Jeepster

Welcome to kiting Hans ... and welcome to this forum. Cheers, Tom

Oh Pete ... so sad ... it must have been terrible lost at sea (lake) for so long. The cheeseburger was a great start, bottled Strohs was an acceptable alternative if the tap wasn't working ... but to top it all off with opera!!!! When was the last time you saw a kite routine performed on the beach at a festival to opera on the speakers??? My friend, they must have given you too much anesthesia. Maybe it's an age thing. Please get some professional help. And to think that my IKE buddies groan when ever I bring out the country music. Geez, please don't embarrass yourself at the flying field with that funny stuff. And, don't tell anybody else about your inflection. Cheers, Tom

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Hey Pete ... a little late, but sincere non-the-less!!! Happy Birthday ... and may you have many, many more! Cheers, Tom

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Jynx has a 240 ft line set that she let me fly with at TI. Talk about a wind-window ... huge!!! Remember going from 120's down to 30's and how fast the kite seemed? Well, the opposite occurs when jumping up to 240's ... everything is slowed down. Fun to fly on for awhile, but would probably become boring after a few hours. Cheers, Tom

If you bought it from your local kite shop, I'd go back and ask them. Jon T. will be out for awhile 'cuz of hip replacement surgery, but Marianne should be able to help you. Or, visit the Wednesday evening kite fly ... there are some experienced folks there. Cheers, Tom

You might try PMing the following Kitelife members ... screen name is first: Mike ... (Mike) ... started, with others, IKE ... http://www.ikeclub.org James Patten ... (James) ... started QC Kite Club ... http://www.qckiteclub.com tcope ... (Todd) ... very active in the Utah kite flying club ... http://www.utahkitefliers.org None of them are that active on Kitelife, so probably won't see your posting. But, they all are very helpful and approachable. Unless the members all live in the same city, a website if of prime importance for communication. Cheers, Tom

Bill, I've got a number of 7 ft deltas from Gomberg. On those kites, the bottom of the pocket is open into the side rod tubes. Thus, the cross rod actually rides up and over the side rod tubes on both sides ... yep, evenly. Does your cross rod have end caps on it? If not, you might slip down to your local kite shop and buy a couple to lengthen the tube slightly so that it rides up and over the side tubes evenly on both sides. Maybe an ink pen cap would lengthen it enough to balance the sides. If it has end caps, you might try taking them off to shorten the cross rod and see if that helps. Try a tail only on the "high" side. That might be foolish, but what the heck. Sorry, I don't have any experience with your specific kite. The Gomberg kites haven't given me any trouble at all. Cheers, Tom Edit: Just checked an old, cheap delta and it has pockets that extend slightly past the side rod tubes. That forces the cross rod over the back side of both side rods.

You mean "someone else losing a kite for." Cheers, Tom

Shhh now bear ... it's okay ... you're just having a nightmare ... go back to sleep now ... it'll be alright in the morning ... Besides, the 10th is close enough to my birthday that the RNG will surely look favorably on my poor little number and my advancing age. He knows that I don't have a vented B-size kite yet ... let alone a B2. John, since I've got this one sewn up, you might want to announce the next contest so that the other 300+ members have something to look forward to. Cheers, Tom

Hey Nick, You might wait until Kent logs on and posts. He has a lot more experience than I do. I've heard that the ends are reinforced with extra carbon, but I can't see any increase in diameter or shape at the ends. I've cut well over 200 kite rods in the last few years with this rig ... also several dozen aluminum shafts for archery. I'm too cheap to buy even a Harbor Freight chop saw. It's a simple 2 X 4 with a little routing at one end to hold a flex shaft attachment. Before I got the flex shaft, the dremel was simply duct taped to the board and the middle area was raised with an other board to keep the center of the rod even with the center of the cutoff wheel. The other end of the board has an adjustable stop to keep the end of the rod fixed. The cutoff wheel is the largest one you can buy ... otherwise the tube has a chance of hitting the shoulder of the dremel or flex shaft. I use the highest speed available on the dremel. Once the rod is cut, use some fine wet-or-dry sand paper to smooth the end. Use your gun cleaning equipment to clean out the small carbon particles from the inside of the rod. And, do use respirator equipment while cutting. I also hook up my vac to capture the particles before they spread. Cheers, Tom

It depends more on the wind/pull than the kite. I have a couple of 20 sq ft foils that I normally wind down, but have had to walk them down on occasion in high winds. Duane ... I thought we'd already answered the question of your sanity!!!! Cheers, Tom

I fly several large foil kites (75, 100 and 190 sq ft) and use a lark's head knot on them all the time with 1200 lb line. In good winds, the 75 sq ft Pit Bull Dog foil will bounce the rear of my Jeep up and down. A friend of mine flys his 2200 sq ft foil using the same knot. Trust me on this one ... done correctly it is an extremely safe knot. Cheers, Tom

Hi Bill and welcome to the forum. I'll take a first pass at answering your questions. Just remember that all of us are very opinionated on what we like and don't like, so it's not uncommon to get a dozen or so different answers for every question you ask. None of them are "wrong", so just think through the answers and pick the ones that make sense to you. A delta kite can be de-tuned so that it doesn't pull that hard. But, 64 sq feet of kite can get you into trouble quickly if you don't use your head. With a foil that size, you'd need to anchor it before launching it. So, do be careful ... 300 pound line should be adequate for that kite. I like dacron because it's a little softer and easier on your hands than the other stuff. Poly braided is also okay. I like the smooth surface ... others like the rougher, courser braided line 'cuz they can get a better grip on it. Most of my hoops are 8 inch ... they have a 5 inch center diameter which is plenty of room for my hands. I'm just south of 6 feet and north of 220 lbs ... with large hands. 500 feet of line is plenty ... why buy a large kite and then fly it way up in the sky where it looks like a small kite? I usually fly with 100 to 200 feet of line. Tie a four inch loop in both ends of your line. One end will be attached to the kite bridle with a larks head knot. The other end will be attached to your hoop with what's essentially a larks head knot. Swivels are not needed on the main line. You'll need to develop a pattern to taking the line off and on your hoop. 1) Always take it off and wind it on the same side of the hoop. or 2) Allow the hoop to spin in your hand when taking it off ... when putting it back on you'll either 2a) reel it in like a fishing reel or 2b) wind ten loops over the left side followed by ten loops over the right side ... this keeps the twists to a minimum. If you do decide to buy swivels, buy good ones. Most swivels our size come from the fishing industry where they are lubricated and cooled with water. In our usage, they run dry ... not a good application. So, if there's any appreciable load, buy good ones. Cheap ones go on light weight tails. There are so many variables involved with tails that a rule of thumb is hard to come by. Tails will help stabilize a kite (most times) so they are not a bad addition. You'll just have to experiment to find the correct tail to get what you want. Realize that material (nylon vs taffeta, etc), style (tube vs flat vs fuzzy vs banner), length, are only a few of the variables that you need to contend with. If you're only after looks, then two or three ribbon tails will look neat. They don't impart a large load on the kite, so they can be 30 ~ 40 feet long with out causing problems. Get the Bear to share some of his secrets to sneaking new kites into the house. He seems to be very good at that. You live very close to a brick and mortar shop there in Plymouth, Michigan. Give them a call and get hooked up with a group of folks who fly kites almost every week. Jon T. (the owner) is very friendly and helpful about getting new fliers into the air. --Pete (on this forum) also lives near you and can help you in person. Again, welcome to the forum. Cheers, Tom Looks like --pete was typing faster than I was

Welcome to the forum Jamie. And yes, you're automatically entered in the drawing. Ask John to post your subscriber number in your signature block so you'll have a mantra as the date gets closer. Cheers, Tom

Hummm. My credit card was compromised a couple of weeks ago. Thus, when my subscription ran out on the 12th of June, it wasn't automatically renewed. Today, I added a new card to paypal and renewed my subscription. Do I get to say "I'm Here"? Probably not, since I'm long past the "new person" stage. Got to say that a vented B2 isn't in my kite bag right now, so I'll be drooling for the next month. Cheers, Tom

Well damn ... just got back from Mexico and started to send my address to JB ... well, maybe next time!!! Congratulations Marvin. Enjoy!! Cheers, Tom

Hey John, I'm going to be off the grid for a week, so just hold the kite until I get back and I'll send you my address. Give my thanks to the RNG please. Cheers, Tom

That might be true about some trees, but take a look at the Saguaro cactus. It doesn't start becoming truly impressive until around Howard's age ... that's when the arms start to appear. And, if left alone, they can live to be 150 or so years old. That's not to say that Howard is prickly, so don't go there. Cheers, Tom

Let me add my best wishes for a happy birthday Howard. And many, many more to come. Cheers, Tom

Oh Duane, he was talking about tuning in a different set of voices in his head. You don't listen to the same voice all the time do you? Cheers, Tom

Don't worry, my first kite was a full sail. And the day it arrived so did the winds. Found that if I got out on the field early there was an hour or two of reasonable winds before the trees started bending over. Worked for a month until I decided that I was in it for the long haul and bought a full vent. Cheers, Tom

Above 25mph, I'm usually flying a mega-vent - home built 'cuz Rev didn't have the extra-vent when I needed it. Mine has double the venting of a B-series full vent. So, yes you were really pushing the envelope for a full sail. If you must fly, make sure you have lots and lots of break so that the kite doesn't get away from you. So much break that you almost can't fly forward at launch. JB claims that the vertical spar is loaded more than the leading edge. Those are the spars that I've seen fail the most, so maybe he's right ... don't you just hate that? Like Dave, I've never seen an end cap break. Could be a defect, maybe the rod wasn't fully inserted, or maybe you hit it extra hard at one time. The positive point is that the end cap's a few dollars vs. ten plus for the vertical rod. When the wind starts blowing that hard, go to the top of the wind window like you did. But, keep the top lines pulled back to unload the sail ... you're trying to position the sail parallel to the wind. If you need to get it down and the wind continues to blow hard, then simply slide the kite sideways, staying at the edge of the wind window, until it reaches the ground. If available, have someone there to catch the kite. Welcome to the dark side ... it continues to get better and better. Cheers, Tom