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Hey guys, I have started building a Le Virus. I will try to document some of the process here as I move through this build (hopefully move through it! 😄) and work out all the issues. I will post some pics of where I am at with it tonight when I get home from work. I'll list my current materials below Sail: 40D Coated Ripstop - 2 mil Mylar for the clear patches and winglet 1- 2-3" 3.9oz Dacron for tunnels and edges (Le Virus has a leech line) 1000D Cordura for nose patch.. I am thinking of sewing a cap of 3.9oz Dacron and then the Cordura over it 300D (size 30?) Polyester thread - Industrial duty (I guess it's less fuzzy etc.) Frame: 6mm pulltruded (all, spine, US, LS, LE) I think these are actually .240" 🤓 APA connectors - 2mm standoff rods (and for the winglet rod) R-Sky T (6mm) Hercules 300# for bridle (in a nice blue) Hercules 80# red for line Going to build my own handles as I do a little woodwork for fun If any of this is folly let me know! 😂 I have printed a full size plan and cut out the template pieces and will be transferring them to card stock tonight. I am thinking to oversize them by about 5 or 6mm as I plan on doing just a flat seam with a 15 spi zigzag. I read about using a harbor freight wood pyrography tool with a spring over the tip to make a "spot welder" which seems like it would really well for this approach - but if anyone has any other advice or can provide some tips I would welcome any! I was planning on testing cutting with scissors vs hot cutting (I have a Weller soldering iron with a nice small tip) and seeing if the coated 40D nylon frays at all. I really don't know anything about this stuff other than what I've read in the last month, I have the Stunt Kite flying and Making book which I've read through, though I feel some of the info from 1992 may have been superseded as technology has improved. I will list my current plan in steps and hopefully someone can advise me if it's sound or not ! Plan: 1.) Make templates oversize by 6mm 2.) cut out all pieces (observing RH and LH symmetry for bias) 3.) "spot weld" pieces together - symmetry in which panels are "on top" for both sides 4.) sew entire sail with zigzag (currently I'm using 15 spi and 7mm width) 5.) Sew LE tunnel ( I have questions about this when I get to it) 6.) cut/sew T reinforcement and US reinforcement patch 7.) sew winglet and leech line (attaches inside winglet) 8.) Sew trailing edge reinforcement (leech line tunnel - I will have questions about this I'm sure) 9.) Sew Tail and Nose Then frame and bridle, which will be a new plan 🥺 Well that's all for now

Sometimes patience is really rewarded! B.t.w. he first time I saw my wife was on a downhill ski trip when I also did some limited ski traction kiting. I still have the kite (a 5^2 Peter Lynn Peel - my first foil (guess that one should have started with a small trainer foil, but budget was really limited at the time)), but I haven’t used it since. How serious! Myself, I'm on a diet - never more than two kites and not (preferably) more than one purchase a year. There is so much to learn from one kite. It is a start (like feeding wild birds with breadcrumbs in your hand), but the real take off would be when your sons borrow the kites to go flying/piloting with friends. Funny, after the snap stall the axle was the first trick for me. To do the Lazy Susan, that took a loong time. Good luck with your return to kiting!

Hey, KL Forum. I started flying Trllby diamond kites back in the early/mid 90s when I was a kid. I eventually got 4 of them in a stack and loved flying them in the Outer Banks, NC. In 1999 I got a large Flying Wings delta out in San Diego that I flew quite a bit until the spine broke, when my girlfriend crashed it (I forgave her and eventually married her). In 2007 I got a Beetle out in Lincoln City, OR, but I didn't fly it a whole lot. Life and other interests kept me from enjoying my kites as much as I could. I recently went back out to the Outer Banks and bought 3 new kites - a Prism Quantum 2.0, a Nexus 2.0, and a Synapse 140 (my first ever foil), and I forgot how much I loved flying. I'm in the process of getting my first 2 deltas fixed so my sons can learn on them, and I have ordered a couple more Nexus kites in order to stack them. I am quite comfortable at keeping my kites in the air for some skywriting, dives, low passes, landings, etc., but I'm looking to get into trick flying. Nothing too serious, just seeing what I can do and having fun along the way to make flying a bit more adventurous and eye catching. I can stall, side slide, back flip, lazy Susan, and I'm *this* close to a consistent axel (I'm great at accidental half axels 🤣), and I have a couple ground recoveries in my bag as well. I'm joining to maybe connect with others who might be able to help me along the way and maybe someday be in a position to help others as they start their journey. Keep chasing the wind.