I recently purchased Jim Rowlands book titled Soft Kites and Windsocks(links to Half.com). I knew through previous searches on the net that this was good book and that it had a few errors. The list of errata for the book can be found here.
The kite that I am interested in at the moment is the multi-tube. I examined the plan last night and it looks extremely simple and expandable. While surfing today Read the rest of this entry »
In November 2004 I saw an interesting kite design. The Papillon, designed by Alain Micquiaux and manufactured by Atelier Kites, was being flown by Ted Gaudet, who just returned from the Dieppe International Kite festival in France. I thought this looked great and flew beautifully. The butterfly glides gracefully and if you pull or tug the line the butterfly beats it’s wings gently. Read the rest of this entry »
Wow!!!! That’s all I have to say. This is a fantastic kite! I am completely thrilled with the way it flys and how responsive it is. 
I have to make a few tweaks to the upper spreader (mine is 1 cm too short) but other than that I didn’t adjust anything. The wind was about 10 mph (16 km/h) and smooth. I am not an accomplished trick flier but.. Flic-Flacs are super easy as with the fade, Axels and snap stalls are excellent. Corners were nice and the kite is rock solid in forward flight, no over steer in the spins…
Here are some shots..
–Bill
Tonight I framed the first of two Le Virus kites. I used .2300 Avia Carbon tube all the way around and .120 micro carbon for the stand-offs and APA fittings on the LE and Lower Spreaders. Read the rest of this entry »
I finally got a chance to get back to the “Le Virus” number 1 tonight. I was able to do the following today: Read the rest of this entry »
The oringal active bridle I had on my Orange never really satisfied me and I couldn’t get it just the way I wanted it. Turns were too wide and it just didn’t feel right. I had not flown the kite for several months and decided I would take another crack at the bridle. Read the rest of this entry »
After making the green sail I wasn’t 100% happy with the color combo. I decided to sew another sail. This time using a similar layout to Christin’s original. Plus I was finally able to use mylar in a kite :). It’s been sitting on the shelf for about 6 months… 
I also applied some of the things I realized from the mistakes I made on the first sail. This sail was a lot less trouble to get just right when laying it out on the template…
steadywinds,
Bill
I managed to cut, assemble and sew all the sail panels for my Le Virus. This was my first experience with a pieced sail and I learned a lot along the way. I tried to approach the drawing and cutting of the individual pieces as carefully as possible. I was rewarded with an easy assembly and symetric wings (that’s a releif)..
Read the rest of this entry »
There is a new online trick kite workshop starting on the GWTW forums. The kite is called “Le Virus” and is designed by Christian Derefat. I decided that I wanted to build another sport kite to improve upon the skills I learned while making “The Orange”. The web site for Le Virus is always growing and changes are made quickly based on the input of the users at the forum.
Read the rest of this entry »
Over the last couple of nights I have been building a new sport kite designed by Stan Kellar of California. The kite is the Iris, it stands about 9″ tall and about 15″ wide.
Stan’s plans were a breeze to follow but it helps if you have some kite building experience before. For example Creating a mini adjustable dynamic-bridle out of sewing thread can be tideuos to say the least. Read the rest of this entry »
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