Jump to content
KiteLife Forum

Blogs

Featured Entries

  • Exult

    Learning from flying in unfamiliar or non-ideal situations

    By Exult

    When being removed from your comfort flying zone you might get new experiences that you couldn't imagine or predict. This blog entry is also a vacation post card from the medieval city (in the sense that ruins and buildings from that time still exist) of Visby ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visby ) in the island of Gotland ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotland ) in the Baltic Sea as well as an example of how flying during new and non-ideal conditions turned out to be educational, fun and very
    • 1 comment
    • 2,695 views
  • SHBKF

    Support your LKS

    By SHBKF

    Support your LKS   I started reading the kite forums with some intensity over four years ago.  I had used computers for many years even back before the days of the WWW.  It has been quite awhile since I’ve seen that initialism used in any context.  I had previously been on a few forums of interest but I was really fired up wanting to learn anything kites.   I saw mention of an initialism LKS, Local Kite Store.  Out here in the mountains of western Virginia there was no such thing.  Maybe
    • 1 comment
    • 1,491 views
riffclown's kite blog

Crazy Quilt.

Going off of the look of the Scrapestry, I decided to use the new batch of scraps to do an all color kite.. Some of the scraps were neutral White and Charcoal but I based the placement on the size of the scraps and not the color.  Crazy Quilt has begun..
riffclown

riffclown

8
riffclown's kite blog

The Hive is Complete

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
riffclown

riffclown

2
riffclown's kite blog

The Pattern Emerges

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
riffclown

riffclown

1
riffclown's kite blog

D Leading Edge

Added Leading Edges to Scrapestry and Purple Fade this morning..Touch of Blue Leading Edge was done last week and posted.  Sunset fade MIGHT be taking a different route to leave more camber and sail area. It may end up being more of a light wind kite for me..In short, there's a bit of sail there that is "extra" and I'm deciding if I want to leave it oversize or trim it down to standard 1.5 dimensions.
riffclown

riffclown

0
riffclown's kite blog

Diamonds and Updates

It's been a whiles since I added any entries to the blog but it not for lack of sewing kites. After Jester II I decided it was time for some new color chemes AND new fabric.. 22 YArds of Icarex in Black White, Silver and Gray followed soon after.. I decided to take a chance and make an offer on the scrap bin and received a good bit of the full spectrum of colors..A full sunset fade   was the first endeavor followed closely by  purple fade with several different shades of purple A
riffclown

riffclown

0
Exult's Gentle Breeze

A First Impression of the One Eleven and Smithi Pro - The Day of the Long Lines

This session I planned to: Test the new Level One, One Eleven. Practice QLK (B-series mid vent) with long (40m) lines. Test the new Smithi Pro kite. Thu Mar 29 11:00:00 CEST 2018 GF, forecasted 3-4m/s, but was a bit varying Level One, One Eleven on 35m 75kg lines B-series 1.5 on 40m 40kg lines Spiderkites, Smithi Pro also on 40m 40kg lines Disclaimer: Do not consider this to be two proper reviews - it is just a first impression of the One Eleven and the Smithi Pro during a
Exult

Exult

0
Exult's Gentle Breeze

Different moods of winter - Wide wind window tricking in light winter winds

Mars 2018, ITW Kymera 25m lines One, lately a bit rare , pre-work session on a piece wise slippery field. This morning offered a sun dog scenery along with a faint halo. My current DLK main focus is to get the flic flac going/start/getting a tiny bit reliable. Considering that the FAs are not 100% it is actually more than one thing that is being practiced in parallel. Sometimes even one rung of a JL just happens to come out of it (typically if the light pop when flared was uneven and
Exult

Exult

1
Exult's Gentle Breeze

Vapor in the dusk

Sat Feb 17 18:00:00 CET 2018 Golf course, forecasted 1m/s, in reality possibly no wind Vapor on 15m 20kg lines One February afternoon my wife turned hopeful - there was a thin layer of snow - perhaps it would be possible to do some cross country skiing again. Towards the end of the day me and my wife left for the wintry golf course. I wasn't so sure, so I left the skies at home and "only" brought my Prism Vapor. We went by two cars because my wife feared that I for some reason could
Exult

Exult

0
riffclown's kite blog

Digging in the bag

So I came to a rude awakening yesterday.. Despite my best attempts, it's really hard to get all my framed quads in an easy configuration for travel.. Part of this is because I don't know how to leave ANYTHING behind..  Given that I've made a bunch of kites since my last outing to OBX, I decided to make a dig bag. I came up with a 11"x11"x44" pumpkin of a bag after visiting Joann's Fabrics this morning.. I picked up some Orange duck cloth and zippers that all combined with a tiedown strp I had ha
riffclown

riffclown

1
riffclown's kite blog

Diamonds in the dark

Diamonds in the dark Decided I wanted to take my seaming technique to a feasible limit. Using the same materials as the Midnight Royal and Yonder, I went with a diamond pattern and worked it through nearly the entire sail yielding over 450 panels. Encouraged by the mock up, I pressed forward. Once the sides were nearly done I realized how much actual area I had lost with the 1/4' overlap.. i decided to wedge  some poly at the top to give it a bit of a retro look. Ready to join the center an
riffclown

riffclown

0
riffclown's kite blog

Changing Perspective

I've decided to take all of the perspective kites (Except for The Jester) and finish the individual panels.. I'll mix and match those to make 5 or six kites (maybe even 7) and fly as a stack for a bit.. By finishing them all at once I can ensure they are identically sized and with same aspect ratios. So the panels will progress but no finished kites until I'm ready to finish them all. This was the strategy for the Spectrum Stack and it worked well for me.. Otherwise I tend to have slightly
riffclown

riffclown

0
Exult's Gentle Breeze

First indoor session and winter activities

Wed Jan 10 11:03:35 CET 2018 A tennis court in a sports hotel in Schladming in the Austrian Alps Prism 4D on about 3m (10 ft set, but with adjustable length) 20kg lines (The 4D was the only kite that fitted into the suitcase - brought it just in case...) This reminds me of a Swedish proverb: "Som en åsna mellan två hötappar" - like a donkey between two hay feeding stations. This means here that there is a problem of choosing a preferred activity. The surface of this tennis court was
Exult

Exult

3
riffclown's kite blog

Playing With Perspective

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.  
riffclown

riffclown

0
Exult's Gentle Breeze

20 first minutes of Speedwing - a really short session for a change

Mon Dec 25 13:00:00 CET 2017 GB, Forecasted 4m/s (gusts 8m/s) Cross Kites Speedwing X1 25m 38kg lines Looks small (113cm span), but is capable of surprising you (much like the Monty Python monster rabbit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCI18qAoKq4 ?). Looks wrinkled as well? Don't worry - once in the air everything gets smooth.   Conditions/background: Quite OK wind, but I still wouldn't hesitate to trick trickable kites. Rain on frozen ground... My flick flack exercising
Exult

Exult

1
SegelFlieger

Nail Boards for Knot Tying

I was inspired by the information shared in recent posts regarding the existence of something called a "Nail Board" to help tie accurate "Knot Systems" such as bridles, leader lines for handles and potentially other applications.  I decided that what I am about to share is too lengthy for a forum post so I have posted this as a blog instead.  I hope you find it useful. SF Nail Board Instructions for Knot Tying   A Nail Board consists of a “flat board” with physic
SegelFlieger

SegelFlieger

0
Exult's Gentle Breeze

Stacked Fazers and stand-off epoxy repair

Sat Sep 30 16:38:39 CEST 2017 GF, forecasted 3-4m/s Fazer XL and XXL stacked on 35m 180kg lines Two 23m (75 ft) prism tube tails   To carry stuff After the soon 3 months on QLKing I decided to end that test/project and return to DLKs (and "at the same time" continue with QLKs). During the QLK time I got kind of "transportation spoiled". I only had two kites to carry around: B-series 1.5 std and full vent. The full vent venting holes are patched with removable thin sheets of cel
Exult

Exult

0
×
×
  • Create New...