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Creating Single Line Kite Trains?


K'Tesh
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I have scored a few kites here in China, including a series of Delta Kites.  I'm all about flying with toys on the lines, lights (at night), balloons, pinwheels, line climbers, and streamers.  Problem is none of the single kites have the strength to lift the light toys (a chain of lightweight plastic lightsaber toys) that I'm trying to get airborn on their own.  The solution is to train some kites together.  So, how do I do it?

The kites are built, so I can't radically redesign them.  Attaching the upper kite to the lower kite shouldn't be done at the lower kite's spars, as it will likely deform or break them.  I don't want to have a lower kite attached to a separate line that is tied to the upper kite's line and possibly tangling them.  I just want to chain them together...

Like I've tried to indicate below.

---------\--------\------\

Any Ideas?

Thanks!

Jim

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SLKs are not my thing (yet?) so I'm not the most suited to giva any advice here unfortunately. However without a set of good quality photos that describes the parts involved in the problem-to-be-solved, the chance of getting good answers from anyone is reduced. Without any more details it is likely that you'll get only general answers. 

An attempt to help out:
If you could deviate from the condition that you only could connect to one point on the previous kite (as expressed in the above ASCII graphics), there would be the common dual line stack way (the only way that I've tried). The typical way to create a DLK stack would be to connect the bridle attachment points to each other, thus reducing the load on the frame of the first kite. If the first kite still would have a too weak frame, a stronger frame (with or without a sail) could be put before the first kite. In the below image you can see the yellow lines connecting the two kites.

large.stackAndTails.jpg

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2 hours ago, Edmond Dragut said:

connect the line at the intersection of the two spars

But if the spars are sensitive as stated in the original post - shouldn't an effort be made to reduce load on the spars in the middle of the kites? I see two principally close ways here - both require a hole in the sail:

  • Add a extra bridle lines to the to the image above. These extra bridle segments should form a continuation of the kite line. In this way connecting the central point of the spars of each kite to the neighboring kites'.
  • Let the kite line pass through all the sails except for the last kite. Then connect all the bridles of all kites to this line.
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hole in the sail is an option but not all the time a good one depending by the kites design and bridle.

pull force of the kite  is not bigger then spar resistance because the spare keep the shape without to break so...connecting the line to the spar actually will be 2 opposite forces canceling each other ore close to ,the pull force of the bottom kite and other pull force of the top one. Spare being stronger then any of this two forces will hold like a single kite is connected to them.ONE CONDITION- all kites must to be identical in surface. if they are not use the smallest on top of the line and the biggest to the bottom 

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Thanks All...  I suspect the hole in the sail will be necessary.  However, I'm worried about fraying.  I'm now thinking of sewing a link from the keel, up and through the back of the kite.

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4 hours ago, K'Tesh said:

Thanks All...  I suspect the hole in the sail will be necessary.  However, I'm worried about fraying.  I'm now thinking of sewing a link from the keel, up and through the back of the kite.

Melt a small hole, 1/16 to 1/8" diameter, through the sail and install a grommet. Will last forever. Not really, but 4X as long before it frays is about right as long as there is no lateral force on the sail material. With lateral force the sail will begin to come apart at the outer corners of the frame. 

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7 hours ago, makatakam said:

Melt a small hole, 1/16 to 1/8" diameter, through the sail and install a grommet. Will last forever. Not really, but 4X as long before it frays is about right as long as there is no lateral force on the sail material. With lateral force the sail will begin to come apart at the outer corners of the frame. 

That might do it...  If I can find a grommet around here.  China is not exactly a shopper's paradise if you can't read the language (and have only 2 years of college Mandarin).

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16 hours ago, K'Tesh said:

That might do it...  If I can find a grommet around here.  China is not exactly a shopper's paradise if you can't read the language (and have only 2 years of college Mandarin).

Find and order it online. It's gonna ship from China anyway.

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  • 11 months later...

So how did this project go? I didn't contribute as Makatakam and Edmonds answers pretty well covered things. I'll add a few pictures of one I did. I had to put 3 holes in each kite . 2 holes in the sail, one on each side of the spline, and 1 in the keel.20190407_193850.jpeg20190407_193936.jpeg20190407_193922.jpeg20190221_140006.jpeg

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using KiteLife mobile app

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