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TheKatKiter

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  1. Can't verify expansion/contraction of the cloth but I can talk about the wood dowels. Wood expands and contracts according to the relative humidity of the surrounding air It begins with the moisture content of the wood at the time it's being worked. Then when exposed to less relative humidity it'll shrink and expand when exposed to more. As a master cabinetmaker I always checked the moisture content of hardwood shipments and would refuse anything over 10%. I could then more accurately predict how and where the wood would move under different circumstances. The environment within which the piece is made is very important too. For example, in the winter if the relative humidity outside at 25 deg is 40% and the piece is made inside in a heated environment at 65 deg the relative humidity might be 0% and whatever moisture in the wood would leave it. Also the direction the grain runs dictates how the piece of wood will warp along with knots (beginning or end of one). Take a short piece of the wood, weigh it the stick it in an oven at 140 deg for a couple of hours. Weigh it and you'll be able to calculate the moisture content. Hope this helps, Charlie
  2. Follow the link below to the pics I took at the 3rd Annual Ruidoso Kite Festival. http://www.flickr.com/photos/katkiter/ The train is made up of 61 Eddy, 24x24, kites that fly (each will fly individually when detached from the train), and is anchored by a Gomber 10' Falcon Delta. The KAP's are my first and will get better!. Charlie
  3. From Charles Benton's website, Kite Aerial Photography, good recap. http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/background/history2.html Charlie
  4. You got me by 2 (two) years. I fly dual line Silver Foxes, a 2.5 Std and 2.5 UL. My local wind conditions pretty much match your and these kites pretty much match me. Good flying, Charlie
  5. Saw it and it was great even if they only showed you 2-3 minutes and didn't know what they were talking about. But so KOOL to see kiters on big time TV! Charlie
  6. Yes, it was a good piece. They didn't give any credit to Peter Lynn's Octopus that someone was flying. And of course the Chinese master couldn't help but take a dig at the US's "simple" kite designs. They must've had some real heavy winds there. They showed a 3 kite dual line performance team and the they were being dragged off the field by the wind. They did give credit to a Dutch team that was flying there and showed some kite fighters. I believe the segment was about 7-10 minutes long, hosted by Mary Carrillo. Charlie
  7. June of last year, I decided to get back into making kites because of grand kids. So I googled kite plans, wound up on KiteLife's website, found a plan and ordered it. I thought a subscription to KiteLife would be in order to help the future research I would surely do. Then in July I rec'd this odd e-mail from a guy named John Barresi, congratulating me on winning KiteLife's monthly drawing, a Flying Wings Acrobatx! I immediately googled Flying Wings Acrobatx. I had no idea what an Acrobatx was. Maybe it is a kite. A year later, my bag has 3 Silver Foxes, an ITW Whisper, a French Connection 2, and of course my first, the Acrobatx. Charlie
  8. I like the Olympics idea but agree JB as far as that large an event. But one place, I bet an inroad could be made is on TV, ie, American Idol. I bet a good indoor flyer with a musical ear and creativity would knock their socks off. Most of the viewers wouldn't believe it would be possible to fly a kite indoors, much less to music. Charlie
  9. If I had been a bird, I would have fallen out of the sky, doubled up with laughter. Me slipping onto my butt in wet grass, getting stuck in a barbed wire fence, and my wife trying to protect her hair-do while holding the remaining 14 kites!
  10. I went out to practice launching a 36 eddy kite train. After waiting for 10 minutes I finally got enought breeze to get them off the ground. There I was blissfully unaware of how close the rain clouds had come. Then all of a sudden the wind went from 6-8 mph to over 35 mph. I tried to haul them in but a spar broke on one of them and I watched 24 sail off with the wind. I did manage to salvage 13 of them. After I had recovered them, I pictured my wife and I in pouring rain chasing those kites, then laughed myself silly. Charlie
  11. Thank You! I live in a desert area and my kite was lying on its back as I was waiting for a little wind. A Roadrunner started approaching my kite. Just as the Roadrunner neared a foot of the kite, I got my wind, took off, did a quick low 360 and started to chase that Roadrunner with my kite. Actinf just like the Wylie Coyote, I forgot where my car was. Roadrunner ran under the car, my SF crashed into the open hatchback. So much for one lower spreader! Oh well, at least I didn't tear the fabric.
  12. Pulled a real boner. Crashed my SF 2.3 UL into the open hatchback of my car and snapped one of the lower spreaders. I have been totally unsuccessful searching for the Dynamic T15 replacement. Does anyone know where I can buy replacements? Also what would be a like substitute?
  13. Here are a couple of websites I've found educational: http://www.kfs.org/~abw/kite/ http://wardley.org I've had to rebuild my FC bridal because the original fell apart on the 1st flight. I made a regular 3 point bridle byjust copiing the lengths and subtracting for the "dynamic" knots. It flew OK but the tails weights got lost along w/other problems. It's now fixed but I don't when I'll try it again. I've already got too much time in it. Good flying, Charlie
  14. What are your 3 most used kites? Silver Fox 2.5 Std, 2.3 UL, Acrobatx What size are they? 7.5' plus What do you use them for? Enjoyment and learning What length lines do you prefer? 75 - 80' What strength lines do you prefer? 50#, 90# depending on wind and kite
  15. On the kite's bridle ut the clip off so that both pieces are equal the tie a Figure 8 knot equadistant from the first bridle knot. Also braze the end of each line so it won't unravel. I like the Figure 8 over the overhand knot because it's bigger and won't slip away. It also causes less stress on the line. You can then connect your flying line to the bridle with a larkshead loop. The link below will show you how to tie a Figure 8. The entire site is great for the different kinds of knots. http://www.iland.net/~jbritton/figure8.htm Good flying, Charlie
  16. TheKatKiter

    2008 Ruidoso Kite Festival

    Various pictures of the 2nd Annual
  17. Sign me up too. I'm on the inet 4-6 hours/day.
  18. Page 12 at this link: http://www.aka.kite.org/data/download/pdf/...KCR_current.pdf
  19. I need to add that I let my subscription expire so I am now TheKatKiter instead of Charlie.
  20. Five months later, numerous learning experiences, I finally flew my train at the 2nd Annual Ruisodo Kite Festival. I started w/ 10 kites on Friday and ended with a 41 kite train on Sunday. Included in the learning experience is a launcher that I designed and built. Most of the learning experiences revolved around it. I still have a couple of tweaks to do but it works well. There was one learning experience that was upsetting. My wife went with me to fly a 37 kite train while experimenting with the launcher. At first there was no wind, so nothing was happening. Then a little wind came along and the train took off. I was happily watching it fly, the wind took a big surge (35+mph). A spar broke on one of the middle kites and 26 of them went flying off. I managed to salvage about 20 of the 37. But I did learn that I need to change the way I connect them. That is until the wind would die and you can imagine me trying to get that 2/3rd's of football field from over the parking lot before it settled completely. Five or six times doing that might just get me in shape! An odd thing happened on Sunday. A thermal hit the field and took the train vertical. I wish I had a camcorder instead of a still camara, because as the thermal left the kites started a neat spiral movement from the first kite to the last. It was quite a sight. I've posted some pictures in the members' gallery of the train. http://kitelife.com/forum/index.php?autoco...si&img=2334 I didn't have the time to get a lot of kids to decorate the individual kites, but I will next year now that I have the kinks out.
  21. From the album: 2008 Ruidoso Kite Festival

    A thermal hit the field and took all 41 straight vertical.
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