And I thought nobody flew kites anymore

[challenger_i]

For CF, use kevlar string to bind the joints. If you will be using CA (fancy super glue, found at Hobby Lobby, and use the "medium" viscosity) 3M has a primer to use on the CF before wrapping and binding: helps the CA to adhere to the CF.

Deltaenterprizes: straight grain spruce is best. Clean grain bass is next best. Check with Aircraft Spruce and Specialty for "capstrip" stock. You can get it in multiple sizes. If you have good winds, and are making a fairly large kit, oh, say a 36 incher, 1/4" square stock is good, and you can make your sail from garden variety rip-stop nylon from your local fabric store.

Redhawk0: what you are describing is the Rogallo kite. Fun kites! Designed by a NASA engineer, by the way!

[Good Cheer]

My favorite to make were five sided with a short cross stick at the bottom.

[dale2242]

Crescent City, Ca. has an annual kite festival .
The wind seems to blow there a lot along the northern Ca. coast.

[WRideout]

I built and flew kites and I have thought about doing it again!
Plenty of wind and open space behind my house!
I have not figured out what wood is best to use for sticks!

It seems like split bamboo would work great, due to it's flexibility.
Spruce is usually the soft wood that is considered very flexible also. Ash is getting very hard to find, so I'm told.

Wayne

[WRideout]

I have read that during the Boer War, large kites were fitted with a wooden seat to lift an observer. Just hope you don't lose altitude too fast.

Wayne

[ebb]

Off shore fisherman use a kite to lift the bait out of the water occasionally, it works very well if the conditions are right. I used to really enjoy a good kite trip, most always had something to smoke or eat.

[.429&H110]

My folks would kite fish the beach in Fla.
Mom would fly a box kite/ clothes pin with her fishing pole
Dads rigs clipped to the clothes pin.
Fly the kite out beyond the breakers, quick tug out of the clothes pin to drop the rig.
Catch dinner...

[gwpercle]

We all did as kids, and stores always had a big display of them for about a dollar.
I can't remember the last time I saw someone flying one..... until today.

Now days, everybody has electric model airplanes or those quad blade drones.
I see them buzzing around all the time.

Today, I actually saw a kid with an old school kite with a tail made out of rags
and on a string flying along above the tree line here.

I haven't seen any for sale lately. I wonder if he made it out of news paper and sticks
like we did after we'd crashed all our 'store bought' ones.

LIKE !

Making and flying kites ... what fun that was .
The kites that amazed me ... as to how they flew... were Box Kites !
We always had the old fashioned diamond shaped kites , my Dad knew how to make them and taught me and my brother the basics. One day he comes home with a Box Kite Kit ... he bought it and was as eager to put it together and fly it as me and my brother ... I didn't think it would fly ... and still don't understand how they fly but they sure as heck do fly !

April 29th 2023 Kite Fest Louisiane' , Port Allen , in West Baton Rouge Parish , is a big deal every year ... competitions and exhibitions , how to build and fly ... if you like kites ...it's something to see . Renews your faith in the old ways of having a good time !

Thanks for bringing back a few Kite Memories
Lets go fly a kite !
Gary

[Ithaca Gunner]

In early March when I was a kid every mom&pop store in the area had at least two cases of kites right by the register. .19 would get you diamond kite and .29 would get you a box kite. I can't recall what a ball of string cost, but we only bought one ball a year for two of us, but kites were multiple, sometimes two a day if we had money, trees and power lines were the death of many kites in my youth.

[Finster101]

In early March when I was a kid every mom&pop store in the area had at least two cases of kites right by the register. .19 would get you diamond kite and .29 would get you a box kite. I can't recall what a ball of string cost, but we only bought one ball a year for two of us, but kites were multiple, sometimes two a day if we had money, trees and power lines were the death of many kites in my youth.

Mine usually just crashed into the ground after maybe a 30 second flight. I guess me and Dad were not very skilled in how to set one up to fly.

[.429&H110]

Boy's Life magazine in the 60's featured "Skate sailing"
"Hey Dad, watch this!"
You are your own ice boat, big kite, no friction, no noise, no speed limit.

The harder you pull on the sail, the faster you go, on a reach.
When you fall, you fall alone, needing hockey shin pads, gloves, helmet,
ice at that speed is worse than asphalt, so don't fall.
Youth is wasted on the young, man that was a blast.

[super6]

Ever try to tie the next ball of string to a high flyer! That takes some doing!

[MaryB]

Boy's Life magazine in the 60's featured "Skate sailing"
"Hey Dad, watch this!"
You are your own ice boat, big kite, no friction, no noise, no speed limit.

The harder you pull on the sail, the faster you go, on a reach.
When you fall, you fall alone, needing hockey shin pads, gloves, helmet,
ice at that speed is worse than asphalt, so don't fall.
Youth is wasted on the young, man that was a blast.

Dad built an ice boat for at the lake. Fun but do not hit a pressure ridge! Top speed was close to 100mph in a strong wind... one year the lake froze smooth as glass and we had a blast going up and down the lake at top speed. We wore full motorcycle leathers for any spills! Broke a couple bones sailing that thing! Ribs twice, foot once(metatarsal, the long bone behind the little toe). Mom hated it but we loved it LOL wasn't any more dangerous than the snowmobiles we rolled more than once hitting pressure ridges.

[MaryB]

I remember the kite my uncle built, he had 200 pound test fishing line on it and it would lift us kids off the ground!

[jsizemore]

If you want to take take the guess work out:

Kites The Science and the Wonder
Dr. Toshio Ito and Hirotsugu Komura

I used to make them from bamboo and paper grocery bags. Busted fishing rod and battle worn fishing line. Nobody wants to lose a big bill fish to suspect line. Plenty good for a kite.

[Duckiller]

The parking lot at Santa Anita race track was a great place to fly kites after the racing season was over. Penn reels with mono line was the preferred string holds and string.

[MaryB]

The parking lot at Santa Anita race track was a great place to fly kites after the racing season was over. Penn reels with mono line was the preferred string holds and string.

I would think the mono has to much stretch to control the kite properly... I use braided line, no stretch so any input to the kite is instant...