One Sky One World 2005

Rufford Abbey - 9th October 2005

Last year I was disappointed to find that the One Sky One World (OSOW) event at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire was no longer happening and so never made it to another event elsewhere. This year I was determined to go to a OSOW event somewhere. Reading the Midland Kite Flyer Magazine I noticed an event at Rufford Abbey down in Nottinghamshire which seemed close enough to go to, and with enough interest for the rest of the family. (But sadly there was a clash of diary dates which meant that the family went off to the Apple Day at my local park so it was just me for the kite flying.)

As the Sunday came nearer I watched the weather forecast with interest - "band of rain on Saturday, but sunny with a 14mph wind on Sunday". Great wind at last - the preceding week had been awful for kite flying (damp with no wind - just about the worst conditions).

Easy enough journey there, just over 45 minutes from Sheffield, no problems finding the site, and even no parking charge since I was taking part in the event. Only slight problem there was also no wind, or at least very little of it in the right place. The flying location was a couple of fields just behind the abbey ruins but very much tree lined. After speaking to the Midland Kite Flier organizers I decided I would start off flying over by the abbey ruins as it looked like slightly better wind and also I would be out of the way of the single line kite fliers. So out came the Custom Revolution 1.5 SUL which was, shall we say, rather challenging when the wind dropped. I had also forgotten my lightweight line set so I was struggling to keep the kite flying at times. I noticed that other people flying dual line Delta kites near me were also struggling to keep them flying. The wind was so light and patchy I even managed a couple of 360's (where you run around so the kite travels a full 360 degrees around you) - something normally impossible if there is any wind at all! After a while I got nervous with the families walking around or playing football near me so I packed up and went to see how I would fare in the flying field. The answer was a little better. The single line kites were obviously finding wind above the treetops but nearer to the ground it still was difficult to fly.

Over the course of the afternoon I tried my Custom Deca and the Airbra - both kind of flew but not very well, the Prism Illusion and Benson Gemini - again sort of worked OK, but did involve a lot of walking backwards, and a couple of single line kites (real kites!) the Tumbling Star (which flew quite well), and the Aldi Owl (which didn't fly well - but another MKF member did offer some good advice regarding adjusting it's bridle). Generally I kept coming back to the Revolution, even though by the end of the afternoon the wind (when it gusted) was a little bit too strong for it.

Denis & JimIt was also nice meeting up with other fliers I hadn't seen for a while, along with finally meeting Jim from MKF face-to-face. I was also introduced to Dennis and was shown his homemade bar he uses for flying a Flexifoil Stacker on 1000 foot lines - a fantastic piece of engineering, and Dennis is a really nice chap as well.

I could see further down the field a couple of light wind delta kites (a HQ Floater and an Eolo Venice by the look of them) flown most of the afternoon, and at one point someone was flying a Eolo Radsail - the one and only traction kite flown (I nearly flew my NasaWing, but decided I didn't want to). Lots of other people came and flew their own kites, or even made their own at the MKF kite making stand.

So was it worth going? Well to be honest as a kite flying location it's rather poor (at least for the kind of kites I fly) - I wouldn't travel there just for the flying. But as a location for One Sky One World it's great since I find it adds something to fly in beautiful locations.

On the whole a very pleasant day out (and Rufford Abbey is well worth a visit anyway).

Kites flown by me:

• Custom Revolution 1.5 SUL
• Custom Synergy Deca
• Airbra
• Tumbling Snowflake
• Aldi Owl
• Benson Gemini
• Prism Illusion