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8-year-olds have a lot of variation, but overall they should handle nearly all the kites listed above by then. That's about the age health experts recommend kids pick up organized exercise including tasks like focused strength training. Looking up stats, most of the bell curve for 8-year-old girls have a grip strength range from 80-100 pounds, boys range from about 90-120 pounds. Weaklings below the 10-th percentile or stronger kids over the 90th percentile will fall outside those ranges for their maximum. Far more variable than raw strength kids have different endurance, some can play hard for hours, others are out of breath in minutes. Most beginning and moderate pull kites are well below that threshold. A few sport kites and trainer/traction kites also fly below those numbers. Most kids have the strength to handle them by that age. Many kids can handle lighter kites at age six, or even younger.

It's not easily possible to put together tutorials like that, as people want different things. Everyone comes from different backgrounds, and everyone learns differently. There is no "Start Here To Learn Everything You Need" video. Instead you will need to watch many videos showing many topics. For dual line, see the very first sticky topic under dual line forum: Stunt Kite Video Tutorials (dual line). For quad line, see the forum section: Video Tutorials The "sample tutorials" has 34 tutorials ranging from setup and assembly through intermediate level skills. Down below under "full index of tutorials" has links to many more, some require paid access to the site. You supervise others first by learning how to fly yourself, then teaching others what you've already learned. Or you start by learning together from the basics. Videos like those linked to above give guidance, but there is no alternative for time on the lines.

Haha, that's awesome. Congrats on the win, @Wayne Dowler whatever you build with them.

@John Barresi Did we forget the date? If needed you can just send them to me, and I'll make myself a stronger second frame to augment some 15/11 gram tapered spars. 😀

The cross kites air is small and relatively gentle, and is a good beginning kite. IIRC the lines are pre-attached and meant to be left on, but for a beginner it is fine. It does not have many of the advanced features like a way for sand to escape, but again, for a beginner it is fine. It should be easily controlled by a small body, and is durable. I have thought about getting one for my bag a few times as an add-on with other purchases as a kite to hand off to strangers asking questions, but never do. For £25 it is a pretty good deal, and you likely won't be devastated if he doesn't stick with it. There are several video reviews of the kite. It looks like it gets the job done with a decent build quality.

I am curious what parts are you thinking of that would need 3D printing? Angled connectors already exist in bulk at many angles and diameters, assorted end caps, nocks, stoppers, clips, dihedral and APA connections, and flexible fittings (made from rubber tubing or bent metal) are readily available. The connectors are solidly built. The same companies that make and distribute composite spars and rods used to have a color coded system for diameters. The color codes are mostly passed, but the wide variety of parts still exists. Between the hardware stores and kite shops just about any angle or flexible fitting can be found or made by drilling. I could see it for prototypes or if you do not want to pay shipping costs or wait for shipping times. As you described, most parts could be 3D printed if someone really wants to. Do you know how they would compare in strength, stress, and pressure capabilities versus existing molded parts?

Correct. SUL kites use parts chosen for weight, not strength and stress. They can easily be damaged in collisions and hard landings, yet also be damaged by a gust. They are not ideal for beginners. Even so, fly what you have.

You will find this with most quality kites. The design will trade off features for other features. Precision fliers require precise input. Forgiving fliers are less precise. Stable flight is great for ballet, but terrible for tricks; unstable kites can be pulled into tricks with the tiniest flick, but won't be smooth nor good with a partner. Generalist kites in the middle for functionality are versatile but cannot stand against specialized kites. All can be made from great material and well crafted, just different in subtle ways. Tapered spars, standoff lengths and count, bridle differences, attachment points, subtle changes make big differences.

Great to fly. A few hours on the line with one and I wanted to buy it... Until I looked closely at the specs. The leading edge doesn't break down, so it is a long kite put away. While it is fine for many people it means I cannot transport it without wedging it in diagonally against the side wall. I have re-measured my vehicle a bunch of ways, diagonally, secured halfway up a wall panel, etc. Make sure it fits in your bag and vehicle. If you have room, it flies like a dream. Soft and gentle when you need it, and a moment later handles yank-and-spank motions as graceful commands.

Apart from the cost, have you considered quad line kites? In decent wind you can launch, fly, and land from the comfort of a lawn chair or beach lounge chair. Or even a wheelchair.

No smooth ocean breeze near my house, so even calm air is variable. A 3 mph calm moment can be followed by a sudden surge, then go back to calm. One of the people I was flying with was using a Prism Jazz and could not hold it up, and my quad was struggling except during the moments of gusts, which is why the Kaiju came out. During these gusts it would shake and dance a bit, so the moment is used to dart to the edge of the window, but the kite behaved far better than I expected.

The new Kaiju has certainly seen workouts outside, about eight hours over the month when winds were otherwise low. Not just me flying, I also handed it over to three others who struggled to fly those days. I sadly didn't get video, I've had both the red/black and blue/white up together, including today with a daughter. (Still keeping the green as an indoor only kite.) She was sad at first with the light wind and said she preferred quads, but after an hour she was more confident than ever. There were a few times the breeze would not support her kite the way she flew, but on 40 foot lines I had a blast. I have had spars pop out with breezes around 10 MPH and after hard landings, but so far everything is still intact. It seems far less fragile than it felt before.

I know you can wind up from the handles to the kite on a winder, but it is usually done in a hurry without disconnecting from the kite. I've seen it done to clear the field in a hurry without staking down. I have not done it, heard it called the red bull windup, but it might work in the situation.

I keep waiting to post on this hoping for an amazing suggestion. Here are my few cents, nothing amazing. I occasionally try to fly on the rooftop level of my office parking tower. I set up in the relative calm in the back of the SUV. I loop the two top lines next to the handles on the car, then unwind the lines. I will catch / throw after that. When winding up I also hook it back on the car to hold the handles. I also apply two layers of masking tape to the leading edge which gets a little torn up, but is disposable. I avoid any type of ground sliding, and even avoid wingtip action with aluminum endcaps apart from a single solid landing. Concrete parking lots are textured to a rough surface great for traction, horrible for kites.

Agreed. He teaches it along with his "snap spin" done exclusively with the wrists and done quickly. That motion will always cause a drop, with a greater drop the slower you do it. I tried working through his steps, but on level four threw it away. Joe did a great thing as a designer 35 years ago and was a great pilot, still good at it, but his skill is better as a salesman than an instructor. Collectively we need more educational training, and step by step is good, but those instructions are lacking. The bicycle is a continuous transition. You need to be comfortable holding the kite in any orientation, and then learn to transition between them. The bicycle turn can then be taken as slowly as you want, transitioning from one hovering orientation to the next. It is more like pedaling and bike which I believe is where the name comes from. Just like pedals require large motion in knees and hips, slow bicycle turns require motion in shoulders and elbows. At the left facing and right facing direction one arm should be drawn back and the other extended. For me in most wind the upper side is drawn back near my elbow or even behind it, then pushed back out and on the other end of rotation, my opposite hand is back by the elbow. Done slowly it is a big body motion. Done quickly it might be a small distance back to the wrist or forearm, but certainly is not the twist of the wrist the video describes. Just watched that clip again and shuddered at at. Calls it "multispins", done entirely with the wrist, stating you do an aggressive 3/4 spin and let momentum carry it through the turn. He also says the motion requires strong wind and needs a vertical pop to stay up (0:30, and 0:55) warning if you don't have both strong winds and a quick pop to stay up it will fall. I also noticed he mostly shows his hands but doesn't show the kite. In the few moments he does show the kite, 0:40-0:41, 0:48-0:50, and 1:03-1:05 there is a SIGNIFICANT drop in the air. He describes it as doing the spins QUICKLY and relying on momentum to keep the kite up, then correcting to recover and regain altitude. Here is an old (free) article with a video near the bottom, notice the arm motion is fully to the elbow in order to maintain height at the left-facing and right-facing positions. And here is the (paid) tutorial from this site, that breaks it down in turns of hover to hover to hover, again showing large motion of the arms. In contrast, all these instructions say to go SLOWLY, as slow as you need, to maintain a solid hover at every position. Instead of using speed and momentum to rush through, they recommend first mastering a hover in any direction. Own your hover.

Agreed. In good winds you can fly a quad easily from a beach chair. Dual lines can be flown from one spot only if you are doing little more than steering. The moment you want anything more advanced it becomes athletic with legs involved. Speed control on dual line, and slack line techniques on any kite, both require leg work. On dual line whether you are doing a two point landing or a series of acrobatic tricks, the footwork ranges from a slow dance to a rapid sprint.

That's because active pilots don't generally sell their gear. It happens sometimes, which is what gets posted here. Most sales of good gear are people getting out of flying and want it to go where it will be used, but only after trying to get it to people they personally know who want to fly. When they are posted they are often snapped up quickly. Often it is easier to find listings on social media, local sales boards like Craigslist, and general sites like eBay, from people who inherent a bunch of good kites and don't know what else to do with them. Often they sell them as a group, like a bundle of 15 kites from the 1980s or 1990s with minimal description or photos. There's also people who only flew once and gave up, with a huge range of gear quality.

That may be a terminal velocity for one condition, but terminal velocity is could be anything on a huge spectrum. The sail can potentially be in many orientations and conditions. Since you discount a glider option -- and a glider orientation can maintain a near-flat gliding profile, not 3-5 m/s -- you're describing where it could act as a parachute. But it could have fabric flapping around, and could even have winds and turbulence lift it temporarily into the air. On the flip side, it could be oriented to have practically no drag from air, cutting through the air like a falling stone. Why are you attempting all these calculations? I've done some of the math myself a few years ago for a simulator program, and my brother-in-law went into aeronautics and we've talked about it, and this is an area where nearly every equation includes a "fudge factor" which is experimentally obtained. At any moment a kite has a mixture of both laminar flow and turbulent flow, can range from almost zero profile to having a full surface profile, can range from a completely rigid body to a completely soft body, with portions behaving anywhere in between. And the conditions can change in an instant, a kite fully inflated behaving as a hard body with a narrow profile and laminar flow can depower and become a soft body tumbling with a variable profile and a highly turbulent flow, then it can catch the wind again and revert back to hard body, fixed profile, with a strong laminar flow. There are formulas giving approximations under a wide range of conditions, but most functions and engineering principles say the only way to know for certain is to try it experimentally.

It has roots in Latin. You can buy both internal and external ferrules. Internal ferrules are like a dowel, a small stick inserted into both ends with one end typically glued/epoxied permanently. External ferrules are usually a metal sleeve, the rods slide inside with one end glued/epoxied permanently. There are pros and cons to each.

As Dragonfish mentions, it seems you could be better served by a parafoil kite. No tubes and spars, and they can be folded or stuffed into a small bag. If you encounter people who would destroy your kites, a dual line kite if you're looking for activity would probably be better as it's easier (and less costly) to replace two lines rather than four. For ready-made kites, an HQ Symphony, Prism Synapse, Skydog First Foil, Cross Kites Air or Boarder, or maybe smaller with a Flying Wings Mighty Bug, and many store-specific variations which may have better availability in Brazil. They fold down small in a backpack, are lightweight, and are difficult to damage in a crash. They can still have lines cut or other damage by aggressive fliers, so you'll need to stay away from destructive people. If you're looking for more pull, HQ Rush, Prism Tantrum, or even a Prism Tensor or Elliot's Magma may be more your preference.There are many variations and store brands of these, as well, called power kites, traction kites, and trainer kites, they can produce tremendous pull if you're feeling vigorous or are in need of a demanding workout, or are considering kiteboarding, kitesurfing, or riding around on a kite-powered buggy. Larger designs really should be only flown over water due to the ability to lift people into the air, and those landings are harsh. Beware with these larger kites, they require more training and safety mindfulness as they increase in power. That is an option. Do you want to spend your days flying kites, or designing kites? Or if you have your heart set on a smaller frame kites, some kites have "travel frames" available. Rev 1.5 travel frames are about 40 cm long. If that works for you, many of the revolution 1.5 sized kites (Rev, Djinn, Phoenix, RevoPolo, etc) could work with modification if they don't sell travel frames. Basically the rods are cut in half, although it does affect the strength and flexibility. You could do the same with a dual line framed kite, although each joint introduces a weakness and changes how the frame flexes and bends.

Yeah, the main danger tends to be what can damage, as opposed to what will happen. The worst case on can happen is pretty severe. The line snaps back at the full breaking strength near a person, who is then hit with a fast velocity whipping cord. The whip puts out an eye, or causes a severe lash. The kite happens to be in a position where it divebombs directly to the ground, striking someone with its full weight at 100 MPH or so. Or for a large kite, covers a crowd and gets them tangled up in many strings, like a fishing net over a crowd. The safest that can happen is minimal. The line snaps at a location far from the ground, and gently drifts to the ground. The kite itself is on a glide position and maintains it the entire time to a soft, gentle landing away from people, roads, or other obstructions. Most likely it will be on the safe end of the spectrum, but it cannot be guaranteed. Mistakes happen, and every year around the globe there are deaths related to kites. Statistically they are safe, but there are real dangers. The video links show a few of the ideal and mid-case scenarios. I think the harshest on those videos was depowering from inversion while doing a vertical hover, where the leading edge fell like a vertical spear directly to the ground.

Call ITW, as they were the primary distributor. They know which parts they require. Sometimes they have an updated part number or use a different brand or generic part as years have passed since the kite was introduced. As for the shaking and power loss, what else is happening during the event? How does the wind change? What is the environment? Turbulence? Edge of wind window or the power zone or somewhere in between?

Paul gave a video of one way of intentionally doing it. In some orientations the kite falls somewhat slowly in place. You can do this easily with a quad by trying to reverse too hard (see about 3:55 of this video of one of my practices), or performing an axel with too much of a tug (see about 1:59 of this video of a more recent practice), and the kite tumbles out of the air. Both clips have a few other examples. The kite is basically stationary, or may even come back toward the pilot by a few feet, so travel distance is basically zero. The impact speed is moderately light, unlikely to damage anything or anyone unless there is torque from the tumble. In some orientations the kite can travel a LONG way. The wing is naturally balanced as a glider, and at a guess it probably glides close to 3:1 or even 10:1 in whatever direction was forward. Heading fully downwind in a proper glide, on 120' lines at the top of the wind window I can imagine it gliding downwind 800 feet in a long, slow glide. The impact at the end would be almost nothing, like any glider. Imagine the landing of a perfectly balanced paper airplane after gliding a long, long way. Dual line example video showing how to do it. And that exact glide is leveraged when doing a catch maneuver, forcing the kite to glide directly back to you with a well-timed tug. Again it can potentially travel a long way, all depending on the angle. The impact forces there are usually minor, easily caught with one hand. This time, not me, but clearly demonstrating it repeatedly through the clip. Perhaps the most dangerous condition from a small kite losing control is a kite slamming directly down. No videos I can find of an impact but a full-on dive can go quite fast. Kites like the Supersonic can hit 70+ MPH no problem. Revolution advertises the Supersonic as able to reach 0-60 in 1 second. Multiply out the mass times the speed and you've got a substantial impact. While normally they crash into the ground, break some spars, and rip some fabric, if they hit a spectator it could mean some bruises, maybe a broken bone, or possibly losing an eye. But be aware that the kites in the clip are small, weighing less than a pound, have flexible frames that absorb energy then break, and generally flying in controlled positions. While those are relatively safe, there are also dangers. Large show kites are much larger and heavier, and more dangerous. Quickly looking up a few, a 10 meter design weighing 9 kg (20 pounds), a 5 meter kite weighting 6 kg (13 lbs), a large ray design weighing 16 kg (35 lbs). Very large show kites can reach several hundred kg. In addition to having considerable surface area that can trap and ensnare, they have lines where people can become tangled. Blowing downwind they can even catch the wind again potentially re-launching using a snagged person as the anchor. These kites are potentially dangerous both for falling on people and them becoming trapped, and becoming tangled in the lines as they lose and regain tension, potentially amputating body parts or throwing people into the air. Sadly there are a few reports of deaths from these every year if you search the news. Every year there are around 20 or so deaths reported globally from kiteboarding accidents, many involving an accidental or intentional pilot launching followed by a fall. While kiteboarding encourages jumping and dangerous tricks, it's not the only danger. There are plenty of amputated fingertips, fingers, and worse from a kite unexpectedly catching the wind and lines going tight while someone was handling the line. I've met several people who have survived major accidents, and known one who died. Others were notable that left memorials were created. It's been a decades but Steve Edeiken's death, a major figure in the kiting world who died at a kite festival during a mishap, serves as an oft-repeated warning. The AKA has an annual award named after him. A sudden gust and getting an ankle caught in the lines lifted him before he fell to his death. Another I know about from decades past, Dean Jordan who organized man-lifting anchored kites and ran some AKA events, nearly died after an accident despite having a safety rig, helmet (which likely saved his life) after a mishap lifted him and violently threw him to the ground. And people in India created an entirely new set of dangers with Manja, glass-impregnated line for kite fighting. Every year many people die from the stuff, many others lose body parts or have serious wounds due to the cutting line. It has spread to a few countries like Brasil. That's not so much danger from the kite itself, so probably not what you're looking for.

I've studied a bit of the math behind it, it is quite complex. The general equations are accurate enough but for situations rarely found in the wild. For the general drag equation you are using, I immediately see two issues. You are using the angle of the kite, which isn't part of the equation. Instead you need to use the projected surface area at the given angle between the kite and the flow. While the sine of the angle is part of computing the projection, it by itself is not the projected area. While it might be similar, the wind hitting dead on a flat kite does get close to zero surface area, and hitting full on gives close to 1x the fabric surface, those are not the projected surface areas. The second is the drag coefficient you are using. The values are always experimentally found and are unique to each wing and a range of values. The coefficient is usually not a single number but a table of numbers for many angles because of varying turbulence, laminar flow changes, cavitation changes, and more. At the kite's strongest angle it should be around 1.8 or so, but maybe closer to 2 for a strong pulling design, or lower near 1.5 or less for weaker pulling designs.

YAY!!! I can't believe it. You can be sure I'll feel more comfortable flying it outdoors now, and be a little less afraid of finding it's limits. I won't be flying with reckless abandon, but on light wind days I'll feel less risk. I wonder if I can make a stack of them for indoor? THANK YOU so much!