Caller Stephen

Knock Knock, RNG Where are you?

Is this of any use? Cheers Stephen

Hi there, The long line that you wish to tension should enter the central hole of the bead, pass out and back into the two holes on the side of the bead and leave throuch the other end of the central bead. You might need a loop of fine thread/floss to act as a pull through to route the bridle line through the side holes. Once threaded through is the bead has a third side hole then create a loop and thread the end of the line back into the same end of the central hole and out through the third side hole securing the end with a figure of eight knot. If there are only two side holes then either back up the central hole and then knot it or if there is enough room out thorough on of the side holes and knot it. The long line that you wish to adjust has the added friction of passing through four right angles going from the central hole, through the side, along the side and finally back though the side and into the central hole. When under tension this creates a lot of friction and will maintain the tension. When not under tension the bead can move and the size of the spare loop adjusted. The bead acts a little like a Prussik knot, slips when not under tension but holds under tension. Much harder to describe with words than a diagram would be. A different technique for using beads for tension is http://www.fighterkitecentral.com/pdfs/manny's 1 bead spine tensioner.pdf Hope this helps. Cheers Stephen

Another alternative is a yacht chandlers. A visit can often yield some interesting items for kiting. Shock cord in 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 5mm etc. is usually available by the metre with the advantage of seeing what you are buying. Also available are spinnaker repair tapes, for those little accidents, and insignia tape for adding wear strips. Cheers Stephen

Hi Cliff, Glad you were able to meet up with Graham and Bill and that they were able to help you along. Two really nice gents. I have known Graham for over ten years and he has always been very encouraging and helpful. There is nothing quite like flying with others. If you fly with them again, which I hope you are able to do, say hi from me. Graham should know who I am. Cheers Stephen

A really nice collection of kites and nicely documented. I would agree that kite 102 looks very much like a Lee Sedgwick U-FO "Ultimate Flying Object". More details can be found https://windstarkites.com/UFO.htm including a video and instructions on Lee's Quad sticks handles. Cheers Stephen

Very nice Jeremy. I always find your videos so inspiring. Thanks so much for taking the effort to make them. Cheers Stephen

Did I miss something?

Hi Cliff, Being based in Bedfordshire then Bill (oapbillf) will be the one to contact. No doubt he will be along shortly. Dunstable Downs on a Sunday is the best time to expect to meet other Quad line kite fliers. Bill and Graham form a pairs Quad team "Dunstable Downs Old Gents" and I believe still fly there on Sundays from 10am. It is/was trhe base for the Quad Kite Flying team "The Flying Squad" but I am not sure of their status and how active they are. The best advice is to meet up and talk, fly with and experience flying in a group. You might try dropping Bill a direct message. Cheers Stephen

Have you tried emailing Tim Benson. He can be contacted via the email on his website. He should be able to tell you what your version of Outerspace was framed with. I did find this spec for the outerspace that might match yours. The framing being a combination of Structil standard and Structil Hi Mod. "The Outer Space is framed in Hi-mod, a light, stiff and reasonably robust pultruded carbon. Tradewinds' excellent fittings are used and bungees at the tip and Velcro at the spine hold the sail taut." He still makes the outerspace http://www.bensonkites.com/kites/outerspace.html

Err? I think that as this is a post in the Single Line Kites Forum and talking about Dacron lines the poster is not interested in stacking lines for a Revolution style kite stack but rather flying several single line kites of a single line. For Dacron lines there is possibly not much to choose from to make the decision. There can be bad batches of line but if it breaks you can tie a knot. Do bear in mind that knots in lines does reduce their breaking strength so you need to be careful. 300lb line is not that strong so unless your kites are small you will not fly many off thar line.

There I was thinking that you have not posted a dog stake video for a while and you go and post a tutorial. Another great video Jeremy. Particularly like the safety warning along with the scratched glasses.

Another really enjoyable video Jeremy. I hate to think how long it took to film and edit into such a polished video. I assume that you pre-programmed a drone and flew to where it was filming for some of the sequences. Cheers Stephen

Odysse 5 made by Sonja Graichen of Kinetic Art Kites. They are aparently about to on sale this summer. More details at https://kinetic-art-kites.jimdofree.com/deutsch/onlineshop/vierleiner/ in German I am afraid. She has been making and selling very good wind powered bubble making machines for a few years now.

The original Rev 1s (first known as Neos Omega) had a different bridle that required the flying lines to be of different lengths so if you buy it you might have to put extensions on the bridle connection points, which were aluminium rings so that the lines could be attached by clips. There was a wooden kiteline winder. I also believe that the original Rev 1s had external aluminium ferules in the leading edge rather than internal ferules and were 4-wrap. The sails were made of carrington nylon. The endcaps were aluminium. Later Rev 1s had a bridle that was designed for equal length flying lines and without the aluminium rings for line connection. Also other sail materials were used including mylar for some panels at one stage. It should still be a good kite to fly and own. Just bear in mind that the early bridle will need extending to fly off equal lines.

Today is the day!

I seem to recall that my early vintage EXPs came with plain rods or rods with EXP stickers on them. They were all 3 wraps whether they were plain with no labels or labelled EXP. Unfortunately my EXPs are in storage so I am unable to check or provide photos. Cheers Stephen

Hi There, Not sure if this is of use. I remembered seeing this video several years ago and was surprised at the speed that the loose kites went away over the sea and the skill of the recovery team. A flock of Crow kites had their line cut and flew out to sea, only to be rescued by the skillful action nearby fighter kite team. Kite Rescue 2016 Dieppe An explanation of what happened by Andrew Beattie "This is fairly cool but I need to explain. The guy in the red jacket was flying a"flock" of bird kites. A single main line with many smaller lines tied along it, each one of which was connecter to a single bird, giving the appearance of a flock. The main line was cut and the whole lot went off into the drink in the off-shore wind. A couple of the kites at the bottom caught in the water, providing enough drag to keep the rest of the kites flying. Quickly, the flier dashed to the Columbian tent where he recruited some fighter kite fliers for assistance. Before they had even reached the water, the fighter flyer had manoeuvred his kite out amongst the flock. By repeatedly spinning the fighter round one of the birds, he snared it and was able to bring the entire flock back to the beach." Comments by the crows' owner. "Yes the crows were unfortunately cut from the sky about ten foot from their anchor. I was chatting to a fellow kiter when an Indian fighter drifted by us only feet from the ground when my colleague said I think that !*"^! cut your line. At that instant I noticed my line marker tumbling to the ground and the crows floating away towards the sea. I immediately gave chase but they were already in the water five in the water and five flying high dragging the rest out to sea. Having the fighter competition guys behind us around the arena I ran back up the beach while Sandra stayed at the waters edge I hoped that the Indian guy's I had been talking to earlier were still there and could help. They were not but the Brazilian team were, so I approached one of them for help to retrieve my crows which were now well away from the shore, we had a language problem but that was soon resolved as others in the team were fluent in English and the rescue was on its way. While the one flying retrieved his head stick Brazilian fighter another ran for some stronger line while another changed the line. With all six in tow one feeding the line off the drum for the flyer by the time we got back to the beach the rescue kite was already 2-3 hundred metre's away and almost on to the crows. At that point I knew my beloved crows were coming back and the rescue kite was manoeuvred into position wrapping around the lines The team then slowly pulled the kites back to shore and very kindly untangled the birds nest of lines and sea weed. After 30 mins all ten crows were aloft. I will always be grateful to my new found friends of the Brazilian fighter competition team they were magnificent and took the top 2 positions in the competition the existing world champ finishing second on the day." Cheers Stephen

Hi there, I think that you will find that the HQ Quad Piggy was designed by Jan Houtermanns. Jan also had close connections with the Fly High kite shop in Vienna. Fly High published a version of Jan's Kite on their website (sadly defunct along with the shop) but it is still available at kiteplans.org https://www.kiteplans.org/planos/saubau/saubau.html Just in case you need any ideas. I believe that HQ used a few designs that had been published getting the designer to make a few changes to facilitate mass production of commercual kites. The Bowkite springs to mind. https://www.kiteplans.org/planos/bowkite/Bowkite.pdf

Bill Lancashire over on Fractured Axel wrote a series of articles on the Benson Phantoms. Here are the links to the full set of forum threads that he wrote on the Phantom history: 1.The Early Years (1989 - 1990) 2.The Highflyers Era (1990 - 1992) 3.The 'Original' Benson Phantom (1991 - 95) 4.The Phantom Elite (1995 - Present) Note the picture near the bottom of page 1 on the Highflyers Era which has the same panel layout as yours and is also without the Highflyers label. You could always contact Tim Benson himself. Hope this helps. Cheers Stephen

Hi Mark, Welcome to kite flying. Especially around the 1:23 region. But usually the stand offs would be installed with the bend going away from the kite. Also and http://www.invento-h..._review_KaF.pdf although it is in German. You might consider using an elastic band and larks head one end to the stand off and the other end to the lower spreader so that if it comes loose after a heavy landing it does not fly off and get lost. Cheers Stephen