Kites & kiting

[DougF]

I usually fly my kite in the spring, but I'll see if I can git it in the air on the first week of the New Year.

Turtle
Care to hazard a guess what 'shielding' on a kite is

I don't have a clue what kind of shielding you would put on a kite, but after reading the posts on the FAA regulations I think I'll build a new kite and see how high I can get.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by DougF

I usually fly my kite in the spring, but I'll see if I can git it in the air on the first week of the New Year.

I don't have a clue what kind of shielding you would put on a kite, but after reading the posts on the FAA regulations I think I'll build a new kite and see how high I can get.

That's the spirit! I would be remiss in my duty to not say foremost is safety, and there is no safety like pirate safety.

I went back to reread the thread as well and found an image missing in post #37, and I have it restored. This is what kiting is about for me, that is to say aerial photography, and my full intent is to use my reconfigured kite to fly my new video camera. The camera is much lighter than the outfit I flew for the photo below, and with the added lift I gain from going to the rhomboid form I have every confidence of success.

Any other closet kiters lurking? Come out, come out, wherever you are. Whirled peas & go fly a kite!

[Jet2]

These kites are not for flying...
Of course they can but it would be a waste if we fly them.
They are art pieces.

²ÜÑ©ÇÛ·çóÝÒÕÊõ - µ±µ±Íø

[Jet2]

sorry about that.
the book is in chinese.

[LaurieAG]

pesky duplicate

[LaurieAG]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Well, I don't care for long posts, so I'll curtail my ramblings to allow you all to post up your kiting adventures!

Hi Turtle,

I came across the following site with kite games, interesting.

Kite Games and Competitions

I've had a Skytes Power Elite stunt kite (Delta, 2.8m(W)x1.5m(H), 2x150 feet braided Dacron strings) for around 15 years now. It just keeps on going, with a new sail and replacement struts. Kite flying is just like sailing, without getting your feet wet (unless you want to get then wet).

I would go flying down the beach with a couple of mates and we would engage in a bit of aerial combat (only 1 on 1 though).

We found out that we could still controll our kites if we twisted the lines together around 9 times, any further and the smaller kite lost control. When the kites were twisted together the larger kite could pull the smaller kite around the sky. The tricky bit was getting the number of twists right to get out of the twists. Quite spectacular really.

One night we went down the beach and attached those fluro glow sticks to our kites. One had green sticks on the horizontal while the other had orange sticks on the vertical (torches are too heavy). We flew and battled for around an hour (you couldn't see us on the beach from the road). You should have seen the light show. In fact, if it wasn't for the people watching (down) from the high rises, the newspaper the next day would probably have had a story (with pictures) of aliens battling each other out over the horizon because that's what everybody who walked or drove by would have thought.

But probably the best thing I find about kiting is developing new moves. See if you can try to duplicate this when you get a chance, I call it the POLARIS.

If you fly your kite down the beach and the wind is running straight along the beach, position yourself just beside the water and run your kite out to the edge of the wind envelope over the water. If you aren't very good at landing on dry land you should probably practice up a bit before you try this stunt.

Try to land your kite on the water (i.e. point up ^), it doesn't really matter if you crash because you actually want the kite to be under the water. When the kite is fully submerged slowly walk along the beach and take up the string slack so that you have a smaller angle into the wind (for a take off, not enough wind at the edge in the water). Slowly and evenly pull on the strings until the tip of your kite protrudes from the water (you may have to try a couple of times). Just keep pulling and when the kite is free from the water turn sharply into the wind and spin your kite to shake out the water.

p.s. Kite flying is great fun, but if you are inexperienced be very careful because the strings don't need anything else (glass etc) to cut human flesh and small rope burns hurt.

[freeztar]

It seems kites are being employed on the open seas now to cut down on fuel consumption. How cool?!

SkySails - Turn Wind into Profit

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by freeztar

It seems kites are being employed on the open seas now to cut down on fuel consumption. How cool?!

SkySails - Turn Wind into Profit

Sweet! One of my favorite scenes in Waterworld is when Costner's character lauches a folded up kite skyward from a mortar on his boat to add to his sail area.

I was going to suggest this as an adjunct to your boat-building buddy.

Nasty weather and other projects have stalled my reworking the box kite as a rhomboid. I need to decide if I will join my dowel struts with a scarf or a collar block. When you're kiting, things are always looking up.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by freeztar

It seems kites are being employed on the open seas now to cut down on fuel consumption. How cool?!

SkySails - Turn Wind into Profit

I watched one of the videos of the deployment & recovery; someone knows what they are doing. Given modern materials & means, and diminishing fuel resources and associated rising concerns, I think the world would benefit from returning to sails for the main propulsion of ships. (square-rigged?)

Anyway, its back to kiting and how I, and presumably y'all, totally forgot about our intention and plan to fly kites on New Years Day. Plenty of wind for my big kite today, but it's still not rigged. Mmmmm...i need 4 splice blocks that if I .............

PS ...just use some thick dowel I have and drill out sockets for the sticks using post #127....http://hypography.com/forums/artists...tml#post204514

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Turtle

... Plenty of wind for my big kite today, but it's still not rigged. Mmmmm...i need 4 splice blocks that if I .............

PS ...just use some thick dowel I have and drill out sockets for the sticks using post #127....http://hypography.com/forums/artists...tml#post204514

OK. I have all four couplings cut to length and their sockets bored. Next step will be to cut the struts to length...but what length??? No end of choices near enough as I figure it, but I settled on the Golden Ratio, phi, to use for the ratio of long strut to short. I hereby claim and now call my design, a Golden Rhomboid kite.

The fabric stapled to the longerons keeps the side length fixed @ ~ 31". Attached find my scale drawing of the rhombus, including reference to the new coupling(s). (If I didn't say, the reason for the coupling is that they sell the dowel stock only in 4 foot lengths; otherwise I'd use a solid piece.)
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