riffclown

OK first cuts and half basting is done.. finishing up the piecework tomorrow.

BOTH!!! Only Concept and colors so far.. I'm thinking of embedding a very few lights in this sail, especially since both orange and purple lights are easy to find right now.. Not going overboard with this build.. just a few lights to bring out the details

A Halloween Color Theme

I've done a few this way now. It does make a difference in a positive way. The more solid connection at the top of the sail gives you a bit better connection to the kite. it mimics the top connection of the Phoenix, the Freilein and even the Djinn in making that connection more solid.. It's as stiff as I can make it without using different hardware (like the Freilein and the Djinn) It also helps decrease catch points for thing like axels. The advantage for the trailing edge is you can have a larger sail and still use yge same size frame. Just that small change in sail area and aspect ratio enhances the bottom of the kite's wind range. As for gustiness, they way I tie my bridles currently cranks up the brakes a LOT. @jsc2501 said to me when he flew the Gray fade that it's the first sail he's flown that he felt didn't need a french bridle. I asked his opinion on tweaks and improvements and his answer was to not change a thing. @ACrop I will concede that all my sails are different even from each other because I don't use a pattern, but let me know when and you can borrow your choice. I know your flying style and I'd love your opinion.

Nicely done. Great job!

A valid point indeed.. I tried to keep it asclose as possible.. I may not know for sure until i see the results of flying it more..

@Wayne Dowler I've only eliminated the bungees at the top of the verticals.. The bottom is still bungeed BUT the knots are concealed.. The top of the verticals is much the same treatment Bazzer uses on the Phoenix sails.. I just use line that makes that connection less elastic and let the elastic at the bottom be the stretch point.. I've started tying the knot at the bottom in a way that allows me to tuck the loose ends into the pocket at the bottom of the sail.. Nothing groundbreaking just a cleaning point.. I also want to clean the endcaps of the LE but haven't tackled that problem yet.. I'm also playing with some variable wing shaping but not springs like the reflex.. more of a targeting shape point with extremely light resistance. Will wait until it works before sharing...

Thank You.. That's what I needed to know.

I know @Paul LaMasters uses them a lot for tuning but my question is simply this. Is a Travel frame simply twice as many half length segments or is the LE divided differently to prevent a ferrule in the exact center? I need to make myself a travel frame as I will want a compact setup in the very near future.. If the LE is merely 6 equal segments, it's as simple as halving a current frame and adding ferrules.

The pieces I use are quite a bit thicker than milk jugs but same concept..

And a few others

New Karma is is up Locking this one down..

Wanted to share some of the sleeves for recent kites.

Congratulations

A few photos from Today's flight test.. I need to tweak the bridle a bit but pretty happy with the balance and weighting of this sail.

GRay III field tested today. Overall Pretty happy with this sail.

Time to flight test the newest member of the quiver.

A few closeup details of the lower profile attachment points for the vertical spars.. Front and back. Bridles are not trimmed yet due to this being an odd sized kite and I need to tune them a bit.

Took yesterday off from kite making. Completed the kite today.. There is one spot I need to tweak sail tension a small bit but it should be quite fixable. This is my first attempt at hidden knots on the verticals,. Will flight test first though.. Will have to wait until the weather clears a bit.

Another more recent build.