We are back up to full Strength with the addition of Roy Ashton who we have all flown with and get on with really well. As for Alan Poxon He may have moved out of the area. But he will always be a Sky Symphony Member and maybe one day well who knows. We may get six in the air.

May 1st Beverley Kite Festival.
This year at Beverley they tried to give the team room to display and we felt a little better about it This was Roy's First time out with us and he was very nervous but he performed really well and The team only had one side of their space crushed by an unattended Rok so we negotiated the space and flew a better 4 kite than we had managed in practice. Chris and I did a really good pairs routine on the second day, flying to albatross by Fleetwood Mac. A good weekend. 

May 16th-20th Brean Training Holiday Week.
Graham once again excelled and set up this magnificent weeks training at Brean. We had food and drink and he had even provided us with blueberry muffins (I am drooling) to eat on the beach as he wouldn't be with us on the first day.

Monday we got down there meeting up at the motorway service station and set up on the beach for a free fly.

Tuesday we Chris got breakfast and a packed lunch including, Roy's famous colour coded drinks bottles with their black-CRUNT Juice. We were down on the beach and set up in no time at all. We did a full routine and Roy's It's a perfect Day routine was an eye opener. We all stopped what we were supposed to be doing and watched his display. The organisation in the arena was really polished. Unlike my Multifly which was extremely rusty.

 Wednesday We woke up to Chris's magnificent breakfast. We set up and did an entire routine practice by 2pm with the video on. Roy got out a stack of Peter Powell kites and we gave them a good airing. I kept catching my own tail.

Thursday the chef surpassed himself and we got on the beach early as Alan had to go that day. The full routine was timed at bang on thirty minutes. This with out a break between the pieces of music. Graham did the best commentary he has ever done and all the gear worked perfectly. Graham practiced his no hands routine in the afternoon and I went to doing Multifly and trick. We said goodbye to Alan, and returned to tea at the now famous seagull. During the day we met Sacha a Jack Russell who decided it was the left end team leaders job to kick its ball for it to run after, and It didn't matter who that was.

Friday we packed up and went down to the beach but the wind was over 16-20mph so even the Dancers Wingtips were rattling as they flew we had to give up as the wind started to blow the sand around so we sadly said our goodbye's and left the wonderful wind behind.  I now have one problem I have to find a five kite move worthy of the name "A Boil in the bag".

Dave

June 5th Warwickshire County Fair
Once again this was one of our favourite events with a small flying area we could teach the kids to fly in. We tried to use the Hawians for Wallace n Gromit's Pair routine but we were struggling so the team switched to the Absolute Zero T2's and all the other routines for the day were great. We almost got into the music but it was a bit quiet for us. Roy performed wonders again, and the five man team was much more relaxed. Everyone agreed that the day would have been much harder without the Absolute Zero's. I think the cuts with four kites were sharper than I have seen before.

June 18th Doncaster Balloon Festival
This event was on Doncaster racecourse which gave us the perfect open area to fly in. There was a helicopter in the next field, but he was a fine safe pilot, and didn't cause any problems. In fact he helped as we knew his down draft would increase the wind so I could time the team manoeuvres to coincide with the increase in wind strength he caused. We had 45mins to fill! So we did the lot and Roy put the end of his Revolution kite into the hand of every child on the left of the arena and their were a lot. They were all really good and nobody grabbed the kite. The four and five man routines were really good too. But The PA was really quite nasty and we would all have been better of If I had brought less stock and more PA. It was a very good spot to fly in and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

July 2nd Bulkington Carnival
We took our second visit to the Cricket Square at Bulkington which we were asked to do, after we were missed by the public at last years show. We were working with a nice wind but had to extend the arena a little so we could fit in. We set up our program and flew with the Hawians. The team flew smoothly and Roy had some fun with some of the stall owners downwind hovering his Revolution Quad above them. Both the crowd and the fliers enjoyed the day. 

July 24th Wickstead Park
Well it was bound to happen Sooner or later we turned up They marked out the arena. We tested the wind and found because we were in a dip it was a bit choppy but we could manage. And then it rained and RAINED. We did a full 30minute performance and got totally soaked through in the process. We were so wet we had too put on our spar dry team gear. The kites were drowned but we did the full display and then waited to see if the rain would ease off. Well it started to rain even harder and I was really grateful to all the team members who stayed and helped me down with my stall as the organisers abandoned the rest of the event.      

July 28th  Kite Training Day
Chris arranged a have a go day with his round table group and we got there early and set up in various parts of the field with some kites we weren't too worried about crashing. I decided to put up an area on the left with Traction kites. I chose a 2sqm Firebee and Chris laid out his 3sqm Firebee. 25 members turned up to have a go. We did a quick Team display and then we divided up into different groups to teach. Some people had never flown some had flown a little some were really quite at home with a two liner. I had nearly everybody bar 2 in the group have a go with the traction stuff and they all seemed to enjoy it. I had however sustained quite a nasty injury as I was supporting all the new fliers to stop them being dragged off. At least 2 fliers were able to fly as a rough pair at the end of the evening so it was a success. I managed to get everything away ok and the team were really helpful.

July 30th Broadway With Chris
Chris had arranged for us to do a display at the round table camping weekend at Broadway we set up an arena in no wind and proceeded with the Absolute Zero T2's to astound the audience by actually flying kites with our new shorter Professional lines we did have a few crashes, but considering the wind we did very well. The PA however did not behave very well and the CD refused to play two of the tracks properly. The high point of the evening for me was helping Chris's Kids (They wouldn't like being called that but) produce a nice set of acoustic based music and even though I was struck down with back problems the night after. The joy of playing one of my pieces with Chris on Bodhran and Richard or is it Stephen adding weight with an acoustic guitar. Sitting through a show that included the song "Magic Pants" was a joy and I stayed till 12pm and them they had to pack up it's always too soon, for me. Thanks Folks I enjoyed that.   

September 2nd Red Arrows Family Fun Day

When I heard from Graham Binney that the team had been invited to display at the Red Arrows Family Fun Day at Scampton I was amazed. We met Red 9’s dad at Sutton Park at the in May and showed him a bit of our display and he said he would like us to come along to the fun day and do a display. All the arrangements where made and a letter confirming what we had to do to be allowed onto the base dropped through an exited Graham’s door. Graham asked what they wanted us to do and we were astonished to be told we were going to display straight after the Reds had turned off their engines. We arrived at Scampton met up and organised a drop off of our kites we had a problem with the PA as this had no Facility for music. So we organised to put our own home Grown Set up out after the reds were down and safe. The amazing thing to us was that we would be allowed to fly between the stationary planes and the audience on the concrete apron. We worked out that we could land and take off on the little strip of grass in between the audience and the apron concrete. So we assembled the kites and tied them down nose to tail at the edge of the audience, grabbed a quick cuppa and waited. We had already worked out that the 1mph wind was going to be tough to fly in and we would have to use the T2 absolute zero’s to get anything into the air. We staked out our lightest line sets and sat down to watch the Red Arrows do a display that was the best I have ever seen and included at least one manoeuvre they cannot do at their normal displays. All this under a blue sky with lovely wispy clouds in airspace that they must call home as they use it so often for practice.

So they came down in line and turned off their engines at precisely the same time. We were informed the air field was ours until the next display so the PA was hurriedly set up and we grabbed our flying straps and started the music for our display. Chris managed to do his individual display but the pair’s music Peer Gynt stuttered and we had to just fly on to the next piece. Roy struggled but managed to work out were the ever shifting wind was coming from. We went straight into the three man routine and onto the four but we where asked to ground the kites as the Typhoon (eurofighter) had arrived we did this immediately and sat down again in awe to watch as it performed impossible manoeuvres at fantastic speeds. This display ending with a run up the runway at 20ft up to a vertical afterburner climb accelerating straight through a cloud and that was the last time we saw it. We were asked if we would like to take to the air again and we put up a four and then five kite display for as long as our legs and the wind could stand it. Red nine Came over and bought everyone a can of drink he is the splendid young man with his chin seemingly on top of my head in the picture. The Merlin helicopter did an amazing display actually hovering nose down and then reversing upwards the aerodynamics of this manoeuvre are impossible to explain.  Even the pilot doesn’t know how the aircraft does it he’s the chap in green second from the right by the way. The displays ended with a swirling display by the harrier which included a climbing spiral from hover which looked fantastic. Graham asked if we could get a photo with some of the pilots and we were told to get the team together so we did immediately and got the photo below.  One of the Reds said he thought we had something in common in the way we displayed to which I had to reply that I did not compare the two as I believe I actually lack any of the muscles required to go above four G at 500mph. They are a wonderful friendly bunch and I cannot express enough gratitude to them for a wonderful day that will live with me forever.

 Ps The Guy in the green on the left is a kite surfer when he’s not air crewing on the Merlin Display Helicopter.  

September 17th Dorridge Day
That is Team for you one day you are out at the Red Arrows next week you are flying in a park in Dorridge. We were providing all the arena entertainment at the show.  The round table guys were really helpful and the bacon bap and tea did wonders for my morning. We did a two shows and thoroughly enjoyed our flying but although the audience was kind. I felt they really wanted to get on with getting the free booty off the radio competitions. Great Flying by the lads in the second show managed to raise a round applause and the radio PA guys were really good. Quite a relaxed and fun day to fly at.