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EBGB

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Everything posted by EBGB

  1. Pure spectra isn't real good for making bridles - too slippery. Any place on the bridle where there's a prussik or lark's head knot, it's liable to slip around when you don't want to. It doesn't hold knots very well either. The original post mentions a spectra/polyester blend, which works pretty well. I've used it on a few SULs. Neither has the abrasion resistance that real bridle line has, which can be a problem. Bridle line usually has a spectra core for strength, and a polyester woven wrap for abbrasion resistance.
  2. Go take a look at www.kitebuilder.com at the forums and the wiki. You'll find a good plan for a not-quite-rev quad. If you dig a little deeper, you'll find discussions amongst experienced kite builders about seam layout, how the seams limit stretch along their length, and how they create aerodynamic "pockets" inbetween the stitch lines. These things do matter, but their effects can be subtle.
  3. If your searching for the plans for commercial kites from a particular maker in the U.K., you might have run into his sense of humor. There are a set of links that lead you in circles. Commercial kite builders generally don't hand out their plans, and they frown on someone else handing out plans to their kites. There are a lot of nice plans out there though, made available by designers that have gone to the effort to not only design a kite, but put the plans and instructions together in a way that will allow others to build them. In other words, look at the plans that are available, rather than the ones that aren't (or shouldn't be). http://www.Kitebuilder.com is great. http://www.kiteplans.com as well.
  4. Hi Rick, I realize I'm coming in a bit late here. You said you shipped the kite. The cargo areas on aircraft are generally pressurized to 10,000 feet, and not heated so they can get very cold. Freight also can end up sitting in airfreight containers on the tarmac in the sun in Dallas, and get very, very hot. Humidity, in either of those areas is anybody's guess. Your kite returning to normal after a while points at something harsh happening to it on the way. Glad it cured itself!
  5. The business end of that saw is a mini chop saw from Harbor Freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=42307 They work OK, except that the life of the metal blade is pretty short cutting when you cut carbon. They sell a 2" abrasive cutting disk that will fit, but they never seem to have them in stock. The saw itself has very little torque, so cutting is pretty slow. If you happen to have a compressor, Harbor Freight sells a micro die grinder http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=47869 Uses Dremel accesories - you just have to be careful not to over-rev them. Combined with a diamond cut-off blade, it cuts like butter.
  6. You're all set Spence. Registration received. (The wife is one of the scorekeepers, so she's on the registrations distribution list) Hi Don, How 'bout Wen's? He did O.S. and WSIKF reg on line when he got here. Did they come through OK? I'll miss Ocean Shores, but will catch up with everybody on Sunday at LB! T Hi T Wen is all set for both! Sorry Spence - I can't even get her to tweak my scores for me. Or even tell me what place I'm in when I TBA! I think that's what she enjoys most about scorekeeping. Not sure who the scorekeeper is for WSIKF this year. You'll just have to wait until you get there to find out who to make the check out to.
  7. You're all set Spence. Registration received. (The wife is one of the scorekeepers, so she's on the registrations distribution list)
  8. Registration form for WSIKF is up! No WSIKF for me this year - saving the vacation time for my 25th anniversary.
  9. NWSKL.org is back up, but still no registration for WISKF.
  10. Hi Litsong, Sorry, I don't introduce myself as EBGB at festivals. Real name is Don - my wife is Mary. I spent most of Whidbey playing with the sound system and judgeing. Mary was in our camper, doing the scorekeeping. Oh, and on the pot-luck - the league usually has veggie burgers for the vegetarians.
  11. Hi Litsong! You probably don't remember me, but we met at Whidbey last year. Glad to hear you're coming to Ocean Shores! It's a nice little event. Not big crowds, but that just means the kite flyers get to hang out with each other more. There's a nice pot-luck Saturday night at a local park. The NWSKL provides the hamburgers and hot dogs. Some people bring deserts. The league champions will be getting their jackets. Hope you'll come! The link that Mousie gave you above is a good one. One that's probably on that list is the sands (http://www.thesandsonline.com/). There are actually two hotels, owned by the same people. The big fancy one, and a smaller one they call the "Off-Shore" several people I know have stayed there. The rooms are kind of small, but they're clean, and priced real reasonable. We're camping at Yesterday's RV. It's pretty basic, but it's right in town.
  12. I was W R O N G! Registration form for Cutting Edge Summer Heat is up, but no WSIKF yet. You might e-mail Bud - the Webmaster of the NWSKL.
  13. Ah, I see where that could cause some confusion! The folks in the registration tent on the beach have very little to do with the sport kite events. I believe they do registration for the Junior and Senior events that they've been running for years. Maybe they thought you were trying to sign up as a senior? "Mandatory" is probably too strong a word. "Highly recommended" is better. Depends on who CJ and scorekeeper are going to be this year, but in the past, right after the event in Ocean Shores, they went straight down to WSIKF. That meant is was difficult to receive the on-line registrations and do the printing between CESH and the comps at WSIKF. It's generally possible to register on the field Friday morning for the few that don't know about pre-registration, but it makes for a scramble for the scorekeeper. Bud should have the registration form up on the web site before too long. I see you're already on the mailing list. For those that aren't, visit the NWSKL web site, click on "Information" then "Member Information" and fill out the form. When the registration form is available, you should get an e-mail from Bud.
  14. It will probably go up about the same time as Cutting Edge Summer Heat. Since the scorekeeper and CJ will probably be setting up both at the same time. Because the two are so close together, early registration for WSIKF is generally mandatory. In other words, the registration form should be up soon.
  15. Before you start punching holes, note that position along the leading edge is very important. Too high, and the kite will fly "weak" when rolled up (don't know how else to explain it) - the nose will be too far forward. Also, since they also move in as they move up toward the nose, it gets increasingly easier to miss the stoppers when you roll up. Too far down the leading edge, and the kite will "buck" and stall since the nose is too far back. Essentially, when the kite is rolled up, you're flying it from a one-point bridle. Finding the right tow-point can be a little tricky. Best bet is to find someone who's already added stoppers to a Quantum, and get their measurements. Next best would be trail and error, preferably without having to punch a bunch of holes along your leading edge. I've used binder clips to find the sweet-spot before. Since they just clamp on, you can move them around as much as you like. They have very sharp edges though, so use leaders, and expect them to get trashed. Move them down until the kite bucks, then move them back up a bit.
  16. Yup. Full size regualation field is 360' X 360' Here in the Northwest, we use a full size field at all but one event that I can think of. With longer lines, the kite can appear to be traveling slower, giving you more time to react, and slowing down the pace of a routine. (The kite isn't actually going any slower, it just has farther to travel) Longer lines also add some drag, but it tends to be most noticable at the edges of the window. Long heavy line can add a lot of drag, frequently at the expense of a lot of droop in your lines. The big droop can delay your inputs getting to the kite - when you pull a line, some of the pull goes to pulling the droop out of the line. Some people, teams in particular, have gone to using very heavy extensions, added on to the end of normal lines. Adding 20' of 500# line on the end of 120' of 150# will slow down a kite quite a bit. Plus, in team, 500# line can take a lot of hits from other kites before it lets go!
  17. Yup. Herb's store has gone on-line. You can see his stock with an appointment, but it's not much of a browsing kind of place any more. More like a shed full of parts. Gasworks/Goodwinds is about all there is - but definetly worth the visit. I think she's still carrying at least most of the Prism line. Lots and lots of parts and other goodies though.l For flying, there's Golden Gardens, Kite Hill (Magnussen Park) or Gasworks Park (very close to the store). Depending on what you mean by "a few weeks", you might be able to catch the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival and iQuad. It's a bit North of Seattle, but worth the drive. You don't even have to be into flowers to be impressed!
  18. Fort Casey State Park is almost right at the festival site, but it's pretty "exposed". Food? You got me. They only place we've ever eaten is at the Tyee Hotel. Nice atmosphere. Decent food. You know that the festival includes a banquet Saturday night?
  19. I believe it's already past the cut-off to reserve a spot at Camp Casey - details are at the bottom of the "Accomodations" page on the Whidbey site. There's a couple of state parks relatively close. I believe the closest are both first-come, first-served though. I haven't stayed in either, but they're state parks so how bad can they be? Your best route depends on where you're coming from. As Doug mentioned, there's limited ferries from Pt Townsend, and they've been known to cancel boats at low tide as well. The Mukilteo/Clinton ferry isn't bad during Friday. We've driven right on a couple of times, and only had to wait 15-20 minutes a couple of other times. Might be more busy Saturday morning. Driving around probably adds an hour or so to your trip. I know the ferry is expensive if you're towing. We took a fairly long truck/trailer combo one year, and I think it cost us something like $85.00
  20. I'm sorry to say that I've never seen a kite making book that was up to date. Things have changed quite a bit materials wise. One of the most important is that ripstop itself has changed. The coatings have improved greatly, so current fabrics can be cold-cut without fraying. That opened the door for curved, lapped, and taped seems. I'll second recommending a visit to Kitebuilder.com. Read the tech sheets and use the search function to find specific things in the forum, or just settle in and start reading the threads. They're also working on a Wiki to tie a lot of the information together in a more usable way.
  21. Dan beat me to the key question. I have a little bit of a library, and I've managed to end up with a couple of duplicates. If I have the one you're thinking of, I could at least give you a mini-review.
  22. A second hardrive on a different controller channel is even better. Also, make sure that nothing else is taking up processor time while you're capturing. Data comes off that fireware cable pretty fast. Your processor has to move it to the hard drive, and the hardrive has to get it written as fast as it comes in. If, say, and anti-virus program decides to read or write from the disk, the head has to move to another location, do it's job there, then go back to writing your video. If it gets behind, and can't get caught back up, it will drop frames. So close everything else down. Check the "tray" for anything that might be making your computer work. Then it Ctrl-Alt-Delete. When the task manager pops up, check that the "Applications" tab is pretty much clear. Then check the "Processes" tab. There'll be lots of stuff in there, much of which need to be running for your computer to run. If you click on the column header labeled "CPU Time" (twice, to show it sorted in descending order), it will show you what programs have been using up processor time. "System Idle Process" should be at the top - it shows the time when your computer isn't doing anything. If there are other programs near the top, you can think about identifying them and shutting them down while you're capturing. Don't use the "End Process" button unless you know what the process is, and know you can do with out it.
  23. My guess would be Jim Barber. We were up the beach from you having team practice, and Jim dropped by.
  24. Mary and I will both be there for sure! Along with most of the NWSKL crowd. Attendance should be great for a first time event! I'm predicting a fantastic event.
  25. Bud has the season schedule (along with this year's figures and such) up over at the NWSKL site! http://www.nwskl.org
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