SKF Delta Fly In 3

Lodge Moor, Sheffield - 15th October 2005

After the second Delta fly in back in August we decided that we would actively include Revolutions (and other quad lines of course) in our fly ins. And so the date of 15th October was set, posts were made on various kite forums, and the weather forecast was watched with concern. The forecast for the 15th said something like "14mph easterly wind, cloudy but sunny spells" - this sounds about as near to perfect as we are likely to get in Sheffield (and especially at the Lodge Moor flying site) so it was with mounting excitement I waited for Saturday. I imagined lots of our local fliers mixing and sharing kiting tips with fliers from further afield - some kind person would show me how to do a cascade on my Gemini, I would in turn offer wise tips on Revolution flying, we would then all retire to the pub tired but happy when dusk fell. It all sounded wonderful.....

...all too wonderful in fact. The day started foggy, damp and still. The day ended foggy, damp and still. And in between it was foggy and damp. Throughout the morning I kept checking how much the trees were moving in the that (allegedly) 14mph wind - hardly at all by the looks of it. Due to family commitments I didn't arrive at Lodge Moor until gone 1:20, so I expected things to be in full flow. They weren't - I was the only person up there. At least the trees were moving in that "easterly" wind so I setup the Benson Gemini, the Flexifoil Fury, the Prism Illusion and the Custom Revolution 1.5 SLE and amused myself flying each in turn, whilst waiting for the hordes to turn up. The grass and ground were completely soaked, the air was foggy - which makes for very wet kites and lines. So wet in fact that when I pulled hard on the lines a fine misty spray was ejected from the kite and lines!

After about half an hour Dave wandered out of the pub, had a chat, decided he didn't want to fly anything in the wet and left - leaving me alone again. At this point I was beginning to wonder if I had got the wrong time or place (entirely possible I'm afraid) so I rang 540 Dave - who said he would be up later.

Dave and his Deep SpaceSo I went back to getting the kites, along with my feet, nice and wet by myself. After a while Dave and Alex turn up - Dave gets out his new (and already repaired) Benson Deep Space and Alex his HQ M-Quad. Dave then proceeds to put the Deep Space through it's paces (a very nice looking kite by the way) and Alex tries very hard to fly the M-Quad (the wind looks like it's a little low for it).

During the course of the afternoon I fly the M-Quad for the first time - it's a nice, if twitchy, kite to fly. Reminds me a little of the Papillon or Freevol LX in it's flying style. Later Dave flies my Prism Illusion to see how an 'old' kite design matches up with modern kites. Now it probably a coincidence but shortly after that I broke one of those nice, expensive, spiral wrapped, tapered bottom spreaders. Of course its more likely it was caused by the wingtip getting stuck in the mud and I pulled a little too hard to get the kite airborne again - but it's always nice to pretend it's someone else's fault......

Eventually another chap turned up just as we were getting ready to go - but as he hadn't heard about the fly in he doesn't really count. In the end a wet, foggy, soggy, wet, damp day. Which meant, yet again, having to dry out a number of kites around the house (autumn/winter flying is just wonderful for this).

Shame about the numbers, but it was understandable given the poor conditions. Maybe we should have canceled it? Perhaps....