Skychaser

The US arm of Peter Powell Kites produced a range of dual-line deltas, ranging in size from the 2.47m wing span Skylite to the 0.86m wing span Skytoy. So far, I've not been able to get my hands on this smallest of Peter Powell deltas, but I did manage to snap up the second-smallest PP delta, a 1.26m wing span Skychaser!

In flight, the Skychaser proved itself to be a fast and zippy kite, and a much better-tracking kite than you would expect from its size. And even axels and half-axels can be coaxed out of it.

In the ads of the day, the Skychaser was promoted as very suitable for flying in stacks.

So I'll keep my eyes open for further Skychasers, with the aim of gradually building up a bit of a Skychaser stack.

Watch this space!

Peter Powell Kites Adoption Agency

I seem to have acquired a bit of a reputation for being interested in Peter Powell kites. Three times this past festival season I was given a vintage PP Stunter by someone who clearly knew about my collection, and said he had this old PP, it was damaged or missing bits and pieces, they were going to throw it away, but if I wanted it ... here it is!

Throwing away a PP? No way!!! If there's any way to get it flying again, I will do my best. So I guess the Peter Powell Kites Adoption Agency was launched ...

So here is the first of these adopted PP Stunters: a blue Mk I, fibreglass frame. This was the kite that required the least amount of reconstruction. The t-piece was broken, but that was easy to replace. It had a few tears in the sail, but nothing that a bit of tape couldn't fix. And some glue dealt with the sticker having come off the sail. It didn't come with a tail, but I've got plenty of PP tails to hook on to it.

First of the Peter Powell Kites Adoption Agency kites, moments before take-off:

And back in the air again!

As I mentioned earlier, there are two more to follow, which need a bit more work (certainly one of them does). And if anyone reading this is ready to throw an old PP in the bin, please think again and contact the PPKAA ... If I can make it fly again, fly again it will!

Mk II 3-stack

First, take a badly damaged orange Mk II Stunter: missing cross spars, broken spine, but at least the ripstop sail shows no damage:

Add to that a pair of yellow and red Mk II Stunters, obtained at a very reasonable price (thanks Josh!):

Stir in a set of bridle and stacking lines (thanks, Graham!):

That then gives you a stack of three ripstop MkII Stunters:

Finally, mix in three custom-made banded tails (thanks Paul!):

And all that will then result in a flyable Mk II 3-stack!

Wind was perfect to try them out, 8-12mph most of the time. So they took off without any problem!

As you would expect, the pull from a triple stack is considerably more than from a single kite, but nothing we couldn't handle. With higher winds, this will definitely require stronger lines than the 100daN we flew them on, though.

The banded tails really look great, and add a bit extra to the spectacle, given that the kites are single-colour.

I love it when a plan comes together ...

Trinidad

Besides PP-esque diamond kites, the Caribbean Kite Company also produced a wide range of dual-line deltas after it severed its links with the Peter Powell name. A few months ago, I managed to get my hands on one of these, a Jamaica. And now I've been able to add a second one to my collection: a Trinidad.

The Trinidad has a wing span of 1.78m and if you look closer, you'll see that it's quite an unusual kite. For instance, it doesn't have a spine:

This means that there is no t-piece for the lower spreader to fit into, and instead of via a t-piece, the lower spreader is attached to the sail through a bungee:

I said 'lower spreader', as if the kite also has an upper spreader, but it doesn't and the upper outhauls of the bridle are both connected to the nose, sort of similar to the configuration of a Speedwing:

Design details aside, how does it fly?

The wind range is officially given as 5-25mph, but it really needs at least 8mph to fly halfway decent. The Trinidad has a tendency to oversteer, and it doesn't like the edge of the window; it needs constant wind pressure in the sail. I sort of managed to axel and half-axel the kite, but it doesn't do these tricks gladly (although that might of course say something about my own abilities, or lack thereof).

To be honest, I'm not overly impressed with this kite, as I wasn't with the Jamaica. For a company that was explicitly aiming to be at the top of the market, the two dual-line deltas I've flown so far certainly don't match that ambition. Maybe others do? Such as their 2+m wing span flagship models Mustique and Martinique? The search continues!

Early tail attachment

It's always good fun to stumble across another piece of the Peter Powell puzzle. This particular piece came from Martin Fisher (thanks!) who posted a scan of the original instruction sheet of aluminium-framed PP Stunters on the Peter Powell Kites Owners Group on Facebook:

What was interesting to me about these instructions was how the tail was to be attached on these early Peter Powells: not at the bottom end of the sail, as I was used to, but on the cross struts!

When I got my alu-framed PP, it did not come with the original instructions, so I had added a tail in the usual way, on the spine at the bottom end of the sail.

Obviously, I had to try this out! I did not have a PP tail with two holes, so added two holes to an existing later tail. And this is what it looks like once fitted:

I have to admit that my first impression wasn't very positive. It looked and felt rather clunky. And it looked odd, but that's of course simply because I'm not used seeing a tail on a PP attached that high up ...

Clunky or not, odd or not, the proof is in the pudding. Or rather, in the air, so up went the kite!

I have to admit, seen from the other side of 40m lines, it didn't look bad at all! And certainly different from having the tail come off the spine. I was a bit worried that the tail would become entangled in the bridle, but that didn't happen at all. The tail nicely hung between the two sides of the bridle, and never seemed at risk of tangling.

Now that I know that this was the official way to attach the tail to an alu-framed Peter Powell Stunter, I will of course fly alu-framed PPs with the tail attached to the cross struts from now on. Gotta maintain historical accuracy for as much as possible!

Bag expansion

Last year, I blogged about the acquisition of a pair of HQ Proline kite bags to house the Peter Powell collection. Well, since that time, the collection has grown significantly, to the point where it doesn't fit in two bag any more ...

Solution to this conundrum is pretty easy: get another HQ Proline bag, a green one this time, and again sourced from Kiteworld.

This new green bag, the smaller of the two versions available, will house the modern Mk III PP Stunters, leaving the smaller blue bag for the older UK PPs and the larger blue bag for the US kites.

Something tells me it won't be the last bag for the collection ...

US Mk II Stunter

When it comes to American PP Stunters, I've got in my collection a triple-stack of the 3' Stunter, a smaller version of the basic Stunter, and I've got the The Monster, a 6-foot version. But up to now, I hadn't managed to get my hands on a 'standard' American Stunter. That's changed now, with the addition of an American Mk II to the collection!

It's similar to UK-produced Stunters in most way, but it does feature an extra spar at the back of the kite, similar to the extra spar of The Monster:

The Mk II feels quite heavy on the lines, and is relatively sluggish response to input. This is definitely different compared to UK Stunters. I'm not sure what the cause of this is, although the extra spar of course increases the weight of the kite.

You may have noticed something missing: a tail. I must admit it was quite strange to fly a PP Stunter without a tail!

Now the kite didn't come with a tail, but that in itself is easily remedied. However, according to the 1991 catalogue, the "kite is flown without a tail".

Well, who am I to disagree with a PP catalogue?