riffclown

I clarified the title and added Wanted at the beginning for you. Hopefully that clears up the miscommunication for everyone.

No Worries it's been taken care of..

You've been missed.. Sent you a PM.. I do need to fix it before anything else.

I usually don't miss a catch this badly.. Notice the body language of disbelief as the kite sails by. Sequence 01.mp4

I'm willing to admit when I got something wrong. During the test flight today I discovered I have a slight pucker in the fabric near the leading edge on one side.. It changes the glide on this sail drastically.. My first attempt to catch it curved to the side sailed over my head significantly. The sail flies great but isn't quite balanced and when the lines go slack it has a mind of its own. It's not something I'd accept from a manufacturer and therefore not something I'd accept from me. I'll be disassembling that portion of the LE junction and correcting my error. Should simply be a matter of pulling out that segment of stitching, aligning properly and restitching it. This also explains why I test fly every sail I make, whether it's for me or for someone else.

Time for the Bridle Test. Hopefully will get a chance to fly it in the next few days..

To visualize the finished color layout, I use a colorizer that I adapted for my needs for my diamonds pattern layout but no software designs for these.. The entire pattern for the overall kite is in my head. I only use layout boards for bridles and leading edge. It's amazingly undisciplined. That's what no two of my kites either look or fly alike.

Edge Binding and Framing remain.. Edge Binding will be Purple..

Thank You. Started the LE today. No white at all in this kite so going with the classic Black LE and Screening..

The middle section has been merged. Piecing the black together was a challenge since it was harder to see the edges..Still oversized with excess to work with before it's all done but ready to sew the sail at this point.

Both Panels are now basted.. Ready to merge the middle and start sewing..

Mixing the two yields this pattern.. I went with a backlit view since towards the center at least the plum and the black look almost the same. Plum only really shines when there is light behind it..

Second Panel basted. Time to cut the diamonds.

First panel is basted.. Purple Fade to Black is underway..

OSK has the Freilein handles which I personally like.. I do replace the leaders with JB's leaders. Got mine from Eliot. I prefer the 15" length but like everything else. that's a personal preference. YMMV.

I looked Steve up and found this video the first time I heard John call him a mutant back during one of our Corolla adventures.. I've tried this a few times and realized I can fly one kite with one hand and one kite with two hands but my brain also makes a mess when I try two by two.. You'll notice I have no video out so that tells you how it went.. I can take off and fly until I need to make a slight correction. I tend to over correct and unconsciously try to correct with the other hand. It's pretty much downhill from there for me.. Again the lack of video tell my personal success level. From what I've heard, it doesn't matter to him which handle is in which hand either. His brain corrects and flies.

After seeing the purple framed in black I went back to the colorizer for a revisit and came up with this. Using Silver, Grape, Old Grape, Purple and Plum for the color progression. I was going to use the Wine color in the mix but it is more red than purple and kind of detracted from the overall look.

Sorry, not willing to put pink in this one.

it does have an interesting look to it.

Unfortunately not an option. I only have enough of the 2 purples for one more kite.

Next kite choice.. Thoughts???

I've said a few times if I was buying a whole Phoenix set, I'd get the Ashes and skip to the Midvent from there..

Exactly but I was also referring to the way changes in venting levels from kite to kite changes the way the kite loads more drastically than just the surface area total. A full sail loads up with a certain balance across the whole sail. Move over to a B-Series Midvent for instance and you've provided relief to the outside of the sail but also emphasized the belly load. A full Vent configuration does that even more. Eventually you are flying only the center panel. The Spider does the exact opposite. By venting the belly and not the outer part of the wings it refuses to load up in any way and becomes actually a bit awkward to control in strong winds because it isn't balanced. I'm arguing that balancing all of that a bit is some of what Bazzer was after with the Phoenix but in the full sail at least he may have vented a bit much. Once you get to his mid-vent it kind of has the balance I'm talking about. The Phoenix vented maybe even more so. My approach is very gentle relief over the entire sail. It still loads up but the higher pressure on the sail under the higher winds doesn't overpower. You can still load but it doesn't have that tendency to over load.