The blue parafoil is finished – and I’m going to strike while the iron is hot to start making another kite! Striking with a hot iron, even just a hot soldering iron, is something you need to be careful of when working with rip stop nylon!
Flowform kites have a lot in common with parafoils, but are not nearly so ‘elegant’. But considerably easier to sew, and since I’ll be sewing this one myself, that is a real factor.
The kite will be just under a metre wide, and a bit over 1.1 metres wide. The lack of exactitude here is due to the fact that the pattern is done in inches, and I’m converting to metric for the layout. Gets a bit confusing…
Here’s the article from the old Kitelines magazine that I’m using as my guideline: Flow Form Kite
I recognised the maker’s name – Ed Grauel, assisted by the magazine editor, Margaret Gregor, and figured it must be a pretty reliable pattern. I can’t see any reference to the magazine in which it first appeared – it appears on the Internet as: http://www.kiteplans.org/planos/flowform5/flowform5.html