[Turtle]

My interest is renewed here a bit, and prompted by the aerial photography. What I have in mind is to fly my video camera, a venture that somehow has escaped my attention. My kite, a 6 1/2/ box kite, for photography is torn and smoke stained, but otherwise intact. I have my sewing machine back so I plan to remove the fabric from the struts and sew it up and clean it.

I no longer have the carriage I used with the still cameras, but I have a simpler setup in mind. I can do entirely without the radio control and simply turn the camera on to record and get an hour to an hour-and-half of tape.

I still have the parachute I made as well; it gets rigged so it is deployed/deployable in the event the kite breaks up. I may just put the camera in a block of foam too. So, another project and maybe by Summer I'll be ready to fly.

I'm adding a poll to the thread and by all means post your kite stories and/or questions here.

[Turtle]

Speaking of things on strings, I'm like a puppet on the strings of impulse. I went to the garage and got the ol' girl out. She's a little the worse for wear and a couple sticks missing.

Main longerons are 3/4" birch plywood, cross struts 3/8" maple dowels, fabric is ripstop nylon, and the bridle is 1/4" braided nylon cord. Weight is about 4 pounds dry.
You oughta hear her sing in a 30 mph wind!

[Turtle]

Love the 'once every 100 years' vote! I guess I'll have to vote once every ten years, as it's been that long since I flew the box. Nevertheless, for many years I could fairly have voted once a week.

So, I have the sail off now and I took some measurements. Each panel is 20.25"x33", times 8 panels = 5,346 square inches = 37.125 square feet of sail. I always just called it 'the box kite' or 'the big box kite', but now that I have her stripped down I'm naming her Beatrix (Bee for short) after one of my favorite women authors, Beatrix Terrana Goodwon.

The oil finish is weathered; I think I'll paint everything with acrylic paint while I have the kite apart. Needless to say, I am now resolved to neglect my other projects for at least the day.

[InfiniteNow]

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Next thing we know, there will appear a big dog at the curtain as well. Fortunately, I have kibbles and ale.

So with Bee all in pieces I have started thinking how I might use the parts more or less as they are and reconfigure her for more lift (and possibly separation ). In re-reading the thread and checking to see that the links were all good I looked over the site I linked that shows different kite designs along with their history. At any rate, a couple options for Bee have possibilities.

First option would be to keep the main form of the box but squish it a little flat to make what they call a rhomboid. Too flat and they get unstable and do a lot of rocking, but there is an optimum ratio that increases lift with no addition to sail area. All Bee needs for this makeover is a new set of cross struts. Here's a photo of a rhomboid form using multiple sail bands:
PChome Online ºô¸ô®a®x-¬Ûï :: Dieppe kite festival 2006 by Daniel >> pict0367.jpg

Second option I noticed is a conversion to a Conyne. I would need to do some cutting & sewing of the sails, but the longerons can remain as is. Here's a photo of a Conyne in flight:
http://gddweb.org/g2conyne.jpg

Here's the main page again where I found these photos; it has kite history as well.
The Virtual Kite Zoo

May your sticks stay straight and your string never go limp.

[Turtle]

The section of my brain that handles the kiting index appears to have spilled some shelves. Something of a train. (that's kite humor, for the unitiated) So, I was thinking about my box kite and kites in general and it came to mind that some 20+ years ago I built a box kite all of 1/2 inch long, which I flew on a hair.

Then out spilled a gathering of kiters I attended and we had a small group of engineers there who specialized in small kites made of thin films. They were flying them in the lounge on only the air currents from people moving about.

Where the hell was I? Mmmmm...oh yeah! It was one of the Fort Warden Kite Retreats I attented in the early 80's (not 1880's this time ). Looking for some confirmation I web-searched 'Fort Warden Kite Retreat' and found that it is still going and the 2007 event is their 24th year. I did the math & concluded that I may have attended the premier event, and if not the first then the second. Here's their page:
http://www.kitemakers.org/

Dihedral spoken here.

[Turtle]

When it's hard to run with a kite and moments of excitement are few and far between, one's mind turns to contrivances of questionable repute. Just so, and in complete contravention to the accepted rules of etiquette and conduct for both kiting & rocketry, I have embarked on a design for a rocket powered kite launch system for Bee. Detailed calculation will be forthcoming as soon as someone submits some. This is secret stuff so keep your yap shut; loose lips, sink ships.

Do you think these are big enough?

[imaplanck.]

Am I alone in seeing parallels with sex here?

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by imaplanck.

Am I alone in seeing parallels with sex here?

It was the smoke afterwards that gave it away, wasn't it‽ Well, you know what they always say; "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but a rocket is always a...___" err...well, you know.

I now have a key-way attachment designed wherin as long as the rocket is thrusting it remains attached to Bee's longeron, and when it is spent it slips off and falls back to Earth.

I think we need thrust sufficient to boost around 7 pounds to an altitude of between 100 & 400 feet. Wheras rockets have no legal limit to altitude, a tethered kite must not excede 500 feet by US Federal Statutes. When you are breaking new ground, you gotta burn the chaff.

[CraigD]

I voted “once/year”, but my actual habit it to kite every day for a few weeks every year, usually in the months of March-May.

Originally Posted by Turtle

When it's hard to run with a kite and moments of excitement are few and far between, one's mind turns to contrivances of questionable repute. Just so, and in complete contravention to the accepted rules of etiquette and conduct for both kiting & rocketry, I have embarked on a design for a rocket powered kite launch system for Bee.

Not that rockets aren’t fun and cool and all, but if your goal is just to launch a kite without running, the easiest scheme I know is to use some sort of string puller.

Years ago, I had a regular kite spot with consistent strong wind, but lots of surrounding woods that blocked the wind up to about 20 m AGL. Using a long elastic cord staked into the ground at one end and tied (via a paper clip) to the end of short string tied to the kite, I could walk the kite out roughtly downwind ‘til the elastic was as tight as the whole rig would bear (about 40 m), then just let it go. Pulled by the contracting elastic, the kite (my typical kite of the 1980s was a car-portable wood and paper box variation) would shoot up into the good wind, then bobble a bit until I got back to the stake, pulled in the slack elastic, and replaced it on the paperclip with the rest of the string.

This a pretty standard low-tech way of ground launching a free-flight or RC glider with a best climb speed faster than you can run, except that with a glider, the paper-clip or equivalent is clipped to a hook on the glider, so it and the string falls free after launch. Model airplane stores usually have long durable elastics for this – these days called “bungee launching” – like these (the little parachutes to keep the detached bungee from slapping someone silly is a nice touch foreign to me, but obviously unnecessary for a permanently attached kite)

Originally Posted by Turtle

Wheras rockets have no legal limit to altitude, a tethered kite must not excede 500 feet by US Federal Statutes. When you are breaking new ground, you gotta burn the chaff.

Technically, FAR 101 is a regulation, not a statute – an interpretation by FAA administrators of their general statutory duty to keep aircraft from crashing. The 500’ rule only applies to kites over 5#, with sting stonger than 50#.

You can get a waiver for these rules by phoning your nearest FAA ATC of FSS (unless you’re near a major airport, or city, your local FAA center is likely a Flight Service Station, not an Air Trafic Control center) and telling them what you’re up to and when. I did this a few times when I was trying to get a kite up really high. The FSS people were very friendly and accommodating, seeming interested. Also, they actually do warn planes and copters you’re there, which caused me to get visited by a lot of light planes curious to see if they could spot my kite and determine its altitude.