Jeepster

Great pictures!!! And, it looks like you had a blast! Thanks for sharing. Cheers, Tom

Patrick, You might think about sending an e-mail to Kent Kingston at A Wind of Change in the USA. Kent is extremely knowledgeable on stacking kites and will happy to help you. Check out the Rev forum for threads on stacking lines. Johnnmitchell has posted some good pictures of how he does the stacking lines. I fly a six stack of five foot Rev-like kites and they pull like crazy. My line set for those is 150#. I've flown Kent's eight stack of Rev I's and that stack put me on my posterior ... understand that I'm not a light weight!! If you make your own stacking lines, be sure to stretch the bridle line before you tie the lines. Bridle line creeps about 2 to 3% when it's new. That doesn't sound like much, but remember that for eight kites you'll have about 35 feet between the first and last kite. That's about a foot of total creep. And Kent will advise you that a 1/4" here and there will throw off a stack's stability. The first kite really catches the load on a stack ... 3-wraps are a little on the weak side for an eight stack. Cheers, Tom

It's amazing what Connor has done for raising awareness of kiting in general with the general public. This is what I posted on the Rev forum: "Last Monday my wife and I went to a buffet dinner at a local church. We were at a table with three young couples. Part way into the evening I was asked what I'm doing with my retirement time. I said I fly kites ... the four line type ... they look like two triangles tied together. Before I finished one of the guys started bouncing up and down and said "like that Connor guy does!" Please understand that I live in the middle of kite-less land ... kites and unicorns are both about even in my area. So Connor, I doubt you truly understand how many folks you've touched with your flying. Keep it up ... and good luck in DC ..." Damn I hate it when the kids out shine the adults. Cheers, Tom

There are way too many hours of time involved with making kites to even think about selling them ... probably back to $0.50 an hour like when we were kids. The warm fade is my favorite color combo for foils ... that's why I liked your kite so much. I'm thinking about using Tony Killip's approach with a thin black stripe between each of the colors on the larger kite. Go look up his kites at Ourkitesfly.com if you want to see a beautiful kite. I have a small grand son and a little bitty sewing machine for the inside seams. Actually, the kite is a progressive assembly with each cell being sewn from one side of the kite to the other ... the final cell is completed via a "burrito roll." The kite is rolled up tight with the panels for the last cell wrapped backwards around the rolled up fabric. The seam is sewn and then the roll is pulled out the front of the final cell ... effectively turning it right-side out. Cheers, Tom

Duane, This my eighth foil kite, so the steep part of the learning curve is almost over. The sky was beautiful today, so I've got to look a a couple more pictures. Cheers, Tom

It's a Mimi-Mock kite ... there's a good thread about it over on another forum. Don Mock designed the kite as a class project. He was kind enough to publish the plans. It's a 20 sq feet (5 foot wide by 4 foot long) flow form. I was given a box of scrap ripstop and this turned out to be a perfect application. I sized the colors based on how much red and yellow was in the box ... now there's none!!! I plan on building a much larger kite (maybe in the 100 sq ft range) in a warm fade cross color pattern later this summer. This was a trial run to work out the process ... nothing freezes the brain more than lots of expensive fabric spread about. It's not really that difficult, just lots of planning, cutting, sorting and keeping track of what goes where. Time? Probably three or four hours to cut out the templates (16), several hours laying out the fabric and cutting it, about eight hours of sewing. I used flat fell seams between the colors ... just because I wanted to learn how to do them!!! It was finished yesterday, so it had to fly today ... even if it was a terrible day for photos. Thanks for noticing, Tom

Yea, I know what you mean about body action. The videos that show Polo's hand movements make one wonder if the kite and the handles are really connected ... the kite stops, but his hands never seem to. Cheers, Tom

That round about of a discretion and white washing makes one rorer with laughter. However, it does explain the extra large smiles! Cheers, Tom

That round about of a description and white washing makes one rorer. However, it does explain the extra large smiles! Cheers, Tom

The snow is melting and I can see grass again. We're leaving for Kite Party in two weeks. And then this video gets posted on YouTube. Polo's style, like John's, is very distinctive and very entertaining ... Enjoy, Tom

Want to know how bad it is ... .Cheers, Tom Definitely Facebooked that one. There are several thought provoking videos in the google series. Look up the the vacationeers on youtube. If you have a smart phone you might like this one. Cheers, Tom

The physical analogy of John's RNG is a hat with all 800 numbers in it. John has been (shortened version) picking a number and either 1) announcing a winner if it's a valid number or 2) throwing the number back into the hat and redrawing until a valid number comes up first. What I'm proposing is (shortened version) that John discards the number if it's not valid, and then, redrawing until a valid number appears. In John's method the probability of a successful number coming up first is approximately 295/800 ... for most drawings he will run the generator two or three times. No wonder the drawings are a day late!!!! Cheers, Tom

Want to know how bad it is ... .Cheers, Tom

If the RNG only picked one number, then you're correct. But, I remember the characteristics of the RNG that John uses, it creates a random order for the full field of numbers. If there were only 10 numbers, the output might look like this: 4,6,8,3,5,1,9,10,2,7 The RNG doesn't pick only one number nor does it pick the first number and then list the others sequentially ... like this: 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,1,2,3. Thus, having expired numbers ahead of your number does not tilt the odds in your favor. Yes? Cheers, Tom

Those things that "irked" me have already been discussed ... and, you've been great about either fixing them or explaining why you couldn't/wouldn't change them. I'd comment on the changing ... if new technology comes along that demands a large change, then let's do it. The large update a year or so ago was okay ... plenty of notice and readership input. And minor tweaks are also okay ... some of us don't even notice them. But, the intermediate "change it" just 'cuz you can ... leave it alone!!!! Fix up the Kitelife site ... no problem there ... it does need some easy of navigation help. Thanks for asking, Tom

There will be a special place in Hell for folks who are involved in IT services. They seem to have a genetic defect that will not allow them to leave things alone. If it isn't broken, don't fix it!!!! Oh BTW, the IT folks will be right next to the automobile folks. I drive Jeeps ... year one has black dials with the tach on the left ... year two has white dials with the tach on the right ... year three has white dials with the tach on the left ... just leave the damn thing alone!!!!! If you want to fix something ... come up with a COMMON format for all kiting websites. I currently monitor six kiting sites ... they all have a slightly different look and feel with their own idiosyncrasies. Okay, now where did I leave my meds??? They've got to be here somewhere ... Grumble, grumble, Tom

The first time I needed a screen name was on Christmas day in 2001. We stumbled upon Geocaching and did our first two caches. To log the finds required a screen name ... dah! Well, since we usually have at least one Jeep in the lineup, several derivatives were explored. Jeeps-R-Us, JeepDriver, etc. A quick look through the Jeep history uncovered the Jeepster name. That was a instant aha! Well, when I started kiting, it just seemed natural to continue to use it. The unfortunate thing with a screen name like mine is that it's too common. A search on Geocaching.com shows twenty more members with a derivative name starting with Jeepster. Looks like if I started today, it'd be long gone. Cheers, Tom

Okay, dumb question. Why don't you run the RNG once ... and then, go down the list until you find the first active number. That would seem just as fair and much easier. In fact, one could run it a day or so early (barring someone signing up at the eleventh hour) and take that number along with you on your travels. Cheers, Tom

Grandpa, That looks like Todd C's kite in the background. What are you using for your lifter? Cheers, Tom

Well, that is what 294 of us just called him!!!!! Cheers, Tom

Hey RNG ... tell John to bring it to Kite Party please. That will save on shipping and chances are Jim C will be there to sign it. Plus, then I can get some instruction on dual line flying ... Cheers, Tom

Congrats Grandpa!!! Enjoy ... Oh, and don't count on John to teach the kite any tricks. I won one of his SUL kites on the Rev forum ... it was barely potty trained when it arrived. Cheers, Tom

Oh come on you guys!!! You're at least a day early ... maybe two! Cheers, Tom