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  • 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
    • 2,489 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
    • 1,352 views
riffclown's kite blog

Mesh #6

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.
riffclown

riffclown

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riffclown's kite blog

FS #3

This is my first kite with a PROPER Leading edge. As of this posting it has not flown but I expect it to fly similarly to FS#2 since it is truthfully its panel mate. The sail is a touch tighter than FS3.  Notice the white markers are offset between FS#2 & FS#3. Epected First Flight will be at the Wright Kite Festival in 2017
riffclown

riffclown

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riffclown's kite blog

Mesh #5 Patriot Plaid

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.  
riffclown

riffclown

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riffclown's kite blog

FS #2

FS #2 My first full sail and kite #1 out of the first Gomberg 96' Transition tail. This kite reused the LE from Tails and was intentionally a loose sail to induce flutter and explore some "artificail belly" While it performed OK I did have Eliot tighten the belly a bit befor the kite's debut at the Rogallo festival in 2017 First Flight was at the point at Whalehead. Video captured by Mike Klaiber and posted to his Peaks of Otter Facebook.. Thanks Mike.    
riffclown

riffclown

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riffclown's kite blog

Mesh #4

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..    
riffclown

riffclown

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riffclown's kite blog

Mesh #3

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.      
riffclown

riffclown

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riffclown's kite blog

Mesh #2

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.    
riffclown

riffclown

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riffclown's kite blog

Tails FS# 1

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      
riffclown

riffclown

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riffclown's kite blog

Mesh # 1

My first attempt at a homemade kite. Made with Blue and Black Gomberg Skywriter Tails. LE is the Cheap Amazon Tails fabric and the stretch strips are Gomberg strips added later. Reinforcement points are Olive Drab Duct Tape. This kite was completed Summer of 2015 and first flew at the Wright Kite Festival in July 2015 I have comfortably flown this kite in 35+ MPH winds when others were giving up on flying...  
riffclown

riffclown

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Notes from the field

Back, way back, in the day.

In the mid-sixties I had a paper route in Brigham City, Utah delivering the Deseret News.  It was my first experience in how to operate a small business as we were all essentially independent contractors.  My route took about an hour & one half delivering 50 to 60 papers on my 3 speed English bike.  The newspaper company was always trying to get us to sign up new subscribers.  Incentives were given based on the number of new subscribers we recruited.  The most memorable premium I ever receiv
SHBKF

SHBKF

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Trip the Kite Fantastic

...Eight weeks later...

Suddenly, it's May!   The weather has been turning colder here over the last few (eight!) weeks.   Work has been busy, and combined with the end of daylight savings time, it has definitely put a crimp on my flying!   I finally got a chance to debut my new ribbon tails last weekend, they looked great!   Unfortunately I can't show you any video, the GoPro wasn't working properly - operator error!  Then I got rained on and it dawned on me that I now had to work out a way of drying 2 x 25ft tails...
jasonmcmahon76

jasonmcmahon76

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Exult's Gentle Breeze

The pre-work sessions of week #9

My first pre-work session May I ask for 10 more of these sessions? Fragments to decipher - tricking that leaves questions These sessions were all in the tricking en masse spirit. Approaching tricking from this different angle turned out to allow me to catch glimpses of tricks that if I would have worked on a trick methodically one by one, would have been several years ahead. This once again leads me into thinking of the beginning of the Trickery Flickery video ( http://kiteli
Exult

Exult

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