We had an 18 month break with our last series was in October 2005. It was unclear what the best month of the year was for winds. We eventually decided on September which proved correct with a world record flight to 16,009 ft in September 2014.
On day 1 Mike Richards and Barry Copenhall arrived at Dubbo to stay at my house and I departed for Dubbo at 4am while they got some more sleep. I setup on the airstrip and was ready to fly at 12 midday after Barry and Mike arrived at10am but that is too late really to get to any great height. We used the blue, yellow and purple kite that replaced the black kite lost in October 2005. Winds looked ideal at ground level but good winds at ground often don't always translate to good winds higher up. However, despite the late start we launched in 12 know wind. It was the first flight to use the GPSFlight telemetry which can be seen being prepared in a blue insulated box in the image below. The 900 MHz signal transmits up to 40 km back to a receiver the ground connected to a laptop. The GPS altitude and positional date is displayed with proprietary software along with barometric altitude and air temperature. The kite climbed with some see-sawing of the winch to push the kite through a soft layer between 2 and 4,000 feet. The kite eventually rose steadily to 10,500 ft. but we ran out of time, having to get the kite back before last light as stipulated by CASA. It was a pity because I estimate that the kite could have reached 16,000 ft. and established the record early in the series. However we had to wait another 7 years for that opportunity

Day 3 and in the air after a delay due to GPS Telemetry battery connection problems which couldn't be resolved on field. We put a Garmin Geko on-board but the live telemetry was sorely missed as it guided our line release strategy. We used the theodolite to view the kite plus the line payout readings. The kite flew directly to 7,500 then slowly ascends to 9,500 AGL ft but required 2 hours of winch manipulation. The wind dropped and the kite see-sawed between 4,000 and 7,000 ft but it is futile and we wind the kite in to retrieve it before last light.

Day 2 and showed a frustrating period in the morning and early afternoon with a struggle to get past 7,000 ft. We dared to release line as Mike Richards called out "throw some more line at it Bob" and the kite dropped to 2,500 ft. AGL with the line nearly inn the tree tops. We put out about 5,500metres of line with 1,000 metres fed out to drop the kite and then we winched as fast as the winch would go. This was a modest 8 kph but it was enough to force the kite to 8,100 ft. briefly then it wallowed at 7,500 for over an hour. It was after 4pm so we decided to wind the kite down to get it back before last light, a condition stipulated by CASA, that is, we are only allowed to fly the kite between first and last light. At this time of year that's about 6 am to 7:30 pm. We carry a flashing LED light on the kite so we can see it in low light.