A blog detailing our collection of Peter Powell kites, and chronicling our flying of these kites. Plus a bit of PP kite history thrown in. Our collection to date stands at 77 kites and can be seen here. I am keen to expand the collection, so if you have an old Peter Powell kite, whether made in the UK or the US, gathering dust and looking for a new home, why not get in touch? Depending on the kite (does it bring something new or different to my collection?), its condition (is it flyable? how much TLC does it need?), and the price you ask (+ shipping if from outside the UK), we may well be able to do a deal.

Sunday 27 November 2016

A Peter Powell selfie!

When we were at Weymouth Kite Festival earlier this year, and took delivery of our set of L-katz Peter Powells, we also got ourselves a pair of PP hats to keep our heads warm in the coming winter, colour-matched with our Flying Fish coats.

Well, today was definitely cold enough to start using them!


By the way, with this picture we've joined the selfie generation: this is our very first ever selfie; not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed ...

Wednesday 23 November 2016

L-katz Peter Powells in flight

Some time ago, I showed you a picture of our set of custom Peter Powells for the L-katz team. Now you may have wondered why I didn't post any pictures of them flying. Well, the reason for that is that I wanted to hold off on that blog post until L-katz had flown all five together. Unfortunately, shortly after I got the kites, Tony suffered very serious health problems, and he may never fly as part of the team again .... So I decided not to delay any longer.

The first time we flew three of the five kites (#1, #2, #5; red - black - red tails) was when Neil was also out of action, due to surgery on his hand. Roger, Irma and myself had the honour of the initial flight of the L-katz Peter Powells.


The wind was strong, the kites were in their element, and we had fun!



Next time the kites came out was with a 4-man L-katz. Four kites (#1, #2, #4, #5; red - black - black - red tails).


We could really take the kites through their paces, and try out which patterns worked and which didn't.


And with the 3-man as well as the 4-man team, there were occasions were it didn't work! But, as they say, if you don't crash into each other every once in a while, you're not trying hard enough ....










I want to finish this blog post by simply expressing our wish, in the strongest possible way, that Tony will one day be able to take back his place in the team, and fly kite #3, with a yellow tail. #3 has so far remained unflown, waiting for Tony to pick up the lines. Fingers crossed ...


Saturday 12 November 2016

'Chevron' Cayman

I've written on this blog before about the US arm of Peter Powell Kites becoming independent and changing its name to Caribbean Kite Company. Several of the kites produced by Peter Powell Kites were continued, but under a different name. For the standard PP diamond Stunter this rebranding resulted in the Cayman.


As I said in this earlier blog post, I regard kites made by the Caribbean Kite Company as having 'Peter Powell DNA'. You may well disagree with me, but for me, Caribbean Kite Company is part of the Peter Powell story, and so I've been looking for Caribbean kites to add to the Peter Powell collection. There certainly aren't many around so I'm pleased that I've managed to get my hands on a Cayman in the 'chevron' colour scheme, new in its package, and for very little $$!


This Cayman hardly changed from the Peter Powell Stunter that was its predecessor: same 4' wing span, ripstop sail, same spar arrangement, fibreglass spars. Besides the slightly different nose piece, it's just the label which identifies it as having been produced by Caribbean Kite Company.



It also flies exactly as you'd expect from a PP Stunter: needs a decent pressure on the sail to be optimally steerable, but in winds over, say, 10mph, it's a fun kite to fly.


And in case anyone has any doubt about the PP ancestry of the Cayman, look at the handles that came with the kite:



What does it say on the handles? Exactly ..