AEOLIAN.CO.UK - Archive - 2002 - Middle Wallop Summer Kite and Buggy Festival

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Middle Wallop Summer Kite & Buggy Festival

Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th August 2002

Location: Middle Wallop Airfield, nr Andover, Hampshire
Organised by: Roy Broadley, Kites Up

Plenty of kite buggiers and kite fliers gathered at Middle Wallop once again for a weekend of fun, socialising and maybe a bit of kiting as well!

As always, there was plenty of room for everyone to do their own thing - the buggiers had acres of short grass to play on, STACK UK held a competition for their members, the White Horse Kite Fliers did teddy bear parachuting for the children and ran the kite making workshop, and there was still bags of room on the huge field for the 'casual' kite fliers to have a go.

The weather on Saturday was far better than expected - despite warnings of thunderstorms, the rain held off all day and we were even treated to blue skies and warm sunshine. Even the wind was good, at 5-10mph most of the day.

Sunday was cloudier but the wind picked up throughout the day, starting off at a gentle 5mph. By mid-afternoon it must have been at least 15mph. This was the point at which James Robertshaw decided to get his 4.9m Blade II out of the bag and do some kite-jumping!

Of course, the buggiers loved it, and despite the increasing wind speed, they were jumping into buggies with 7+ metre kites!

The planned record attempt at a Mega-Team fly was subsequently postponed because of the wind speed, but there was a mini-Mega-Team fly instead, with 9 kites flying in formation, which still impressed the crowds.

Kieron Bradley proudly shows off the new Parastorm ARB Pro Buggy

Preview of the new Parastorm buggy:

On Sunday, we saw the new offering from Parastorm Ltd - the ARB Pro (Active Rear Beam) buggy.

This full suspension racing buggy was engineered at Williams - yes, the Formula One Williams- where Kieron works. It should be going into full production soon, however a few lucky buggiers got to drive this one around Middle Wallop this weekend!

The unique feature of this buggy is that when it is being pulled sideways (ie in a strong wind, at high speed), the angle of the side wheels changes, giving more stability for the pilot. This design is protected by Williams patents so it should remain fairly unique!

Expect to see a lot more of this buggy in the coming year!

Aerial Photographs



These photographs are courtesy and copyright of Paul Burton.

On the ground..


The White Horse Kite Flyers' huge parafoil with beautiful fish windsocks		Delta Serpent with tube tails

Teddy bear dropping team	Two 9 metre Blade II's	Sunny skies at Middle Wallop

Karen and Steve 'Moose' Musitano	Rolf and his crazy hat!	Dave Mulcahy returns from a buggy blast...
Alternative Means of Transport...

Chris Croft whizzes across the tarmac		Dave Stratton takes to his skates

Tent-boarding with Kyle Boulton	Marcus Edwards skateboarding with a Nasawing	James Robertshaw kite-jumping

Dave Nicholl with his Joel Schultz "Wright Flyer"		Custom Revolution sail

Another custom Revolution	Mini-mega-team practice