Small kites doing a great job as lifters

My 2,115th kite video. Note that the date on the title is wrong - it should be June, not May! Today we used a few small kites not intended as lifters (and one that was) to hoist some interesting items.
Anyone wanting to check out all my "How to..." videos on various aspects of kite-flying can now find them all easily on my Playlist at / jimskitesnz .

[@chrisphillips5722]

Jim Thanks for, " Lifting" our day. Cheers!

[@JimNicholls]

You're very welcome, Chris. We don't have many good flying days in this winter season, but I'm doing my best to take advantage of any opportunity.

[@googleuser3553]

The penguin appeared to be swimming in the air. Love the box kite, man it took a dive! Please send some cool air to us in the southeastern USA. 🥵

[@JimNicholls]

I was lucky to catch that dive on video, Sheryl - I've not seen it do that before. I'd willingly swap a bit of warmth for some of our frosty weather at the moment.

[@belizehouseforrent6138]

WOW!! What a BEAUTIFUL site with all of them flying together. Thank you for sharing all of this beauty and joy with the rest of us. You are absolutely the master!

[@JimNicholls]

Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for your comment.

[@pfkites8967]

Giant Squid looks wonderful a special kite .Nice sharing.

[@JimNicholls]

The Giant Squid was a quite cheap purchase from China a long time ago, and always looks good. I'm very happy to have it.

[@craigh3381]

A very nice display..thanks for sharing..

[@JimNicholls]

Thanks for watching, Craig!

[@TheKRU251]

Good one Jim. The Gomberg Penguin must be camera shy. We were flying today by a bay. Wind was screwing around about 160° in literally a minute or two. Light winds too. I envy your great on shore winds ! Keep 'em coming. Thanks Jim !!!

[@JimNicholls]

Our on-shore winds are usually great when we have them, but are rather infrequent these days, with the wind blowing all over the place or not at all. Right now, we DO have an on-shore wind, but gusting around 55 km/h, with very grey skies and rain imminent. You only get to see the good bits!

[@deweygravesjr.122]

Nice video Jim. Always look forward to the dune shots. You had pretty good wind to be using those kites as lifters. Rudie is cool. Thanks Jim!

[@JimNicholls]

Thanks, Dewey. Yes, the wind was fairly strong, in contrast to a lot of recent days when we've had no wind at all.

[@longbeachpeninsulawaphotos]

what a great looking sky. I iwsh others had laundry that looked like yours. It seemed to be a pretty windy day

[@JimNicholls]

It was more windy than usual at this time of year. Unfortunately, many people, especially those who fly at kite festivals, seem to think that "bigger is better" in line laundry, and far too many fly the same boring items (see one giant whale, you've seen them all!)

[@flyingfish1849]

What great kites in a nice wind! …wonder why the Box got camera shy and hid?! Thanks!

[@JimNicholls]

It was soon back in the air, Steve. I haven't seen it do that before - very strange.

[@user-ce7ic1ze2u]

Nice!

[@JimNicholls]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Evan. You are always very quick!

[@MarkAGroh]

beautiful site, Jim

[@JimNicholls]

Thanks, Mark, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@vikramsinghkite4358]

Good Colecshn Sir 👍🏼

[@JimNicholls]

Thank you Vikram.

[@kiteflyingdownunder....car6272]

That was an impressive display of mixed lifters and line items. You showed us how you can have a nice showing without the need for "mega"sized lifters. I was impressed how your Rudi kite coped well with the new spinner. Still wondering what tipped the Box kite to crash?

[@JimNicholls]

Good to see you're still there, Carl. As you know with your Trilobites and others, lifters come in many forms, contrary to what your friends in Ashburton would have us believe.

[@kenkingsflyingmachines2382]

What would define a "lifter" kite? A parafoil? I have a huge spinner I tried to put up, but it yanked the kite around so much, they wouldn't stay up. Maybe more wind. Hmmm.

[@JimNicholls]

Large, strong-pulling spinning items are not really suitable to attach to a kite-line, as they pull the kite around as you found. Better to stake them down on a short piece of line and let them spin close to the ground, as with the Spinning Crown in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmHVlomkfN6Yfs0 . You can experiment as to how long a line you need for best results. More wind is unlikely to solve your problem, and could make it worse. Things like the Snakes are not strong-pulling, and need to be above the ground to work. And "lifter" is definitely not restricted to parafoil-type kites. Keep watching, as I'll have a video sometime soon on lifter kites and what is best.

[@kenkingsflyingmachines2382]

@@JimNicholls Aha! My spinner is about the size of your Kaixuan Kites spinner that you flew by hand. I'll try that next time out. I need to get a bigger parafoil...and some snakes...and...... Thank you for responding!

[@JimNicholls]

@@kenkingsflyingmachines2382 You're welcome. Have fun!

[@Kites-Flying]

Hi Jim, another great video of lots of interesting kites. A question about the fuzzy tails in the video. Where the tails manufactured or did you make them? Is a fuzzy tail that is short and thick have the same effect as a fuzzy tail that is long and narrow? Thank you for your help

[@JimNicholls]

Peter made the tail on his lifter sled. The others were bought. The amount of fabric affects how much drag the tail has, so wider segments are better. How narrow or thick they are cut probably makes some kind of difference, but not that I've noticed.

[@Kites-Flying]

@@JimNicholls Hi Jim, thanks for the info. I have ordered one fuzzy tail and I am in the process of making various others to try out this summer.

[@JimNicholls]

You'll find that they can make a huge difference to some badly-behaved kites, as I've shown in several videos, including this one a few years ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGHId52PpJmYeNksi=TbfJKqVqWL1-s7N- . Have fun!

[@Kites-Flying]

@@JimNicholls Does Peter have kite info on the internet(KZbin, Web page, Facebook, etc.)?

[@JimNicholls]

I think he's active on Facebook - I don't use it myself. His name is Peter Dennehy, so you can probably find him.

[@123belongel]

It?s Ballon?😳Gg not a kite..pingis..😊✌

[@JimNicholls]

Definitely not a balloon. The items hung from the line are generally called "line laundry" or sometimes "line art", and are inflated simply by the wind blowing into an opening (often in the head, as with the Giant Squid).