riffclown

You are also welcome to fly just about anything in my bag, BUT we've met before so, hopefully you knew that already.

2 weeks out now Really looking forward to some OBX kite time..

By the time I got the box of caps unpacked and had it bridled up, the predicted wind was not cooperating.. i did manage to get a few snap in the air outside but this was close to and under trees. I took a few secs of footage but haven't really looked at it yet. I think this is easily a 10-15mph wind kite. Green Race LE and CF Arrow shafts for vertical spar.. Video soon weather permitting..

No "if"s" here. I'm a kite nut.. No doubt.. My wife is even helping me name my kites.. "Let's call it Mittens!" So now I have a kite named "Mittens" .;) Another I named "tails" 8m Toxic is named "Black Betty".

Was close to Freezing when I got the recent video of my Mesh #3.. My wife has nicknamed that kite Mittens because she wished she'd brought her mittens to wear while recording it.. As stated, I'll fly in cold.. I've buggied in near freezing conditions.. I just don't like getting the kites wet.

Personally, I'll fly in cold but I don't like my kites getting wet. Agreed the family always comes first.

Tabs hardware and Bridles remaining.. Putting quite a bit of curve in the LE.. This kite should have a good bit of float..

Was planning to fly today but the snow coming down discouraged me. I was fortunate to get some nice kite time in Feb but only once on a day I could fly with friends... Hopefully the weather will break and you'll get some practice time or flying time.. Your event at Atlantic Beach was the farthest I've traveled for a kiting event.

So far I've been impressed with this little camera.. Decent quality video (used it for the Emergency Sleeving Kit video) Granted the camera wasn't in motion but I was pleased with the overall result. The only drawback I've noticed so far is, it only records AVI and MOV.. Had to use movie maker to edit the first video since Premier Pro did like the flavor of AVI the camera uses.. I probably need to download a codec or something. I'll do a liitle research and will figure it out.. I can always use GoPro studio to convert vids if I need to.

Sleeving kits are essential to routine line maintenance and repair but sometimes you want to fix it very quickly and finish you day of flying. E.S.K. takes only a few minutes to make in advance and can be applied in the field in about 1 minute. Equalize and enjoy the rest of your day. For some that do not sleeve lines this will almost be a joke but I prefer to have my lines sleeved, especially for my power kites and stacks.. I keep 8-10 of these in my trouble bag all the time so I can sleeve a full quad set in the field if needed.. It's still a good idea to keep a sleeving kit with you but the E.S.K. can save you a few minutes of downtime on a great day of flying.. Excellent donor materials are bridle line, Q-Line, Venetian mini blind cord.. You can also use this concept to pull loops of line through regular sleeving or cord like Muzzy Bowfishing line to have the colors you want ready and handy. Cut about 13" of the cord. Push out a small nib of core and tie an overhand knot. Go to the other end and push out about 2" of core. Tie it off and separate the core to preserve only one of the twisted components and discard the rest. Place an overhand knot in the remaining core strands. This will become your pull eye.. To implement in the field.. Untie the "pull eye" end and run your line through the strands.. Untie the other nib end and use the core to pull the kite line through your new sleeve..

@Paul LaMasters I'll always continue to explore the wind. I seem to learn something new on every kite. Not sure I can make Salem. Would love to fly with you again though. That week seems to be closing in on me from numerous directions business and personal..We should cross paths at ODSKC if not before though. The LE for this kite will simply be a sleeve of the same material the kite is made from. I do plan for it to have a slight curve though for a bit of float.. The middle of the kite will be a similar construction as my other meshes.. I understand and agree it can make the kite's usable wind range a lot tighter..

Finally some video 20-25mph wind.. On short lines this kite was even quicker than I expected.. Pretty much raw footage.. Crashes and all...

Let's see how/if it flies first. I put the first set of stitching in today. I need to decide on a leading edge and get some hardware. (caps, bungees, etc)

Thanks, the initial mock up is encouraging. I planned ahead and made it large enough to get a 1.5 sail this time. Notice the little points on the left side where I flipped the fabric to put the finished side to the front of the sail.. I guess I'll start sewing in the next few days.. This is all just masked together with blue painter's tape right now..

Wish I could like that twice.. It made my day..

#4 to the pattern stage.. Wanted to do a subliminal but something made me change my mind. In seriousness, I think this will be my last work with the transition tails. They aren't straight enough to do this well. The single color tails are far more consistent in width, grain and straightness.

Looks like it will be Wed or Thur before I really get a chance to make decent video for this kite.. I'll keep you all posted..

I'll try that on a future endeavor..Thanks FWIW, I had good winds today and took the time to try it out.. Didn't have my phone or camera today so no proof. Hopefully proof soon. Very pleased with this project. Nice and quick with a decent touch. It floats better than I expected but the throw launch is more difficult. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it.

Actually in all honesty, it's that I don't have the tools or knowledge to do it correctly.. If I could sew a decent hem or piece fabric I'd be sewing some very different kites..

All done except the bridling and flight testing. I've never tied bridles this size so will have to do a bit of measuring. Added some curve to the Leading Edge.. That was a first for me. I may have to play with overall sail tensioning a bit.. Hopefully will get a chance to fly it soon..

It's a little of both. In your full vent, the mesh adds quite a bit of weight while effectively reducing the sail area. For the purposes of this conversion, removing sail decreases wing area but also reduce weight. Stripping a sail down this much does raise the minimum wind speed needed to fly well but not as much as it would seem. I'd "guess" this mod would fly in 10 to 15mph and up as long as the fabric is nice and stiff AND it doesn't start to flutter too badly. On the bottom end it could probably fly in 5-10mph if fitted with a P90 frame or similar.

Mockup was encouraging.. This will be Rev II/B2 sized for framing purposes. I've had a B2 frame w/o a kite that was included with another buy some time back so perfect opportunity to take advantage of unused hardware. Time to join the panels, Sew on the Leading Edge and start adding the hardware..

It honestly depends on how much of the video you want. I'd say minimum 8gb but I'll be bringing several 128GB drives myself. For you personally don't sweat it too much. We're pretty local and can always work something out. Just added 2 more cameras to the mix as well. So that's 5 cameras with 16gb-32gb each. My limitation is going to be battery, not space. Hoping to capture as much as possible without it getting in the way of the clinic. Couple of things that I'm hoping to get good video of. JB dogstaking (kite view), Night flying with lights, all around documentation of the event and especially any footage I can get of the last two days.

So this is a case of the kite making the decision for me. Forgot to account for the finsihed side and non-finished side of the transition tails.. After I made the diagonal cut I realized that those segments would each need to be flipped and reversed to put the finished side n the front.. This kite will have to be scaled down to somewhere between a Rev II and 1.5 size.. Custom Frame for this one.. No reusing what I have.. The panels are vertically sticthed right now.. Have to clean up and trim a bit.. Hopefully a mock-up picture this afternoon.