Winter 2006 - Northern Kite Group

NKG NOVEMBER FLY-IN WAKEFIELDThis meeting had formerly been arranged to take place at Roundhey Park, in Leeds. Due to the fact thata separate event had been arranged to take place there, by the park authorities, the venue for the fly-inwas moved at short notice to Heath Common in Wakefield. The date fixed for the meeting was the dayimmediately after the day appointed for the Light Up The Sky event, which of course, meant that someof the members attending had little time to finish unpacking their kiting gear from the boot of the car,before reloading it again ready for the fly-in. Nevertheless, thirteen NKG’ers turned up ready and willingto get some colourful ripstop into the sky.The flyers present waited patiently whilst the dog handlers, present on an adjoining site, put their chargesthrough the appropriate training routine‘s. This is a regular feature of Sunday mornings at this particularvenue and is well worth watching but it was felt that flying stunt kites in the same vicinity might distractthe dogs.As well as being the November ‘Third Sundayin the Month’ Group fly-in, this was arranged tobe the day on which members wishing to takepart in the S.T.A.C.K. precision compulsoryfigures flying competition could do so. Five ofthe members present had come along in order tocompete and so as soon as the canine enthusiastshad vacated the site, last minute final practicefor the competition began.Other members were putting on a good displayof single line kites and soon they had severalshow kites in the sky, including a rainbowGenki, several extended Delta’s, a large yellowPicture courtesy of Simon Tebbuttcoloured Flow Form, a blue and black Geckoand a four liner soft kite. In the light breeze which was blowing in the earlier part of the meeting, someof the flyers were working hard in keeping their kites in the sky and yet, an Indian fighter kite wasbobbing away quite merrily without much effort. A couple of Jim Potts little bird kites were flutteringaway at the top end of some rather long Roach poles.Towards one-o-clock the wind did pick up a little and it was decided that the figures competition wouldcommence at 1-30 PM. Actually, it was a little later than that but, as there were only five flyers takingpart, it didn’t take too long to get through the programme. The competitors had to fly a L.S.I figure, asplit eight and an octagon, in any order. The results of the competition can be found on the NKGwebsite. Sufficient at this time to say that ‘yours truly’ came in at fifth position. Well somebody had tocome in last, didn’t they? Thanks to the three judges who gave their expert opinions on the standard ofthe flyers taking part.After the competition it was a case of free flying until the sun began to slip down towards the horizon.Some had had a late night the evening before, with L.U.T.S. and the Children in Need appeal, so it was acase of pack-up and head for home, as some of the flyers had a long journey to travel, including Geneand Margaret Watson from Kirby Lonsdale, a round trip of over 300 miles. That’s dedication for you!19Jackcee