Anxious to try my new Djinn, I contacted @Khal to see if we could meet and fly today. Yesterday at Atlantic Beach was nice but the winds were far too high to consider a full sail. Today our normal flying location wa a bit gusty and more the mid-vent range but very flyable.
We met and started flying not only my new Djinn but the Phoenix Mid-Vent as well as my Trick or Treat kite. All in all it was a nice day to fly with variable and a bit gusty winds at times. A few of Khal's kites also expe
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
Finished Sails for 5 Kites from one 96' Rainbow Transition Tail today. Will finish the Endcaps, Bungees and custom Skyshark frames this week. Hopefully first flight will be at the Wright Kite Festival in 2 weeks. It's where I flew my first home made 2 years ago. These kites all have 72" LE sleeves and will use 74" LE. I'm still considering putting a vertical black stripe on the center of each sail.
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.
Woke up with a song in my head this morning..
"Let's Go Fly a kite!
We'll see if i made them right
even though the wind is light
we'll keep them soaring
throw launch the sail first time
catching the air so fine.
come, let's go.....Fly a kite..
Even though I wasn't able to make the Wright Festival today, I had to get out for a few minutes before the rain hit to get first flight in on these sails.
FS #3, Mesh #6 and the Spectrum Stack have all fl
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
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...
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
While checking my second Rainbow Sail, I caught a glimpse of some very pretty colors when the fabric doubled up on me. I maximized the effect here to share. While this will never be a kite this way due to needing two layers for everything, it's still a very cool color play that I thought I'd share with you.
Those who know me know I can't pack small no matter how hard I try.. Rogallo Festival is this weekend. First big event since the pandemic. Lots of kites to fly, lots of stuff to try BUT, Jockey's Ridge does have one downside.. IT is not the most accessible site to fly at. Closest parking is at Kitty Hawk Kites across the street but that's a long ways to carry 4 kite bags, Umbrella/chair/canopy/cooler/camera equipment etc. As much as I want to carry "everything" it just isn't in the cards. FWIW,
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.
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.
