Jump to content
KiteLife Forum

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/17/2021 in all areas

  1. Ah, the perfect post for St. Patrick's Day... Blame the Swedes - or at least, a Swede. Green came to be viewed as an unlucky color due to the experiments of chemist, Carl Scheele, who in 1778 invented a vibrant new shade of green using a substance called arsenic. "Scheele's Green" spread like fire among European fashionistas, instantly replacing older, duller green dyes derived from copper carbonate. 28 years after Scheele's death (from renal failure from ingesting heavy metals ala arsenic), two German chemists, Russ and Saddler, "improved" on Scheele's formula to create "Emerald Green," and by 1814, the Wilhelm Dye and White Lead Company made a fortune marketing this newly-christened "Paris Green" in everything from clothing to wallpaper. However, Paris Green, while less toxic than Scheele's, still relied on arsenic! And when these green-tinted materials became damp, they released a poisonous gas which often resulted in ghastly illness and death. Although science identified arsenic as the killer ingredient by 1822, green dye - and specifically green fabric - had already acquired a black eye. Paris Green's toxicity was later put to use as the first insecticide, killing beetles, budworms, mosquitos and, as late as 1945, rats. So, green acquired its "unlucky" reputation by utilizing arsenic much like millinery acquired its "crazy" reputation ("Mad as a hatter!") by using mercury.
    2 points
  2. I've grown tired of attaching and detaching my lights, so I'm building one for a permanent home. Fingers crossed. 11 panels (5/1/5). Based roughly on the B-series because of the straight lines, but slightly different dimensions to help with the weight of the rig, plus some other refinements. Planning on midnight blue, fluorescent green, and white/reflective trim. The lights will ring the kite and be held in with the sheer trim. Here are the lights in action, held with packing tape on a Djinn.
    1 point
  3. especially Nasa wing is not a joke. I have a 500 or 600 one not sure and i want to convert to one line this year if will work. the bridle is a bit twitchy but i hope to find that sweet spot to make him stable
    1 point
  4. Ha-ha, well, it was a light wind and I kept my hands holding his hands most of the time, but he did surprisingly good. I told him it was the same as riding his bike and that kinda ring a bell it seems. The joy on his face was priceless. The only kites I fly beside Revs, are a Nasa wing 250 and a C-quad 3.2 and those are no option for beginners.
    1 point
  5. You are a kind fellow kiter. When it comes to lending kites out to beginners, I have only done it with DLKs (in light winds) and the Smithi Pro (being a foil) quad. When I comes to framed quads I think that I still have too little redundancy to lend them out to beginners.
    1 point
  6. Yes, there is a temptation is to say such a thing 😄, but I always prefer that they ask if they just comment. And often the thought behind such a question is not even that strange. I let the child I was talking about fly my kite (with my help of course) and he enjoyed it visibly. Isn't it wonderful, if you can convey this like this? Hopefully he will be just as interested in a few years and will also buy one or more kites.
    1 point
  7. Cheating children (not that you did) isn’t generally a good thing to do (except when it comes to the Tooth fairy, the Easter bunny and Santa Claus). I was instead thinking of a grown-up neighbour's reaction here a few months ago when I was out on the parking with the Rev Indoor. She asked: ”How is it being propelled?” I thought and : ”It is electrically powered and is propelled by an ion drive (like e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-r-p2iHoDA ). You see the lines are not only lines. They are also thin insulated high voltages wires. Being high voltage only a very small cross section of the wires is required. Sewn into the trailing edge of this wing there are fine metal wires forming a simple more or less continuously distributed ionic thruster. High voltage generators, such as in bug-zaps, are nowadays very small so that they are nicely fitted into the handles.” No I didn’t say this. I’m sure that it would only add to the perceived strangeness of this regular activity that the neighbours are already too polite to express anything about.
    1 point
  8. I am coming back from the dead and reviving this thread from the dead as well. I put down the handles for a few years as life took over. Also, I moved to Portland and found it difficult to find a good field nearby. Is Broughton Beach still considered a good place to fly? I just can't make the trip to the coast regularly for an all day fly. For $5 for all day parking, I think Broughton Beach is a bargain.
    1 point
  9. Thank you John. While technically I'm not really a new member, I was a member in the past, but I have been away for a few years due to family/personal issues and illnesses. Most of that has been resolved now, and I'm getting my gear ready to fly again.
    1 point
  10. I don’t know anything about this video/kite, but I sure know that I have not seen any quad like this:
    1 point
  11. Day 5, added rods and bridle. Ready for a test flight. The horizontal bridle is a bit tight pre bending the frame. That will be adjusted on test flight. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
    1 point
  12. Wow. I literally placed an order for an R-Sky Nirvana 3E nitro about 2 weeks ago. Got that in just in the time...
    1 point
  13. As a kid I remember making my kites out of sticks and newspaper. I currently have a 6 pack Rainbow stunt kite that i purchased in 77 at pier 39 in SF. Although I don't fly it I still think it's a beautiful kite and that's why I've kept it all these years.
    1 point
  14. The lines that come with it are good to 8bft. That's 46mph wind. If you can stay on your feet in 46mph wind, would you really want to have all that flying debris hitting the back of your head? I have flown in 40mph wind. For about five minutes. Gave up and headed for the bar. It's a rush and entertaining for about 5 minutes. After that you just want to go inside.
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...