-Dowel Sled

Initially, it took a few attempts to get the big sled high enough to keep going. Being in the wind shadow of a large football-club building was not helpful, but the wind direction didn't allow for much choice.

At times, the sled would begin to sink out in very light wind, before surging up again in the gusts. Quite a few times, the kite made it right overhead, with several kilos showing on the scales most of the time. One end of the scales were hooked onto the oval railing, going through a hole in a metal latch. The other end was attached to the kite line. I just made a long loop of the flying line, passed it three times around and through the ring, then tied it off with two Half Hitches. This never shifted, the whole time the kite was up.

The air was very active, and for the first time ever, the huge sled needed my assistance once or twice. Any sled kite directly overhead will become a "bag of washing" if the airflow holding it up suddenly stops! Some quick pulling-in of line was necessary to reinflate the kite before it lost too much height. Generally though, the Multi-Dowel Sled with its three spars is exceptionally stable and well behaved.

Toward the end of the flying session, I did a quick shoulder-high sampling of the wind speed. The meter recorded about 11 kph average gusting to 19 kph. Wow! This taped-up MBK sled kite just proved it can cope with the lower part of the moderate wind-range without tearing anything.

Tim's Blog Posts
Featuring MBK Sled Kites

Since these are short-format reports, they are grouped together. One page covers all the dowel-sparred kites and the other covers the bamboo-skewer kites:

MBK Sled Kite Posts—Dowel

MBK Sled Kite Posts—Skewer

Tim's Flight Reports
Featuring MBK Sled Kites

The links below are full-length reports recorded by me, each featuring an MBK sled kite of one type or another. There are plenty of photos.

A Learning Experience With My First Truly BIG Kite (Multi-Dowel)

Fewer Collapses, Much Higher and Longer Flights (Dowel)

Just Hanging as the Sun Goes Down (Dowel)

First High Flight in a Gusty Breeze (2-Skewer)

First Time Out, and Loving the Moderate Breeze! (1-Skewer)

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?