End of 2017 - overview of the collection

Exactly a year ago, I wrote a blog post summarising my collection of Peter Powell kites at the close of 2016, and I thought it would be nice to take stock of what I've been able to add to the collection during 2017.

So here goes!

Like before, I'll group the PP kites in my collection in four groups: UK-produced during the 1970s, 80s and 90s; US-produced; Caribbean Kite Company; and UK-produced during the 21st century.

At the close of 2016, I had nine PP kites produced in the UK during the 1970s/80s/90s. And during 2017, I managed to double that!

Specifically, I added a blue polythene/fibreglass Mk I, a Junior, two customised Mk Is (made for the Round Table for for BP), two polythene Mk II (red and yellow), a 3-stack of ripstop Mk IIs, and two single bicolour ripstop Mk IIs (blue/pink and teal/pink). As before, I count a stack as a single kite. So a total of 18 original UK-produced PP kites at the close of the year.

Moving to US-produced Peter Powells, at the end of 2016, I had six of these, and managed to add another five this year.

These five include a Mk I Stunter, a Mk II Stunter, a Skyblazer, a Skychaser, and an Omni. So almost doubled the number of US-produced Peter Powell kites, to 11 in total.

On to Caribbean Kite Company kites, I only had a single early Cayman at the end of last year, and got my hands on four more this year.

Two later Caymans, a Jamaica and a Trinidad raised the number of Caribbean Kite Company kites to five.

And the finally on to modern, 21st century PPs. At the end of last year, I had a total of seven of those (two for our pair and five for the team), and this year, I added two more.

One of these was a 'standard' Mk III, in a Dutch colour scheme, the other a special Poppy Powell. And those two bring the total of modern PP Stunters in the collection to nine.

And all that brings the total collection from 23 at the end of 2016 to 43 at the end of 2017; not a bad year at all, I'd say! And the collection has really taken off since our very first Peter Powell kite in 2013 ...

So what will I be looking out for in 2018? For older UK-produced Stunters, I'd love to get my hands on one with a wooden frame (fat chance!), and will keep an eye out for Mk Is with a different type of aluminium frame than the one I have, and for any Mk Is or Mk IIs with sails of colours or designs different from what's in the collection already. For US-produced PPs, I'm especially interested in the ultralight Mk III, different versions of the Skyraker, a 'Baby Blazer', a Skytoy, a Dragonfli and a Firefli. Plenty of Caribbean Kite Company kites still missing from the collection, so anything I don't already have is welcome. And when it comes to 21st century PP Stunters, Mark and Paul have a few plans up their sleeves, so hopefully one or two of these will see the light of day in 2018.

As always, if you have a Peter Powell kite for sale which adds something to my collection, please get in touch!

Yellow polythene Mk II

I've mentioned it before: for some reason, polythene Mk II Stunters are far less common on eBay than their Mk I ancestors. Whether that's because people are more likely to want to hang on to them, or simply because fewer are made (or both), who knows!

Nevertheless, I have been able to add a few polythene Mk II Stunters to the collection: earlier this year, I got my hands on a red Mk II and our very first Peter Powell kite was a blue Mk II.

And quite recently, eBay provided me with a yellow one!

Following the tail choices on my first two Mk IIs (red with red, and blue with blue), I decided to fly this yellow Mk II with a yellow tail.

Flight characteristics are not different from any of the other Mk I or Mk IIs in my collection.

Now having a trio of Mk IIs, with matching tails, does offer the opportunity to fly the three of them together. Maybe at a festival in 2018?

Omni

Were you aware that the US arm of Peter Powell Kites produced a quad-line kite? Well done if you were, but did you also know they produced two different quad-line models? If not, read on; and if you did know, you might as well read on, because I'll be testing both against each other at the end of this blog post.

In 1989, Peter Powell brought the Double Diamond (or "Double D" for short) on the market. Essentially two Stunters side-by-side, with their joint cross spars forming the leading edge of the quad. This design created a problem, as it was deemed to be too similar to the new Revolution quad, and Peter Powell Kites were forced to take the "Double D" off the market within two years of its introduction.

In 1991, they came back with an alternate design, named the Omni. The two Stunters were rotated 90 degrees, and positioned tail-to-tail, such that their joined spines now formed the long cross spar of the quad.

Needless to say, I had to add an Omni to my collection, and I'm happy to announce that I have succeeded in that. Meet my green-fluorescent-and-black Omni! Its previous owner lives on Hawaii, so a bit of a shock for the kite to find itself out in the British winter ...

So how does it fly? Well, it turns out to be a very twitchy kite, and it took me quite a while to get it under control; it tends to oversteer a lot. But with the 'arrows' on the kites, indicating which side is 'up' and 'right', it's certainly a striking kite in the sky!

Having managed to get one of both the Peter Powell quads, we of course had to try them both together. Not with the aim of a pair routine, but simply to compare their flight characteristics in the same wind conditions (4-10mph).

Besides the general shape, the Omni is also smaller (1.83m wing span) than the "Double D" (2.16m wing span).

Even though the Omni was advertised as an 'improved version' of the PP quad line kite in a 1991 catalogue, I must say the earlier "Double D" handles much much better. Far less twitchy, much more stable, much easier to control. It is a coincidence that the kite more similar to a Rev handles much better?

By the way, I doubt many pictures exist showing a Double D and Omni together in the sky!