End of 2022 - state of the collection

I realised the other day I haven't done an 'end of year - overview of the collection' post since 2018. For the last few years, that was mostly because the growth of the collection has slowed down considerably. And that again is mainly due to there being very few old Peter Powell kites for sale out there that are 'new' to the collection. 

Nevertheless, I thought it was time to do another 'end of year' post again, but slightly different from the previous ones. Rather than showing pictures of those PP kites added this year, I'm posting some graphs showing the growth of the collection over time. If you want to see pictures of any in the collection, they can all be found here. 

First graph shows the number of Peter Powell kites collected over time (in days), since I got my very first PP kite in 2013, nearly 10 years ago. You can clearly see when I got a job lot of PP kites, which really kickstarted the collection. And you can also see the rate of new additions to the collection levelling off, simply because fewer and fewer PP kites available for sale are new to the collection.

In the graph below, I've split the collection in four different groups. Blue squares show the numbers of old Mk I / II kites. Green circles show the US-produced Peter Powell kites; diamonds, deltas as well as quads. Purple triangles show kites from the Caribbean Kite Company. And, finally, red diamonds show the modern Mk III kites. 

At the end of 2022, the overall total is 72. And just for clarity, I consider a stack as one kite as it is flown off one pair of lines (so the Cayman 6-stack counts as one kite), and don't count the 'Duct Tape Stunter', as that one merely uses an old Peter Powell frame. Looking at the breakdown, I guess the CKC part of the collection will always remain the smallest part, as they're really hard to find. And I wouldn't at all be surprised if the number of modern PP kites overtakes that of the US-produced ones; maybe even this coming year already ...

Team colours

Just over a year ago, I obtained a Mk III Stunter, black with flo green stripes when a dear friend retired from kite-flying and gave us his kites. Recently, it dawned on me that green is 'my' colour within the L-katz team ... and Irma's colour in that team is orange ...

You see where this is going, right?

And then of course both the 'flo green' and 'orange' kites together.

I think they look really well together! 

Watch this space, because I have a further plan with this pair of PPs ...

Xmas kite

As mentioned in my previous post, screen-printing has come to Peter Powell. To mark this change, a set of five special xmas kites was created, one of which (the 'Xmas tree') was customised for the 2022 PPKOG kite.

Getting all four others was a bit too much for me, but I did want another one from the collection. Although a 'Santa' kite stacked behind a number of 'Reindeer' kites would have been fun, I decided on the 'Stag' as that one would sort of match the special PPKOG kite when flown together.

Note that it also has a multi-coloured tail ...

Of course, we had to fly the 'Xmas stag' PP together with the PPKOG 2022 kite.

Flying both kites with (different) multi-coloured tails really adds to the spectacle, especially when flying them into multiple wraps.

PPKOG 2022 kite

It has become an annual tradition: a kite produced by the Powell boys, exclusively for members of the Peter Powell Kites Owners Group on Facebook. Such a PPKOG kite was issued for 2019, 2020 and 2021. 

The tradition continues in 2022! There have been big changes recently to the business with the arrival of Luke Young, and one of the changes is that a sail for a Peter Powell kite can now be screen-printed, basically incorporating any design you want. To mark this new dimension to Peter Powell Stunters, it was decided to customise one of the five special xmas kites and so turn that into the 2022 PPKOG kite. 

Here it is, sporting a special multi-coloured tail!

It flies as all Mk III kites do, and the multi-coloured tail adds a bit of pizzazz.

Did you notice the star with '50' at the top of the xmas tree? That's a nudge to 50 years of Peter Powell kites ... Expect a bit more on that soon ...

Razzle Dazzle

Been quite a while since we flew Peter Powell kites with our L-katz team! Yesterday, the wind was very good for getting PPs back in the air in team formation. 

We decided to try and fly a pattern called Razzle Dazzle, as we'd never flown that with Peter Powell kites before. First, we practiced it with our Impulse team kites, just to make sure we got all the moves right. And then we switched to Peter Powells, the 'Poppy' version to be precise.

Here's a brief video from yesterday. First, you see a Razzle Dazzle flown with our Impulse kites, and then the same figure with the PPs. 

Flying a pattern with tails, whether Razzle Dazzle or anything else, always presents the extra challenge of avoiding flying into another kite's tails. But we did pull it off, as you can see in the second part of the video!

And, talking of tails, the unavoidable aftermath ...

'Duct Tape Stunter'

Over the years, I've been able to build up a decent collection of Peter Powell spares, from complete frames, such as this one, to loose leading edges, spines and cross spars.

With Storm Eunice hitting us this past weekend, I got this crazy idea, inspired by Josh Mitcheson flying a Rev frame with only strips of electrical tape as 'sail' in very strong winds at Dunstable Kite Festival in 2018 .... What about taking a PP frame, and creating a 'sail' from a few strips of duct tape? 

Only one way to find out whether this would work or not .... so last Friday night I spent some time creating a 'Duct Tape Stunter':

Step one - put a frame together ...

Step two - add bridle ...

Step three - add the 'sail' ...

Which leaves step four - fly it!

On Saturday morning, we set out in weather we would normally not go out flying in: heavy rain and extremely blustery wind, with gusts well over 40mph.

So here's the 'Duct Tape Stunter', ready for its maiden flight!

Did it fly? Yes, it did!

So the experiment worked! Sort of ... yes, it flew, but it was very difficult to steer and control. The strips of duct tape resonated a lot in the storm, which didn't help stable flight in general. 

But it was fun to try and I was pleased when it actually took off.

PPKOG 2021 kite

For several reasons, covid not being the least of them, the 2021 version of the PPKOG kite didn't arrive until January 2022. 

But here she is finally, following on from those issued in 2020 and 2019. 

The PPKOG 2021 kite flies as any Mk III Peter Powell Stunter.

And this time, there was the opportunity to get this cool hoodie as well!