In 1994, Monika Morgenthaler and I formed the pair Duo MozarTello. Monika lives in Basel, Switzerland. She is member of the well known international team Lucky Landing Albatross. Even though the distance from Vienna to Basel is 1000 km, Monika and I succeeded in winning second place in Pairs ballet at the Euro Cup 1994 in St. Moritz. We both love to fly to music. We enjoy demonstrating to the people that music and kiting can grow together in a wonderful expression of our feelings. We fly kites called Albatross MozarTello.
In addition to flying pairs, I have flown as a individual since 1991.
During 1993, I also flew with the Austrian team Kite-O-Holix. We participated in the World Cup 1993 at Berkeley, California, USA.
My best individual results in 1991 was placing first in experienced class at the Swiss Championship in precision, ballet and overall in experienced class. In 1992 at the Swiss Championship in Master Class I placed second ballet and overall. In the following years I placed well in various Eurorpean competitions. Since 1993 I have participated at all Euro Cups placing between 5th. and 13th. I am the only female presently participating in dual line individual master class at the various European competitions.
During 1996 I´ll be flying a Malibu (see little picture above). The Malibu is designed and built by the young and ambitious brothers Jens and Olaf Frank from Level One, whom are well known for their FSD connectors. The Malibu has a specific flying characteristic, he performs tricks excellently , has outstanding tracking and a very good feeling while flying. I predict that this kite shall help me to continue performing well in the coming 1996 season.
During 1993 I was member of the Austrian Tangram Team. Tangram is a quad line team of 7 members which achived 2nd. place at the 1993 Euro Cup in Vienna participating in Innovative (Freestyle) class. This year we will reconfigure Tangram Team. We plan to compete and perform shows.
Besides flying competitions I enjoy to build various types of kites such as stunt, single and quad line kites.
At some events I functioned as a shadow judge. This allows me to understand the "other" side in stunt kiting. It was very hard to only stand and watch others flying kites. I enjoyed it very much and could learn for my own flying.
My interest in stunt kiting in general lead me to work with STARRC (STACK Rules and Regulations Committee). I believe that everything possible should be done to give the young kite sport a proper base of good and well functioning rules.
In April 1996 I became National Director of STACK Austria. As ND I am the head of SAEC (Stack Austria Executive Committee) who will lead STACK Austria in future. My special intentions as ND are youth promotion, getting more kiters involved in stunt kiting and competition kiting, organizing an Austrian Championship and promoting stunt kiting as a sport.
There are several things that can do to conquer the problem of flying in high winds.
In strong wind I suggest you choose lines with a larger diameter (e.g. over 90 daN) These lines should be longer then the lines for normal winds. The extra weight of these lines cause your kite to be more stable. The thicker lines alone, will slow down the kite. When you fly with longer lines, the size of your wind window increases, which means the distance from one end of the window to the other increases. This is very helpful to you in competitive flying. In precision events, you will find that it is better to have long distance within the figure. This means you have more time to react when changing directions. The shorter the distance, the quicker you must react, thus more chances of mistakes. In ballet events, you must perform your manoeuvres at exact times to meet the rhythm of the music. If your kite moves too fast in high winds, you will fall out of synchronization with your music. To compensate for the higher winds you must also fly larger figures. Longer lines will allow you to fly these larger figures thus you can keep in beat with the music.
See here a model of the wind window and the way the kite goes with a line with 20m/40m length.
One type of brake is a triangular screen that is attached between the lower spreaders of the kite sail. On most types of delta stunt kites, this slow the kite´s forward motion and at the same time reduces the pull.
This type of brake are quite good for pair and team flying because the brake is fixed within the kite, thus it can´t tangle easily with another team members kite. One draw- back on this is its limitation to one particular wind strength area. This size of brake is a fixed size.
They got this name because their shape is similar to a baby´s nappies (diaper).
The nappies are stripes of mesh m(screen) which is attached between the bridle and the control lines. They slow down the kite and decrease the pull. Different sizes of nappies easily be made for different wind speeds, in sizes from about 7 - 25 cm. For a low expense, you can fly your kite with in a wide range of wind strengths.
Trick flying with nappies is difficult, as the nappies can easily tangle with the kite itself. Pair and team flying also create a little problem as well,because the nappies can tangle with another team members kite. Despite this slight disadvantage many pair/teams use nappies.
At World Cup 1994 in Le Touquet, the winds were very gusty with peeks hitting 68 km/h. Some teams even used a combination of two nappies or nappies and triangular brakes.
Venting is panels of mesh(screen) replacing parts of the spinnaker nylon/polyester in the sail of the kite. The venting in the sail results in a slower forward movement and a reduction in the pull of the kite.
By varying the amount of mesh(screen) in the kite sail, you can build kites for various wind strengths (see the diagrams below). Where the venting is placed and the size of the venting have various effects on different types of kites.
The various of brakes and venting will reduce your wind window. This could be a slight disadvantage in competitive flying.
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