Smoked 4D, going bad

Fri Apr 14 14:06:33 CEST 2017
Neighbor's lawn, possibly 1m/s
4D on 6m 25kg lines

Drinking, kiting and colliding with a non-kiter(*) - how does that taste?

My summer neighbor was likely a bit bored when guarding the garden fire, so he asked me over for a garden beer. I decided to bring my 4D, but I didn't have very much hope of being able to use it because of lack of open space and (presumed) undisturbed/non-turbulent wind. The wind direction was wrong for the normal nearby field for the whole extended Easter weekend, so I felt a bit desperate. The usual question/statement came: "But there is no wind". So I explained that it was the quality of the wind and lack space that was the concern and assembled the kite. Well it was crowded and limited to fly between the trees and around the supposedly roe-deer-attacked-once-a-tree-plant on the mini kite field (metres wide). Yes, the wind direction was so that the smoke from the fire went there as well. I'm not going to bore you with details of this much limited flying, but instead point out what could be the most valuable thing learnt (or at least something I'm going to investigate further) - the quality of the wind was kind of OK, despite the fact the there were a few low trees (still without leaves) close and upstream. For low wind speeds is the requirement of the field size much less strict?

And the kite-attack I promised above - how did that happen? Well you see the answer though you may not realize it. This time I had the luxury of someone holding the camera so that I could get a few pictures of the kite in flight. As a "thank you" for the close up photo I (accidentally) hit him with the kite. I can't have been such a bad pilot at this occasion anyhow, since the 4D didn't end up in a tree - but that was a poor comfort for him. My cardigan strongly smelled of smoke for days afterwards.

* Any higher wind speed or heavier/larger kite can really cause damage - don't do it!