Sky Symphony diary 4 2001 The Tail of the Tails

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The Beginning of 2001 we had new challenges with a more variable line up. Alan Poxon will not be as available this year as he was last and Chris has major job pressure as his entire office is moving (an IT nightmare). so we have to plan new routines to encompass using 3 4 or sometimes 5 kites, The new music is therefore split into the 3 kite "All the time in the world" and the 4 kite "Diamonds are forever" We continue to use the two leader system Graham (right end leader) and Dave (left end leader) as this gives us the ability to fly when one of us is unavailable. So the big challenge this year is "How do we create a visual spectacle and have lots of fun" without getting too complicated. We have started using the video set up with a wide angle lens as an aid to training and already the improvement is fantastic. The whole team is now capable of all of the manoeuvres we need for our routine. In May this year Alan B and I Tried flying with red three 12m lengths of plastic tube tails pegged into the ground at Sutton Park. The effect was very interesting with the kites rolling into a fade easily as they turned over the top into a dive. Wraps and unwraps looked Great producing a sort of "tornado" of tails. We tried again with three kites at Charity farm Baxterly we managed to fluke three kites into a fade stacked one above the other but only managed to get two kites out without crashing. We later we unplugged the tails from the ground; it looked great but was difficult to keep up as the wind had dropped. On the Wednesday after this we had four kites and remembering what Ray Bethel was able to achieve with two kites and joined Tails Dave Wondered what we could achieve with four kites and two tails. So we connected kites one and two together and kites three and four together. The effect was stunning but again we had difficulty keeping the kites in the air when we crossed we got caught up in the tails. This was caused by us fliers moving two far forwards and back and crossing the tails with the lines. Next Weekend we were at Beverly Festival and we tried again towing the tails with the Dancers and managed to fly for long periods in the smooth winds of the race course. On one the rests when Chris got brought down I asked what would happen if we sent one and two to the right and then crossed in a thread so the tails Crossed and uncrossed on the cross passes.

It is a credit to the quality of the team that not only did everyone get what I was going on about but achieved it at the first try and managed to get out of the out of sequence follow without any direction at all. I was even more impressed to see Graham leading the team with the tails on Sunday from my stall at the edge of the field it looked.........very ....well you will have to see it yourself. At Shipley park Kite festival on the Sunday we used the tails again but this time with the Hawaiians. The wind was so strong that the team was using air Brakes and the tails together to slow down the kites. Launching in that wind would have been impossible if we had not had the help of several experienced fliers holding the kites down we would not have managed to get into the air at all. We all moved forward after taking off so the tails where over the audience and flew an off the cuff display including crossing the tails. The audience seemed to give a lovely oh! as the tails crossed and an ahh as they uncrossed. This was probably our best display of the year in probably the worst conditions to fly in. The vertical 1-4 thread shown right splits the two tails into two separate loops. Timing is everything turn too late and the top kites will go into fade with the drag from the tails and stay there getting them out requires a simultaneous roll and pull to lock the kites back in. On this picture the number 4 kite in a dive furthest away is trying to get itself into a fade. Star Burst's also have this problem as do horizontal threads but maybe some day we will learn to use it as part of the routine??

I think the hardest thing to remember is that this tail routine cannot be flown with staggered lines. This is because the tails would catch the nose of the following kite. The most nerve jangling moment is when you have to turn towards the last man in a 4 box formation. If no4 (and he never has yet) gets in front of no3 or no2 gets in front of no1. The trailing kites either have to turn up before they cross the line of the tail (that's fast) or bail out completely and go into the ground. So formation flying is much more difficult than follows and Wraps. At the beginning of the year this happened quite a lot when we had the tails centre pegged into the ground to produce the tornado effect as getting behind the peg would cause big problems on cross passes but we have managed to conquer this problem now by careful launching and ground spacing. 2002 will have to be a lot of fun to top this year.

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