Stunt kites in high winds on Minchinhampton Common

As soon as I saw these kites swirling on the common, I knew I'd try to Blip them. I was actually on my way somewhere else and turned around to park near the old covered reservoir on the top of Minchinhampton Common.

I watched for a couple of minutes and took a variety of pictures, but the strength of the winds seemed to be taxing the flyers. I took a photo of them  trying to hold and steer the three kites which are tethered together. the drag must have been enormous,

I've always liked kites but have never personally flown stunt kites. My great friend Dave Turner, opened a Kite Store in Bristol and then another in Covent Garden, London, back in the late 1970s. With Dave I went to a Kite Flying festival in Scheveningen, on the beach near Den Haag in the Netherlands. There we succeeded in flying the longest kite in the world at the time, which had a ‘mylar’ tail more than one kilometre in length. The huge kite's face had to be tethered by strong thick ropes to a Range Rover to stop it flying away, so I'm aware of the potential strength of the pull on the lines.