Guinness kite World record in Sydney, Australia | Education website

Guinness kite World record

Locality: Sydney, Australia

Phone: +61 427 012 361

Address: 490 Windsor Road 2153 Sydney, NSW, Australia

Website: www.kitesite.com.au/kiterecord/High_Flying.html

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18.01.2022 What is high for a kite? It depends on the observer and their experience with kites. Normally children fly kites to between 30 and 90 metres above ground level (100 - 300 ft.) and small kites become difficult to see above 300 ft. Most developed countries have similar rules for kites such as minimum distance from airports and maximum altitudes without special approval. In Australia the maximum altitude is 120 metres (400 ft.) above ground level. Different countries may have sp...ecial zones approved during traditional kite festivals such as India, China and Thailand. In Australia our record attempts have special conditions with a zone set aside in a remote region away from air traffic. A ceiling for our record attempts was set at 18,000 ft. We want 25,000 ft. for our next single kite record attempts and 40,000 ft. for our kite train record attempts. This is unknown territory in respect to possible approval by the regularory body. See more

14.01.2022 The team of Roger Martin, Mike Richards, Michael Jenkins and myself, Bob Moore, met at the ALT Cafe in Johnson Ave, Seven Hills last Wednesday, December 18th. It was a very fruitful get together with interesting discussions about kite design, construction details, size and line specifications. We agreed that a target of 25,000 ft. was reasonable although it is never easy to fly big kites really high. We set the record in 2014 at 16,009 ft. above the altitude of the launch poi...Continue reading

12.01.2022 I am refurbishing the winch trailer with rust ground off, rust proofing and a fresh coat of paint. It will have new cream and sky blue livery with sponsors logos, Toyobo/IZANIS and Tasline. I will modify the winch to make it modular and removable but the basic design will be retained and is very robust, reliable and functional. It is now 16 years old and time flies when having fun. It only seems like a few years since I made my first trip to Cable Downs, the sheep station bey...ond Cobar in western NSW. I made my first visit in October 2004 alone under the umbrella of CASA which set a ceiling of 10,000 ft. I flew the kite to 7,500 ft. but spent several days wandering neighbouring properties looking for the big black DT delta which broke free on a 3,500 ft. flight. It landed 16 km away. I GPS tracked myself at 60 km, a fairly substantial zig.zag walk searching for this kite. I didn't find it but the property owner's son found it a few days after I returned to Sydney. I made a 1,500 km round trip to fetch the kite. The team made it's first trip in April 2005 with myself, Mike Richards, Roger Martin, Hugh Moore and David Moore. There were lots of improvements to the winch and tracking equipment. The sponsors at the time were Lewis Pulleys, Universal Instruments and Teco motors. The line used for 2004 was 200 lb Spectra and for 2005, 300 lb. Amika Dyneema. I still have both these lines and they are in good condition with just a few percent reduction in breaking strength. My current sponsors are Toyobo in Japan and Tasline in New Zealand. Toyobo manufactures high strength fibres and actually made the fibres that Amika braided into the Dyneema line used on record attempts including part of the line set that captured the world record in 2016. The main line sets after 2007 were provided by Cousin-Trestec from Dyneema fibre supplied under sponsorship from DSM Dyneema. These lines totalled 28 km and I have only used a small proportion of one line, 350 lb. That amount of line would have cost a small fortune and the record attempts could not be conducted without DSM's support. The Toyobo/Tasline UHMWPE line will be needed for future train record attempts as I will need up to 700 lb. line. to tolerate the pull of 4 big kites or 12 medium kites. The line samples made by Tasline from the Toyobo/IZANIS fibres look outstanding. The team is meeting next week at ALT Cafe and we will discuss high altitude strategies and dates for next year. The first single kite attempts will probably be in September 2020 with 25,000 ft. the target. We are planning a number of modifications to the DT delta but the goal is to increase the lift by at least 25%. That should raise line tension from 122 lb to 152 lb. We believe we could have flown to 18,000 ft. in 2014 had we used 1,500 metres more line. We ran out at "only" 12,200 metres and the kite was at 25 degrees and 16,009 ft. AGL with very little line sag. I will keep you informed of developments. See more

01.01.2022 One of the major factors effecting altitude of a kite is line diameter. The line diameter, line length, line angle, line sag, average air density and average wind speed are included in calculations. While the calculations themselves do not determine the maximum altitude, they do assist in the selection of kite size and line strengths required. Kite size governs line strength. Line strength governs line diameter. Line diameter effects wind drag. Line drag is directly proportional to line length. These are complex interdependencies with no easy answers. The answers are reflected in the results which was the world record altitude with a kite one third the size of the previous record holder. We believe that 2,000 ft. could have been added to the 16,009 ft, record had 1,500 metres of line been added to the reel.