On Saturday the 26th March the Scouts were invited to transform from complete novices at power kiting, to competent pilots. The event was held by the Kent Scouts Air Activities team at Capstone Country Park in Gillingham Kent.
After a safety briefing and “how to fly” instruction it was straight on to the “smaller” 2.5M kites. The lack of wind proved a challenge to us novices to get these up, but with the excellent guidance from the instructors we were soon having a great time.
As the wind picked up, we moved on to the more powerful kites, these were a lot harder on the muscles, and even in the still fairly light winds, capable of dragging you along the ground. (Yes I did go over more than once!)
Some of us had the opportunity to try using the kites to pull us along in a buggy, and one of our Scouts was given the honour of flying the teams brand new sport kite which he described as “Epic”.
Having only ever flown” traditional” kites in the past I for one was truly impressed by pulling power of these wind powered beasties, and I’ll certainly be back for more!
If you’d like to know more about the Kent Scouts Air Activities team, look them up on their website at http://www.kentscouts.org.uk/pageview.php?menu_id=503 Paul Phillips. Scout Leader.
