Fighter kite
Kite fighting is contested in many countries, but particularly in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Chile and Brazil.
In modern American fighters, the kite skins are made from a variety of synthetic materials – mylar, aircraft insulation (orcon or insulfab), nylon, and polyester sheeting.
Historically, for most Asian type fighters, a thin cotton or hemp line is coated with a mixture of finely crushed glass and rice glue.
The primary components of this include glue and crushed glass, but depending on personal preference other materials are added to improve the properties of the line.
Bridle position, curve, centre of gravity, and balance of tension on the spars all play a role in how the kite spins and tracks.
If the wind is so strong that the spine and bow are severely distorted, no amount of bridle tuning will help with making the kite controllable.
Winning factors include the skill of the kite flyer, size of the kite, its speed, agility and durability, the quality of the line, its sharpness, the quality and size of the spool, the spool mechanism, initial contact and wind conditions.
Organised competitions do exist, such as since 2015 the "Red Bull Kite Fight" each year in a series of cities in North India.
The usual name for the sport is gudiparan bazi and for the cutting line tar, first described in an article online in 2001.
As part of the Shakrain festival, people mostly from south Dhaka city engage in kite fighting.
In Brazil, kite fighting is a very popular leisure activity for children, teenagers and even young adults, particularly boys and men.
Unlike other square fighter kites of the world, the Chilean volantín uses 3 support threads (two at the top and one at the bottom) for easier, more stable manoeuvre.
Used for decoration or to highlight a celebratory motif such as the national flag, a trailing tail is left out for competitive matches.
However, for fighting medio pavo, those of mid-size are most popular due to their more balanced performance in terms of speed, strength, and accuracy.
Practitioners of this activity usually begin fighting in September, when the spring winds buffet the coast.
Clubs and professional associations prefer to host tournaments throughout the drier summer months when the commercial kite season is over.
Thus a skilled kite fighter will likely complete a match without ever touching the thread with their hands, having mastered these rods.
[16] The Nagasaki Hata is similar to the Indian Patang, and it believed to have been introduced into Japan, from Indonesia, by Dutch traders.
The skies are filled with colourful kites called changas, made from Nepali lokta paper.
Kite fighting is common in all over Pakistan, but mainly concentrated in cities of Punjab and Sindh region including Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Karachi, Islamabad etc.
According to history, Akbar the Mughal Emperor, who lived in his residence in Lahore from 1584 to 1598, enclosed the city with brick walls and 12 gates of considerable height and strength.
One of the gates, called the "Moochi Darwaza" or "Cobbler Gateway," is the most popular site in Lahore to buy and sell Kite flying and firework materials.
People from all over Pakistan and many from neighbouring India come to Lahore to annually celebrate the two days long Bassant or Spring Festival.
NAFKA, also known as North American Kite Fighting Association has had a few gatherings in the past few years in Washington and Oregon.
The vast majority of all kite fights in the western region of the United States are one-on-one battles.
[citation needed] These accidents range in severity from small cuts on the fighter's fingers to a few reported deaths from contact with the line while riding motorcycles.
have set limits on the materials used to make the line, others have mandated safety devices on motorcycles when riding during kite festivals.
Most of these accidents are preventable when fighting is strictly controlled to a specific arena and proper safety gear is worn by the fighters.
The kite strings left around after the fight can become stuck in tall trees and can stay there for long periods, impacting the natural aesthetic of parks and wilderness areas, thus degrading the experience of other park users from the trash that is left about.
