progress...

Tuesday May 18th 2004 - I took the kite to the park at lunchtime again and had a go at flying it, but had a lot of trouble trying to self-launch. I got it in the air but the rear lines were too slack and I couldn't steer it properly and then it was time to get back to work!

All in all rather frustrating, and it's clear from this test that the leading edge is not right. It seems to be twisted so that the AOA of the kite is decreasing towards the tips, and this causes the tips to luff badly. I'll have to unstitch it and re-sew, and hope I get it right this time!

Repeat 100 times: Accuracy is important... Get it right or you'll have to do it again!

Here are some pictures of the twisted tip and the other tip that worked out ok after resewing the leading edge tube seam... You can see that the leading edge is twisted for some distance inboard of the tip... Click the images for bigger pictures.

Monday May 17th 2004- Yipee! I finally finished sewing! (Well, almost, there are still a couple of fiddly bits to do like the strut ends..)

I took the kite to the local park at lunchtime and pumped it up to the amusement of some builders and a guy with his homing pigeons.

There seems to be a slight twist in one of the tips but hopefully nothing to worry about. This could just be due to the temporary elastomax LE bladder I am using. Elastomax is not very stretchy so unless the bladders are correctly installed they tend to twist the dacron sleeve. The elastomax tubing I have is narrower than the leading edge of the 15, so I have doubled it up, and this means that there is a lot of material buched up at the tips where the leading edge gets narrower.

I didn't fly the kite but I held the wingtips and let it float above my head and it looks great!

Pictures tomorrow I hope, maybe a test flight this evening.

Monday May 10th 2004 - Very close now, but work and other commitments always get in the way!

Four of the six ribs are attached to the canopy now and I have sewn on line attachment points to one wingtip. I'm going to add a 5th element style attachment point to the center of the leading edge to see how well the system works.

Thursday May 6th 2004 - Big progress - I have attached two of the rib struts to the canopy and sewn them shut. I inserted strut bladders into these ribs and found that they do not have enough material forward of the valve to fill all the space... I presume the bladders, which are from a Storm 1 kite, were designed for the older style of rib attachment, where the rib gets narrower at the point where it joins the leading edge. If the bladder does not fill all the space in the strut there is a danger that it will explode. I will either have to make some new bladders or fill the space forward of the valve with something else.

My plan is to cut up an old camping 'carry mat' into ovals that will fit into the front end of the rib struts, and hopefully this will solve the problem. I may have to unpick some of the rib seam to do this.

Wednesday May 5th 2004 - I attached the canopy to the leading edge over the weekend and got to see what the kite will look like. It's BIG!

I just folded the leach and stitched it down on this kite to (hopefully!) avoid the 'bag effect' that I had on the 8.5. I hope this will be strong enough.

The only jobs left to do now are: another line of triple zig zag along the LE/canopy attachment line, attach velcro to the rib ends, stitch the ribs to the canopy, close the ribs and add flying line attachment points...

Thursday Apr 29th 2004 - After a bit of a break I am getting on with the kite again - I sewed most of the leading edge tube shut last night.

All the ribs are attached and most of the velcro is in place at the rib ends. I have found that the 16m2 Storm1 leading edge bladder is just a little too short, so I have ordered a Monkeykites leading edge bladder.

Wednesday Mar 24th 2004 - All the main parts are complete now, I just need to sew them all together. So far the hardest bit has been the plumbing style joints at the front of the rib struts...

Thursday Mar 11th 2004 - Light is beginning to show at the end of the tunnel! All the inflatable ribs are cut and sewn, so there's just the leading edge to finish before putting it all together and doing all the fiddly reinforcements etc.

I am using the plumbing style strut/leading edge connection which is a pain to sew accurately but should make the kite stiffer. I'm not convinced...

Wednesday Mar 3rd 2004 - I'm really rocking now! I've cut about half of the LE panels and sewn nearly all of them together, and last night I made the first rib strut. I reckon I'm about halfway through... Cutting the panels with the soldering gun is SO slow compared to scissors that I am only going to use it on the LE panels. I'll cut the rib strut panels with scissors and tape the seams afterwards to protect the edges from fraying.

Thursday Feb 26th 2004 - My soldering gun arrived so I have started on the inflatable bits. Cutting the dacron works well but the gun takes a little while to heat up and the fumes are nasty. Work in a well ventilated area!

I am leaving the seam allowance on only one panel for each join, and I am sewing overlap seams rather than flat felled seams as on the 8.5. These are much easier to sew because I can line up the edge of the panel without the seam allowance to the seam line on the other panel and all the guess-work is gone.

The flat felled seam is probably stronger but sailmakers use overlap seams on sails that take much more strain than the kite will so I'm not worried.

I am reinforcing the outside of all the dacron seams with polypropylene webbing because it looks neater and provides some scuff protection. On the seams where the struts are attached the webbing will extend right into the canopy.

The dacron is stiff and tightly woven and is giving me trouble sewing it neatly - frustrating!

Thursday Feb 12th 2004 - The canopy is almost finished, 16 out of the 19 panels sewn. I'm still waiting for the soldering gun I have on order so I can start cutting the dacron.

Wednesday Jan 21st 2004 - Yay! I started sewing the kite! I stitched together 5 of the canopy panels. White ripstop is SO easy to sew - it's practically transparent. I am using some really tough thread I bought from Point North. It's Gutterman RP60 polyester in a nice royal blue for contrast and to challenge myself to get all the stitching really neat!

Monday Jan 19th 2004 - I have marked out most of the dacron panels. I've been doing this at work in my lunch hour because they have big tables there...

The purple cloth makes it almost impossible to see through to trace the lines from the plans so I am cutting out the patterns and tracing round them with a ballpoint pen. It's going to be a pain to sew!

I am using 'Lukes Method' for the dacron leading edge panels which involves cutting and sticking the surfplan printout in such a way that the LE tube and canopy extension can be made out of one piece of dacron.

Tuesday Jan 6th 2004 - I cut out and marked eight of the canopy panels. Only 13 to go, plus all the dacron bits!

To cut them I laid the cloth on top of the plans and cut round the outside line with a straight edge and a soldering iron, then while the panel was still stuck to the plan I marked the inside seam line in biro. I marked all the alignment points as well, which helps with sewing the panels accurately. Took me about 2 hours.