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XC Weather UK: fast, up-to-the-minute local wind forecasts for every major airport in the UK, France and Germany, plus off-shore light vessels and buoys
Hoop spools, Halo spools, deep sky reels, winders, line, swivels, and all kitemaking materials - fast worldwide service
Into the WindSpools available in 6 and 8" sizes:
| "Chalkie's Kites" Kiteworks UK, 22 Cranfield Place, Delves, Walsall, West Midlands WS5 4PL |
Website: www.kiteworks.co.uk E-mail: keith@kiteworks.co.uk |
Left- and right-handed grip conversion kits for the plastic spools of the type sold by "Chalkie's Kites"
Mick BeasleyVlieger-Op also stock wind meters (see below)
For a range of pocket wind meters and other weather instruments visit:
Skyview Systems
... they also sell lightning detectors that can detect lightning up to 40 miles away and warn of approaching electrical storms.
Trick of the Eye Kites stock a good range of relatively inexpensive electronic wind meters including Skywatch
Wind meters including Skywatch
eBay UK and eBay
eBay shop Skyblue Leisure (UK) has Skywatch anemometers in the Kite accessories & safety section
6 models of Skywatch
Current link
Vliegerop BV, Scheepsmakersstraat 87, 2515 VB Den Haag, The Netherlands
Phone: +31(0)70 3858586
E-mail: info@vliegerop.nl
Skywatch wind meters, good prices, free delivery: Mistral Kites
Skywatch, Kestrel, Speedtech and Davis wind meters, good prices, free delivery: Aces Electronics
kapshop.com offers a range of products for kite aerial photography including custom-made products, plus balloons, blimps and even a mast for windless conditions. They ship worldwide and offer excellent customer service.
Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) on Flickr.com
Kites, rigs and a good selection of photos: Simon Harbord's Kite Aerial Photography - don't miss the series covering the construction of the "Angel of the North"
Kite aerial photography: Charles Benton's benchmark resource
James Gentles' camera remote control paraphernalia website and on-line shop.
Peter Bults' excellent Kite Aerial Photography website.
Japan Kite Aerial Photography Association
X10: tiny lightweight (3oz.) remote video systems and power converters at incredibly low prices
Eagle Optics
Various models good for 500 to 1,000 yards
Falconry Dave Scarbrough
Kites in falconry discussions at www.theriver.com
Inexpensive electric fencing spools, some with optional electric drill adaptor. You'll need to contact these to find a stockist nearby.
Rutland Electric Fencing LtdGallagher Powerfence UK Ltd
Phone : 0870 2010101Google Directory go to: recreation\outdoors\hunting\falconry
Roger Crandall's Falconry Site
Steve New's Raptor Links, includes UK and USA
The Welsh Hawking Club's own website: www.welshhawkingclub.com
Helikites are interesting hybrid kite-balloons that don't come down when the wind drops.
E-mail: allsopp@helikites.com
Lifting radio antennas: Adrian G. Hanna, GI0SMU
A few good Knots
The International Guild of Knot Tyers
Real Knots
Knotting, bends, hitches and knotcraft
Knots on the Web Peter Suber
The Peregrine Fund site. Keep up with raptor conservation projects around the world, including the California Condor reintroduction to the wild in northern Arizona and the breeding program to save the endangered Mauritius Kestrel.
Richard P. Synergy If for you the whole point of flying kites is to see how high you can get them, this site is good fun.
"Dan, with the thirty foot delta that we discussed a year ago we flew to 14,558 feet above sea level from a field that was 860 feet above sea level setting a new world altitude record by more than 1000 feet. Will send exact data later." - Richard Synergy, 16 August, 2000
This is the one kite flying record that really counts
"rec.kites" (http://kfs.org/kites/index.html) kite central on the web, so to speak.
May be www.reckites.com now.
Kite Lines bookstore aims to carry all kite titles from around the world
There must be hundreds; these are some I've seen
Early aerial photos, trains of kites:
Parakites,Box kites, elastic bridles:
25 Kites that Fly,Deltas, aerial photos:
Kites,Early delta kites:
Kite Craft,Deltas
Kites,More deltas
Kites for Everyone,Here we discover that when the motion of the flying line is included in the analysis, the equations become two orders of magnitude more complicated than they are for low speed aircraft. It has to be said, too, that Bryant & Brown's expensive, wind tunnel-tested kite, based on the Irving biplane kite, required a wind of "at least 35 m.p.h. before (it) could be safely airborne." It crashed "and became a total loss" after 5 minutes of flight.
Ahem...well; it just goes to show... as far as kite designing is concerned, a wind tunnel is no substitute for the real world including turbulence. Heavy, aircraft-style wing structures with high aspect ratios do not result in better kites. Whenever you see a painting of such a "kite of the future" in a popular science magazine, you know that it wasn't designed by anyone who knew anything about kites. Towed gliders are something else; but a proper airplane kite must have an additional vertical surface at the front that gliders don't have.
A treatise on the more important stability terms, plus a fresh look at the dihedral terms.
This is a good read. Though it deals mainly with the authors' own design (sometimes at odds with deltas), the general principles are covered, and one gets the impression that their kites actually fly.
A problem with "scientific" kite design is that there can be a huge gulf between what's on paper and the end product, where even the littlest flaws - second order effects - can mean all the difference between success and failure, completely nullifying any theoretical considerations. Usually it's better to spend an afternoon experimenting rather than to try to solve a kite problem analytically.
The Whirlwind is named after the famous Danish kite authority Dr. Whirlwind, whose 10th Law is well worth remembering whenever trying to fix a kite that doesn't fly: "If all else fails, do the exact opposite of what you thought would work."Kites are like that.
Contents - Catalogs - Falconers section
©1998-2008 Dan Leigh, 54 Osborne Road, Pontypool, Gwent, Wales, UK NP4 6LX