riffclown

No back cutting yet but if you look closely you can see the spider. Hourglass will be added after back-cutting.. Spider is Black Icarex. My first reall effort at true applique.

I understood it 100%. Just on the first read, my clown mind found the humorous way to read it..

It's really cool to see how fast your kite making skills are progressing. will always be looking forward to you next build..

Sorry @Breezin, I couldn't resist and have to share.. I read your comment, and the punctuation in my own mind gave me an entirely different picture until I re-read it carefully.. To share the way I read it at first, Imagine an apostrophe in "kid's" and a comma after "Shepherd." Glad you had a wonderful day. To answer the original question for me. No new kites but I did manage to sell some, so kites in the future for sure. Had a nice relaxing weekend with family.

Honestly, That's just @Paul LaMasters normal mindset. Not a bit of give up in that guy.

You will be a bit hard pressed to find someone willing to let go of their 120's. Typically the second life for the 120's are 2 sets of shorter lines. Handles, I think you'll find numerous available and quite reasonably priced from within this community. Lines however are rarely sold second hand unless they are made from a bulk buy or nearly worn out. This is one item I'd highly advise you buy new and from a reputable dealer. Look for Laser Pro Gold or Skybond. It's worth the investment. All other things being equal, the quality of your lines is paramount in performance. Inferior line will definitely limit your ability, limit your learning curve and probably be as expensive as 1st quality gear in the long run. I use lines from 30' all the way out to 240'. As they wear or break they will become shorter lines. When testing a new kite, I use the 30'. Once proven I use 50's. Due to an promise and regulations, I can't use my longer lines at my normal flying spot.. (Max ceiling for me is 100') I typically err on half that height to be absolutely safe.

Leading Edge is Completed. I think I've decided on a Black Widow theme for this kite.. More Soon..

I'm another one that enjoys longer handles. I typically use 15" handles for most flying. I have a set of 13" I use for the B2 sized kites when the wind get higher..

One of the things @Paul LaMasters was suggesting (i think) was to take your old Bottom leaders, larks head them onto your top leaders and literally use them as an extension until your new leaders come in. attach the brakes to the bottom of the handles directly. the top will have 2 daisy chained leaders with the line attached at the end..

The Djinn is a hard kite not to like.. Everything you could ever find an issue with in a Hadziki Sail or Rev-alike has been fixed, addressed or mitigated in some way.

Great kite and great flying!!

I will have the LE mesh (or some facsimile thereof) always. It is my preferred technique. I've made several high aspect kites, including a few that rival the super sonic for aspect ratio. I made one that was full width but only about a foot high. It was a scream across the window but very hard to control due to smaller height emphasizing the vertical controls. Seemed like flying just the leading edge almost. I made a few that were 1.5 width but only B2 in height. those seemed to be a good aspect for speed but did not like the mesh when I tried that due to the aspect conflicting with the actual surface area of the kite. Not a fan of the holes and even less of a fan of the direct transition. I've made a few like that and it just doesn't do it for me. This one is for my personal bag and probably isn't going anywhere so it will be a standard 1.5 size frame-wise. I may tweak out the bridles a bit but the size is firm in my head already..

A familiar pattern. Looking at 7x8 or 5x7 strips.. Just trying to keep it even. Thinking I might go with a Spider motif on this one given the weblike appearance. More soon.. all but 2 strips are hemmed.. everything not done is still undecided at this point.. will make the LE Sleeve tomorrow. Probably Black this time.. just to be completely different.

understood.. do you have what you need at this point?? The video coupled with the little secrets i shared with you should give you all you need.

Halfway done with hemming the strips. Trying to determine the motif for this project.

Dyneema is pretty strong stuff. A blunt question.. @DTill do you know how to adjust the bridles if needed? You've come a long ways in a short amount of time. You really should explore tying your own moving forward.. It saves you money and allows you to experiment even more. Hit me up privately and I'll gladly share some of my experiences on how to make your own jig. If you are sure of your dimensions you can finish up now and wait for the bridles. I always tie my bridles last in case I need to adjust a dimension slightly. Is waiting for the bridles going to change anything about how you are constructing this sail? If so then you've answered your own question. if not, you've also answered your question..

Huge difference in control wouldn't you say?? You'll be amazed at how much this small change accelerates your learning curve.

Since the Winter Jacket (Snowflake kite) has found a new home, it leaves a space in my quiver for a true high wind kite.. I started cutting more of the Challenge PolyMax strips for a new adventure yesterday.. More to come as this project progresses..

Merry Christmas to you and yours as well..

And this kite has a new home.

If you use your lines with different handles or you use your handles for different lines then it makes sense to detach and manage separately.. If you have one set of lines and one set of handles, there really is no reason to separate them most of the time.

I leave my handles attached to my lines for the most part.

Absolutely!!!! Very important -----> Don't over think it.. Enjoy the experience.. Take a look at @John Barresi 's Line Equalization, Line Management and Assembly/Disassembly videos.. Once you have those under your belt, Launch and Control video gives you the basics you need to start flying and enjoying. All of the beginner tutorials are worth a watch and you'll learn/remember more than you think you do.. http://kitelife.com/video-tutorials/

Yes but you also run into limitations..Your adjustments on the top leaders should normally give you your flying aspect. The knots on the bottom leaders are much closer together and are typically used to fine tune your setup if one line is a tad longer or such. I typically don't adjust placement on the bottom leaders unless the kite is trying to turn on me. A trick @Khal showed me is to take both handles, lock them side by side perfectly parallel, Hold them top and bottom and launch.. If everything is tuned right the kite should go straight up.. If any of your lines are askew or stretched on any leg, the kite will try to turn to the left or right. The bottom knots are the fine tune for these adjustments.. The top knots act as the rough tune.

@Corey Bell I split this off to its own topic to allow the discussion to continue long after the kite for sale has sold.. We typically lock those topics after the sale is complete and your questions are both relevant and great examples of information most quad newbies seek. I know it's crazy but the more your skills progress the more brake you will need. The most common rule of thumb is using the last knot on the top leader and trying to take off.. If you can't take off come back one knot until you can take off and fly a bit.. Fly for an hour and try the last knot again again. You'll notice that you will gradually move farther and farther out on the top leaders as your skills progress. As crazy as it sounds, more brake is the end goal to allow you maximum control. As you learn to load the sail, these adjustments on the leaders will become second nature.