Month: June 2018

Sophia finished the last of the sewing last night – more than a half kilometer – (more than 1600 feet) of sewing.  Estimation is based on the spool of cotton (well, polyester) that was used.

Then I sat on the couch are got/kept Paris the cat’s attention.  She enjoyed the bridling process immensely.

So I stretched the kite out on its back, and gently pulled the strings, trying not to disrupt the relative flatness, as the 18 fins gently lifted.  I could then, letting the strings run through my fingers, position the soon-to-be towing point above the kite.  I’m aiming for about a 22 degree ‘angle of attack’, the angle the face of the kite will be, based on the pull of the line below it.

That shallow angle of attack, combined with the relative ‘thinness’ of the aerofoil shape that I am using will produce, I hope, a really high performance pulling kite!

The bridling I did last night was pretty rough – I’m not expecting immediate success at stable flying.  It has a lot of fine-tuning to go before I can teach it to fly (heh, heh).

First flight might be later today…

 

We had some time off from making the blue parafoil, what with life and other commitments…

But got seriously stuck in yesterday.  We had completed the stitching to attach the 18 ‘fins’ from the face of the kite, as well as the 11 ‘aerofoils’ coming off the back of the face.

Yesterday was a lot of repetition, pinning and sewing the aerofoils to the back square of nylon.  This involves sewing a curved shape to a straight line – not massively difficult, but I reverted to pinning rather than ‘hot tacking’ the nylon with an old soldering iron.

So now ready for the last vertical seam.  In order that the rough edges of the seam will be inside the pocket, the entire kite is rolled and folded so that all of the kite is inside the final pocket.  The process is sometimes called a ‘burrito roll’ by kitemakers.

When I did my own sewing in the past on parafoil kites, I would often be a bit sloppy, and end up sewing through layers that I should not have – and then having to go back to unpick it to try again.  With Sophia’s vigilant eyes, I have been more exacting and methodical in the folding back and pinning.

I’ve already got the lines ready to attach to the 18 tow points on the fins, so after this last vertical stitch, the kite will emerge from that last pocket like unrolling a rolled up sock.  Then one last seam across the bottom to close off the trailing edge of the pockets.

First flight maybe today?  Something of a deadline, as Sophia will be leaving tomorrow…