How To Make A Delta Kite
Step-by-Step - Page 1 of 3
The MBK 1-Skewer Delta
These instructions on how to make a Delta kite are fairly detailed. However, the reward is a great little light wind flier! Just the thing for a gentle evening breeze. About the only tool required by these instructions is a pair of sharp scissors.
Any other materials you don't have are easily bought from local shops. If not exactly what I used, then at least something pretty similar!
The pictures should make things pretty clear. Just quickly work your way through from top to bottom, skimming over any detail that you don't need.
The MBK 1-Skewer Delta kite is quite small at 1.0SL (29cm, 11 1/2") in length, but copies the full-size Deltas with a floating spreader and triangular keel.
The little skewer kite flies best with several skewer-lengths of tail.
A tiny bit of extra plastic taped to one wing-tip can correct a turning tendency, but this might not be necessary.
If a 20 pound Dacron line sags too much, you could try polyester sewing thread instead. That should get the kite up to 300 feet :-)
Making Skewer Kites is a handy download of printable step-by-step instructions. This design and all the other 1-Skewer and 2-Skewer designs are covered.
MBK 1-Skewer DeltaLike to see a video clip? Just scroll down to near the end...
How To Make A Delta Kite
Sail
Now's the time to read up on kite materials and other things needed for building a Delta kite, if you haven't already.
The template shown above represents one side of the kite sail. You will now transfer these measurements to the sail plastic as follows...
- Firstly, take a bag that you want to use for the sail, and lay it flat on the floor.
- Mark dots on the plastic which correspond to the corners of the Template. Any small errors in position don't matter since the sail will be symmetrical.
- Using the marking pen, rule lines between the dots.
- Flip the plastic bag over, and trace over all the black lines using your marker pen and ruler.
- Cut out a rectangular section of the bag containing the kite sail, open it out and lay it flat on the floor - you can now see the complete sail outline, as in the photo.
- Lay down clear sticky tape along all edges of the sail except the long edges of the 2 tabs. The yellow marks represent the tape in the photo. To save weight, try to put only ¼ of the tape's width inside the sail outline.
- Cut along all the black lines, with scissors.
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P.S. Keep an eye out for books by kite author Glenn Davison, a prominent kite person in the USA.
What's New!
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Flight Report:
Big Box In Booming AirJan 19, 19 02:53 AM
Remarkable. Before leaving for the field, the online weather station reported 20kph gusting to 28kph. And then on arriving back, again, the speeds were 20kph gusting to 28kph! However, the direction w…
Wind Speeds
Light Air
1-5 km/h
1-3 mph
1-3 knots
Beaufort 1
Light breeze
6–11 km/h
4–7 mph
4–6 knots
Beaufort 2
Gentle ...
12–19 km/h
8–12 mph
7–10 knots
Beaufort 3
Moderate ...
20–28 km/h
13–18 mph
11–16 knots
Beaufort 4
Fresh ...
29–38 km/h
19–24 mph
17–21 knots
Beaufort 5
Strong ...
39–49 km/h
25–31 mph
22–27 knots
Beaufort 6
High Wind
50-61 km/h
32-38 mph
28-33 knots
Beaufort 7
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