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MBK Special Kite Stories
Featuring Sticked MBK Specials
Every MBK Special kite is something which I made more or less on a whim. A whim or sometimes quite a good reason such as needing much better high-wind performance out of a particular type.
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.
A few of these kites are a sled, diamond ... box type which seasoned readers of this website will be very familiar with. But most are not, like the kite featured further down.
Here's a short-format flight report featuring the 3-Skewer A-Frame kite:
Soaring in the Sun
A rare sunny day with moderate winds provided another opportunity to get out with the 3-Skewer A-Frame again. I was hoping for some fresh breeze to really push the kite hard and give an opportunity to trim it properly.
MBK 3-Skewer A-Frame hangsFirst, I let the kite out at about 30 degrees of line angle. Just for fun, I let the line out just fast enough to hold the kite at around 30 degrees all the way out to 60 meters (200 feet) of line. Then, I stopped and the A-Frame rose to around 45 degrees.
The stronger gusts kept bending the kite and pushing it down to lower line-angles, so I brought it back down by anchoring the line and walking out with the line slipping through one hand. The towing point was easily shifted forward by a centimeter or so (1/2 inch) by sliding the Prusik knot and then locking it again in the new position.
This time, the kite was much more comfortable and rose right up to 60 or 70 degrees—even after letting out another 60 meters of line!
For 15 minutes or so I just enjoyed seeing the 3-Skewer A-Frame flying steadily at high altitude.
The loop tail rippled just slightly in the breeze. All the orange plastic was brightly illuminated by the late afternoon sun, from behind. There was no sign of leaning, strangely, despite the good moderate airflow at that height. Perhaps unwinding the tail to its original state had made quite a difference. I couldn't complain!
On the ground, the wind meter recorded an average strength of 5 kph and a maximum gust of 14 kph. Toward the end of the flight, the fresh gusts had died down quite a bit. As a result, the kite hung lower from time to time during lulls.
Tim's Blog Posts
Featuring MBK Special Kites
I hadn't realized just how many extra kites I had made until this list of links was put together. Plus, there were a few that were only semi-successful or even outright failures! I never was in the mood to post about them.
Fresh Wind Barn Door Kite Posts
Enjoy the stories, and maybe pick up a tip or two. Or even get inspired to build another kite of your own.
Tim's Flight Reports
Featuring MBK Special Kites
The links below are full-length reports recorded by me, each featuring an MBK Special kite:
Rough Moderate Winds—No Problem! (3-Skewer Sled)
Exploring the Lower Wind Range (3-Skewer A-Frame)
Exploring the Upper Wind Range (3-Skewer A-Frame)
Floated Way Up in Almost Perfect Winds (Tetrahedral)
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.
