Mechanically Inclined

It flies! Much better than I expected. As it’s the only kite (besides little single line kites as a child) that I have ever flown, I can’t compare it to anything, but it took off no problem and was quite steerable. It was about a 5mph breeze off and on and it was pulling pretty hard so I can only imagine if there was some real wind.

The two pvc pipes I am holding is just a control system I rigged up to test it out – since I wasn’t planning on being pulled around and the wind was so light I expected to have to run to get the kite up, I figured those would work better. Now that it flies I have a few tweaks I would like to do (reinforcement panels at seam ends etc). I’ll start drafting the build this afternoon, not sure how long it will take, but check back or even better subscribe!

Not too shabby for someone who has never sewn before eh?

Today is the 10 day anniversary of starting my kiteboard project, and I have the perfect gift to celebrate the occasion! Finishing the kite, harness, and control system – which means…. a test flight! I recieved the correct (and much thinner) lines yesterday, and finished machining the rest of the components for the control system today (pictured above) you can see the control bar to the right, a simple line joiner in the middle, and my far too complicated spreader bar to the left.  You can also look out for a crash report soon! Its dead calm out right now, but the second I see a leaf give the slightest shudder I’ll be out there to test it.