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Post by malcolmf on Aug 5, 2018 8:08:24 GMT
EntrNce to flying fields via wooden gate on right half way down the access road
Malcolm
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Post by malcolmf on Aug 6, 2018 8:32:42 GMT
Thanks to members who came along and gave their support to the event yesterday. Unfortunately the wind was at low level in the morning and early afternoon, so it was difficult to put lifter kites up and have sufficient pressure to fly medium to large inflatables. It improved in the afternoon, but apart from Peter H who stuck with it about 400 metres from our encampment, every-one else resorted to sparred kites or played around with two liners.
There were a few problems on the day with arrangements made with Betteshanger not working, especially with signage and bicycles. This will be taken to a de-brief in the next few weeks.
Once again my thanks to all who came along and especially Debbie and Janet who did much of the selling of kites.
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Post by peter on Aug 6, 2018 9:13:52 GMT
It was a good opportunity to talk to the public and encourage their interest in kite flying. From my perspective there were two major problems. The first was the cyclists that were allowed to ride through the flying site along the cinder track in order to get to the BMX track. The organisers put a tape barrier up in order to deter them riding along the tarmac track (which allowed the buggy people a degree of safety) but failed to afford any safety for us. The second was the increasing number of families who set up picnics across the whole of the flying site. There was sufficient space at the furthest end (behind me) for picnicking and proper signage would have improved the situation no end. My suggestion for next time is that the whole flying arena could be easily fenced off (the same as the buggy area was) the access area to the public area at the far end of the field would be more obvious. If more members had parked their cars at the launch end of the field rather than down by the wigwams it would have made the definition of the flying site more apparent and might have helped after all, everyone who flew a kite had to come down that end to launch and fly! The above not withstanding it was a good day and I spent most of the day interacting with the public flying kites, having photos taken and generally encouraging them to come to further events. (btw Malcolm, I was flying the single skin lifter and Manta ray at 250 feet and when they landed they were about 200 feet short of the wigwams so i was less than 200M away from the KKF camp). 😁
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Post by evets on Aug 6, 2018 12:53:50 GMT
A good afternoon shame the hole in the wind broke a leading edge spare on my Binsbergen Phoenix but that's kite flying. As Peter said lots of good conversations with folk with youngsters and parents surprised that we let them fly our large kites. Shame about the poor signage for cyclist some of whom seemed happy to risk decapitation.
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Post by malcolmf on Aug 6, 2018 14:46:44 GMT
Just to add to my early posting, the Member of Betteshanger Staff who was in charge on the day was thrown into it on Tuesday beforehand, with no event plan, just an outline. I am afraid on arrival I was not very complimentary about the situation. However during the day I noticed how hard he(Darren) was working just trying to make it all happen. He lost out again to the cyclists who appear to deem it to be their right to ride their bikes and any hire bikes anywhere they wish to do so including one party of at least 10 who rode across the flying field.
At the end of the day I spoke with Darren, and said there was good feed back from visitors about the kite flying and how warm and inclusive KKF members had been, not only with flying our kites etc but also putting together kites they had brought along as well as those bought on the day, and fixing problems where we could, and helping fly their own kites.
Darren said that Betteshanger would wish to have KKF back again next year,and he said he if was included in organising the event from the start then he would make sure that there were no problems.
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Post by ekim on Aug 10, 2018 10:06:26 GMT
Could someone who attended this event please furnish me with an article for The Windjammer before the end of September. Just pointing me in the direction of photos won't be enough as I wasn't there and cannot write up a report on something I didn't experience. Many thanks Mike
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