Month: April 2018

Pan flute kites…

I’ve never seen a pan flute kite made by anyone else…  I’ve seen photos, and plans – but never seen another actual kite.  And yet, they are an easy, forgiving kite to make.  Not a remarkable flyer, but sometimes it can be fun.

“Pan flute” really describes it well, though I’ve also heard the name “rammed air Ferrari” kite.  It consists, generally, of 7 ‘tubes’ of fabric, bigger at the top than the trailing edge of each tube.

Rainbow pan flute kite lower left. This kite is about 1 metre tall.

Though it seems it could best be made with just two pieces of fabric, it is nicer if made as discrete ‘tubes’ – and makes a more colourful design.  I’ve made these anywhere from about 500mm tall up to about 1800mm.

The kite is not a ‘high flyer’ – some that I’ve made struggle to gain height.  But others, a pull on the line results in a quick climb.

Flys well without a tail, too, with a back and forth swaying motion.

Some of my kiting philosophies…

I’ve made kites since I was a kid – mostly Eddy type (two stick, cross shaped) kites from bamboo, newspaper and glue and string from my paper route rolling!

Sort of like ham radio, there are few periods of years in my life when I haven’t been active to some extent.

First parasled I ever made, maybe middle 1980s? Still have it but don’t fly it too often now.

With kites, I find myself mostly settling on making soft kites, and especially smaller soft kites that I can fold up and put in my pocket.

And something I learned with Marcus, a long time ago – if the kite is well-designed and built, it shouldn’t need to have a tail.  While watchers will be dazzled by tails, me? I feel I can get more kites into the sky at the same time, tied to logs and signs, if the kites don’t have tails to tangle it all together.

Three designs predominate my kite work (not that I’ve been all that active recently) – parasled, pan flute and parafoil.

I’ll try to write a few paragraphs about my experiences with each at another time.

Tropical shirt kite…

I have more than 100 tropical shirts – but I decided to sacrifice this one to make a kite.  My friend Marcus used to say that you can fly absolutely anything, if you get the bridling right and the wind is strong enough…

Flying at the beach south of Mt. Maunganui.

Bowentown from the air…

I took this photo in April 2017 while we were camping at Anzac Bay, near Bowentown (north of Tauranga).  Our caravan (and awning) are at the bottom left.  I used the purple parafoil to hoist the kite, using a Picovet rig to try to keep it steady.  This is a screenshot from a movie of the flight…