Kite Flying Adventures Blog

Since rewriting the instructions for the 1-Skewer Sled Kite, the 'launch picture' at the bottom of the page has been missing. Today we finally got out with the little sled and our camera to fix that situation! Rain had been forecast, so it was a bit tricky timing the trip to the Old Reynella reserve.

A moderate breeze was gusting through, although it was pretty light during the lulls. My wife May did the flying while I took 8 photos of the sled kite on a short line. Aren looked on, from his pram, and even helped out holding the winder at one stage. With the pics taken, I took over the winder and let out a lot more line.

The gusty conditions weren't ideal, and we hadn't bothered re-attaching the flying line to get all the twists out. Hence the bridle was a bit twisted up and made the kite somewhat prone to collapsing. Never mind, it still soared up to a 40 degree angle or so a few times, with about 30 meters of line out. Strong gusts occasionally looped it to the right, before it would descend down to slower air and recover for another climb. A couple of nice little saves happened, just centimeters above the grass. Little single-line kites keep the pilot busier than big ones!

Not much more to report, other than we walked home in light rain!

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July 1, 2008 22:26 - New Diamond Kite Toddler Tested!

Although very cloudy today, there seemed to be a bit of a sunny break, so Aren and I headed out to get some photos of the little 1-skewer diamond kite. With the old instructions all re-written and new photos taken, the How To Make A Diamond Kite page needed one final photo, for the bottom of the page. As you might have noticed, I always put a photo here of the kite being flown on a short line. For a change, it's Aren in his pram this time, rather than your's truly!

I wasn't too concerned about some nearby dark clouds, but that was before I checked the exact wind direction. Ooops! Time was of the essense, so I let out a few meters of line and got the diamond in the air. With the bridle adjusted and some extra tail, it behaved itself reasonably well. Well enough in fact, to give Aren the reel, while I dropped to one knee and started taking shots. The kite did end up on the ground a few times, but that was to be expected, given the gusty wind and short line.

Aren did well, dutifully hanging on to the reel while I re-launched the kite and hurried back to take more photos. Happy that a few usable photos were 'in the bag', I took the reel from Aren (with some difficulty!) and started winding in. And then the first few raindrops fell! Now it was a race to wind on the few remaining meters of line, stow the kite, and push the pram faster than the little fella has ever seen it go. So much for bringing the 2-Skewer Sled as well, since it would have gone up like a rocket in the moderate breeze that was blowing.

That's it for today, short and sweet. Well, short, anyway.

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June 24, 2008 19:41 - New 1-Skewer Diamond Kite Tested

We went out today to the Old Reynella reserve with the new 1-skewer diamond kite. However, nothing much went right!

The Prussik knot had loosened and lost one of its loops. Picking it apart and re-tying wasn't really an option out on the reserve without my reading glasses, so I just pulled it tight. Where-upon it ceased to become a sliding knot and just stuck fast in the wrong spot! OK, no problem, I'll just tie a small overhand loop in the bridle line to shift the towing point to somewhere near the correct position.

The kite still mis-behaved, not wanting to fly during the lulls but looping to the right when the breeze was strong enough to lift it! I tore off a little tail plastic and attached it to the left wing-tip to balance up the drag forces on the kite. This helped, and the kite made it 10 or 20 meters in the air on its 3 kg nylon fishing line. However, it was still not stable enough in the stronger gusts. Numerous re-launches from the grass was the result, with about 40 meters of line out.

To cap it all off, 2 year old Aren retrieved the kite at one stage, and managed to detach the sail from one spar! No more flying for today.

Now, let's go over those 2 problems again, they're easily fixed...

1. Prussik knots are usually fine, but it's probably a good idea to pull plenty of line through so there's no chance of the knot actually getting itself partly un-tied. Teaching myself a lesson here, too! If it just happens to loosen up a bit due to handling, it's an easy matter to grab the 2 pieces that are supposed to lie next to each other and pull them both at once to tighten the knot. You can't over-tighten, it will still slip along the bridle if forced, as it is supposed to. In the air, there's no sideways force on the knot so it holds its position.

2. After getting home I double-checked the position of the towing point and discovered it was still too far back. No wonder the kite had such a narrow wind range! Also, the spars came from a heavy batch of bamboo, unfortunately. It seems this can make a big difference on a small kite. Correcting the towing point and adding even more tail should help this kite to fly stable and high in a moderate breeze.

We'll soon be out again and hope to report on the little diamond flying a lot better, on 50 meters of monofilament fishing line!

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