Issue 6: BORK – Places to Fly

What is the wind like in London

I am going to spend the last weekend of the month in London. I would like to take a kite with me so: What are the typical wind conditions this time of the year? Where can I fly? I am going to stay next to Gatwick and I am not going to have a car so I need some place I can get to by train.

You have the south coast of England (Sussex) available to you. It’s about 30-45 minutes by train from Gatwick. Try to contact someone from the Brighton Kite Flyers – I don’t have their URL but you should be able to fing it easily enough. I suggest you look in http://www.kitefantastic.co.uk for details. You’ll probably also find details of places to fly in London.

Incidentally, Gatwick isn’t particularly close to London. Unless you take the express train it’s approximately a 30 minute ride. Regards James

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My advice would be to head for the coast at Brighton. There is also a v.active kite club down there: website http://www3.mistral.co.uk/prchitty/ or E-Mail rao@mistral.co.uk As to the weather… get real…. you’ll be in England, we have hurricanes, monsoons and sunbathing all in the same day! but maybe try http://uk.multimap.com/map/weather.cgi for a 2 day outlook which’ll give you some idea hope this helps my website: http://www.kitefantastic.co.uk Database of over 500 kites, Interactive Guide to Stores and Sites

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Epsom Downs is a great place to fly out to the South West of London. It’s about a half hour drive from Gatwick (M23, M25 towards Heathrow, Off at Junction 9, go through Ashtead towards Epsom Downs Race Course). Saturdays and Sundays normally see a gathering of the locals.

Alternatively, head down the M23 to Brighton. Come off on the road (forget the number, Sam?) towards Lewes and then head for Stanmer Park a few miles down. That’s about half an hour away, maybe less. Lots of local fliers.

There’s a local league flying up at Hackney Marshes for the next two Sundays. Thats up in the east of London and probably a good hour away, but you’ll meet a lot of excellent fliers up there (Roberstshaws et al). (M23, M25, M2, check a map book… I forget the rest :-)= A

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So take the train to Brighton. At Brighton station change to a train for Falmer (where sussex university is). Leave the train at falmer and walk through the tunnel under the road. Stanmer park is the large park to the left of the university as you come out of the tunnel.

There’s normally a whole pile of us there on sundays from about 1pm onwards – but it’s not a bad place to fly in on any day… Sam.

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Wet.

Andrew

Flying in Berlin

I am in Berlin for a couple of months and have brought my Benson Phantom Elite with me. So the big question is: where is the optimal place to fly here? Also, are there any good kite stores? Please reply to me directly at fran@sfb288.math.tu-berlin.de. Many thanks and good winds… —Fran Burstall

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Hi, have a look on my hp: in http://www.snafu.de/~thomiru/dra_rev_b.htm you can choose between ten flying places in Berlin with maps and air pictures.

Thomas

Any good place to fly kite in NYC

Hi folks, Since flying kites next to Belt Pkwy is banned, where else is a good place to fly kite in NYC? Where’re most kite flyers go? Derek

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Take a ride to Liberty State park over here in NJ. You can take the water taxi and it will let you off in the park. If coming to NJ isn’t your speed. Jones Beach field #6 is the other option Maybe Central PK or Pospect Pk? I dunno I live in NJ. Dennis

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While I don’t recommend Coney Island during the season, I have flown there in off season. Just use good judgement. There is a small field I believe is called Battery City Park on the Hudson River where you can catch a fairly smooth breeze off the water and I’ve had some very good flying experiences there. It’s very difficult to find ANYWHERE in NYC to fly, particularly near Wall Street. Master the Wind, Peter Betancourt

ps. My newsreader is messed up so I’m using AOL temporarily. Thank you for your patience with my nick swap.

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Depends on how far you are willing to travel… but Jones Beach Field 6 is a great place to fly… wind from any direction is great with the exception of straight North. Liberty State Park off of exit 14b on the NJ Turnpike is great too. Had great fun there just a couple of weeks ago with Happy Feet… Rich Javens, Sliceman… and many others… bn

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Well, there is a tiny park off the west end of 72nd street that is good in west and southwest winds. There is also a field below Riverbank State Park on 145th St when the wind is northerly. You can also fly under the Triborough bridge in southerly winds — go to the east end of 103rd street and walk across the footbridge. -p

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As a kiteflyer in NYC, there still is kite flying going on in the park by the Belt Parkway despite the no fly signs. If you come down you can expect to see Steve Karatzas, MIB champion in the Northeast region, flying. You will also see people who have been here for 20+ years as well. So despite the no fly ban we still fly in the park, Dyker Beach Park as we found out, by the Belt. So come on by either Saturday / Sunday and look for us under the beach umbrellas. Patrick Grant The Gent flying the Jeager / Hawaiian stack. 🙂

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Check Deja News…this was covered a few times recently. Enjoy! Gene Matocha