deerislandbrew

Yes, I think this thread was from a year and and half ago. The wife and I now have full sets and fly as much as we can!

Yup, Time to put this tread to bed. I think I have found all the sources on the web that I can. Thanks to all for your input!

I have looked at fly market before. Just looked again and found "economy tubes" from china. The .236 at 47.25" is just right for projects that would use 4' tubes. The best you get otherwise is .248, but only 32.5" long. Flymarket pretty much has Goodwinds stock. I was a bit excited to see economy tube offerings at 74+ inches in .236 and .315, that would be great for bigger kites, however the shipping of 5 pc at a cost of 18.75, costs another 43.68 by USPS and 58.68 by UPS because of length. Crazy, yes? To bad the US does not have more options or production in fiberglass tube. I will probably order some of the 47.25" stock as it is the best option in a smaller diameter, but it's sad to have to buy from China so much to find what you need.

Kitesandfunthings: Out of stock on the .230 rods in both 48" and 60" Just what I needed. .196 O.D. x 48" is the longest tube offered, way to small O.D. for building bigger kites. So....no luck there.

Here is the answer to my question from Goodwinds: Hello Alan, Thank you for the inquiry. On the fiberglass tubes, unfortunately, we are tied to the lengths we currently offer. Those tubes are individually made on finite lengths mandrels in a continuous winding/pulling process so that product length is preset, and can’t be altered without spending lots of money in making hundreds of longer mandrels. In fiberglass, yes, the FL 248 is the smallest diameter part we offer. Sincerely, Paul at www.gwcomposites.com and www.goodwinds.com 206-632-6151 1829 Railroad Ave. Mount Vernon, WA 98273

Thanks, I will look into these two places.

Hi, I'm looking for a good source of fiberglass and carbon tubes that are longer then 54" and under 8 ft. It seems tough to find anything on the web that is over 54". Much that I do see is limited to 32" stuff. I know using ferrules can give me enough length for some projects but I don't want to have to do that for every kite I want to build that has a spine and LE of 60" or greater. I have seen all the stuff Goodwinds and a few other sites have. 54" seems to be the limit unless opting for over 8ft stuff that incurs a cost prohibitive shipping fee. Maybe there just isn't much choice out there?

Nice! I would like to get a sled one of these days, but I already have three parafoils and I know the wife feels like that is enough ha, ha!

Sleds are very stable and the larger ones generate quite a bit of pull. I helped a guy bring down a 36 at WSIKF this last year, and was surprised at how much pull it generated. The wind was at 12 - 14 and we used my pulley carriage to walk it down, (It would have been really tough to walk it down by hand). I fly mostly Parafoils for supporting line laundry and have used 300lb ONLY a few times with a smaller 60 sq ft Parafoil. and in lighter wind. I would suggest using no less then 500 lb for the 24 but stronger line is better. I now use 1/8th Amsteel on my lifter kites that is rated at around 2500 lb breaking strength. The 7/64 is rated at 1600 lbs. This stuff is really tough and it is much lighter then braided Dacron. If you are thinking of a sled kite in the size of a 36 or 81 you should think about getting this line to fly with, or at least 1,100 lb braided Dacron.

I know it's probably a long shot, but I would like to buy a Skyburner Ocius SUL. Anyone got an extra?

Your kite is the first one I asked about. I liked the three colors, but I guess you already had it!

I have one line set left for sale. Price drop! Quad line: 4 x 50 feet x 150 lb line on card winder. Laser Pro Gold. Used a few times. $40.00 Dual line: 2x 160 feet x 150 lb on card winder with straps. New line, never used, Laser Pro Gold, perfect for anyone who bought one of the 761 Evidence Laser speed kites and needs a team fly 160 ft set. $75.00 SOLD! price includes shipping. Payment through Paypal.

Yeah, The ever present crease in the top cells, the unreliable flight, the reason I sent it back to Gomberg.......

Kite was returned. The right hand bridle was shortened about 3 inches, (same thing I tried before sending it back) While checking that, I found that the knot was a temporary slip knot that came apart with a slight tug. I re-tied it properly. Took it to WSIKF for a fly. The kite does OK up to about 10mph. After that it starts to lean to the left, just like it always has. It gets worse as the wind picks up and crashes at about 13 mph. I guess I have a kite that has a pretty limited wind window and will fly only in wind between 6 to 10.

I have a question for you guys that have stack line kites. I recently bought a 3 stack HQ Limbo set. Then thinking to add two more, I bought the newer Limbo kites with nicer graphics. The web site said they were the same width, height, but they are not. The newer ones are a bit shorter and the leading edges don't match perfectly with the three original Limbo kites. Has anybody tried running slightly mismatched kites in a train? I can match the tow lines fairly close, so that may not be a big issue, but will the thing fly right with two smaller kites? Run them in front or back of train? Thanks Alan

#7 the 3 stack of HQ Limbo kites. Is this still available?

PM sent...(I hope)

I am sending the kite back to Gomberg to check over. The kite never got wet, although could have stretched over time even though I have had it less then a year. I tried all kinds of line adjustment. I also held it in the wind near the ground and pulled lines to see what it would do. It seemed that in pulling the right two bridles in about 3-4 inches while doing this, that it evened up. I shortened up those two by 3" and let it back up. Still leaned bad to the left. Had it fall out of the sky in stronger winds twice. Bummer.... I still think that the fold of material along the top left cells may be an indication of a uneven sew job that may be the problem. I'll let David figure it out. Hope to get some feed back about what did cause this, however if it takes to many hours to troubleshoot he may opt to just replace. That's what I would do if my time was really tight. I do look forward to next year when I am retired. Then I will have time to take time, (and fly kites more often of course!)

I will contact Gomberg I think. I did try shortening the bridle lines on the right to compensate with no luck. This seems to be a complicated issue with no easy fix unfortunately.

Thought I would run this by the group for advice. I have a Gomberg 60 skyform parafoil. It just does not fly right. It leans to the left all the time now. I think when I first got it, (less then a year ago), It flew fairly straight with a touch of lean. I got some advice on re-brideling this kite. All the five lines were the same length, so that was not an obvious issue. I was told that as you move from the center keel, that you should increase the line length 4 more inches. I did this. After the center line, the two on either side are 4" longer, then the two outside lines are another 4" longer, (five keels-lines)n This did nothing to fix the problem. The more wind, the more it leans over. I had it fall out of the sky twice this last weekend in 16 + mph wind. The keels appear to be the same size, so I may rule out that part of the kite. I notice that from the left cell to the right and spanning at least four cells there is a ever present crease in the material across the top of the cell and about three inches in. I begin to suspect that the kite was sewn improperly and uneven. Any ideas?

I'll be there with my wife from Tuesday through the end of the festival. We booked camping sites at Cape Disappointment state park earlier in the year, as it goes fully reserved for the summer months. I'm looking forward to over a week of flying!

I broke the ferrule, not the spreader. I had thought that the male end of the spreader was turned down, not a separate piece. Thanks for the advice RobB and Hadge. I will remove the shredded ferrule and get a new one inserted so I have a spare. My replacement arrived today!

I'm just recently back from a weeks vacation in Southern California, where I spent most of the week flying my three kites. I spent the most time flying my Prism Zephyr as the wind on most days was around 5 - 8 mph. I had a great time with this kite. I finally learned how to axel and do 360's in the fade position. This has been a great kite to learn with! Which brings me to one of my (many) crashes. I ended up breaking the male lower spreader at the joint where the two pieces mate. Of course I was playing hard with the kite. I ordered a new piece from Prism and it showed up today, except it was the wrong one. It was the female spreader. I called Prism and the guy's apologized and said keep the spare female part and we will send you out the male spreader right away. Great service from the guy's up in Seattle at Prism! As for the Zephyr, I have heard it said that the kite just about gives away some of the slack line tricks. I think it's true! It helped cut my learning curve down a bit I think.

Wow, You know how to pack! I guess I'll be all set. I have already put the dual line and a rev in the tube together, so it should work good. If I can figure how to get all that and my other dual Prism kite, I would have it made!

Thanks, I bought a light weight PVC tube with end caps. 36"L x 4" with end caps. I'm hoping that I can carry on a small suitcase plus the tube for kites and put them up in the overhead. I usually travel with a suitcase up in the overhead and a back pack camera bag in the seat (under the seat during flight.) It would be one suitcase and one personal item. Hope it flies!