Looks like first flight for my new kites is going to have to be altered.. I won't be able to make the Wright festival this year after all.. Hopefully I'll get out for a few minutes to my regular flying field.. If so I'll try to fly'em and get some footage there.
Sometimes Life Happens
I've been asked about what I use to do particular things for kite making. Thought it'd be a good opportunity to share a quick overview of pretty much everything I use. Some are more obvious than others.
My kite making tools..
I use a sewing machine (obviously)
2 - 6' Long Metal rulers
2 - 3' Long Metal Rulers
1 - 18" Ruler (metal)
1 - 12" Ruler (metal)
A Fiskars Rotary cutter.
A Paper Cutter (Office Style)
The normal assortment of Scissors (Including a heavy duty pair for
Just a short <90 second clip to share how I get to see the Diamonds pattern emerge from a striped sail each time. This is when I get to truly see the stage I call the "mock up" and is the first real indicator of how the final kite will appear.. Until this point the pattern is truly just in my head.
The Layout from the initial stripes isn't a mockup. it allows me to see the color mix but not the actual placement of segments. This difference is far more prevalent whe
This commissioned sail has been completed and is ready for initial flight tests.. this one is as close to an exact 1.5 size as I could make it and still be faithful to the diamonds techniquen. I don't usually make an exact 1.5 size and the sail isn't as tight as one would expect but a simple glide test was surprising. Bungees are left long for the moment to allow a bit of tweaking if required. This sail has the wear strips, LE Tabs, fold relief and is set up to allow French bridles and magic sti
A full sail attempt.. While this kite flew and performed decently, the material was not ripstop and I didn't want to keep repairing it. It is now a banner. The LE from this kite was reused to create FS#2. First Flight was the Wright Kite Festival in 2016
Finished Sails for 5 Kites from one 96' Rainbow Transition Tail today. Will finish the Endcaps, Bungees and custom Skyshark frames this week. Hopefully first flight will be at the Wright Kite Festival in 2 weeks. It's where I flew my first home made 2 years ago. These kites all have 72" LE sleeves and will use 74" LE. I'm still considering putting a vertical black stripe on the center of each sail.
So the packing is done, arrangements made and just last minute prep for the trip.. I make make a run to create a test dogstake to try out this weekend. hoping also for a night fly since I'll be staying down there.. Truck is getting full.
It was an incredible Weekend With The RAF, WoW crew and Kitty Hawk Kites. The Rogallo festival this year had WIND, Kites, Sun, WIND, a few Sprinkles, WIND and did I mention WIND!!!
Thank You @Nags Head Flyer for pulling together some World Class flier to make this a Rogallo to remember.
Other Forum Members that I saw come by are @Ejay @John P @Tim P.
Since the new year, I've turned my attention to materials other than tails.. Nothing wrong with the tails constructions but I wanted a new perspective.. and that perspective was perspective..
Angled shapes started out as a lazy harlequin pattern in complimentary colors. Because of the pattern it became the Jester. This was my first run at edge joining materials that were not already hemmed.
The Jester followed by a vanishing point perspective in dissimilar materials.
Lately I've been playing with pulling stills out of video and overlaying the frames to have a still image "show" motion.. Thought I'd share the efforts. Some of these you have seen. Some are new but from older footage.
Those who know me know I can't pack small no matter how hard I try.. Rogallo Festival is this weekend. First big event since the pandemic. Lots of kites to fly, lots of stuff to try BUT, Jockey's Ridge does have one downside.. IT is not the most accessible site to fly at. Closest parking is at Kitty Hawk Kites across the street but that's a long ways to carry 4 kite bags, Umbrella/chair/canopy/cooler/camera equipment etc. As much as I want to carry "everything" it just isn't in the cards. FWIW,
The center panel is the excess material from FS#3 and the sail itself is Red White Blue, G-Kites Transition tails in the front and Skywriter tails in the back. My second kite with a proper LE and I did induce a slight curve to the LE to mimic the positive flight characteristics of Mesh #3. This one was bridled today and I expect to fly it along with FS #3 at the 2017 Wright Festival.
I wanted to explore some uneven spacing and was very pleased with the outcome one this kite which also debuted at the 2017 Rogallo festival. Jim Cosca told me this wasn't a good kite, it was a GREAT kite. High Praise coming from a master.. No Video yet was too busy flying to record.
This was created from the "good side/bad side" "lessons learned on Mesh #3. The LE is made from Freilein Kite Bag Canvas.
Again first flight was one day after work without video but I kept up the throw launch tradition..
First Video is here..
FWIW, this is the first kite I ever put in the ocean.. Luckily JB was there to help fish it out of the surf. Wet Ripstop is HEAVY..
My first attempt using transition tails. The kite was planned to be full size but this was a lesson in good "side/ bad side" when the kite is formed from one panel. This is also the first time I added a bit of curve to the LE.
This kite was finished in Early March and saw first flight without video available.. Throw launch was successfull but this kite has a bit of float and makes the catch a bit trickier.
First Video in 20+ Winds is here.
I wanted a finer basket weave and was willing to accept the weight of the sail as a factor in performance. The Reinforcements are Canvas strips I had handy. The Le is a strip of the Gomberg Skywriter tails. JB had flown most of my creations to this point and said this was the best of the group so far. First Flight Feb 2017. Began the tradition of throw launching a new kite for first flight.