The new parafoil is now in pieces, cut from the bright blue material. 1 front piece, 1 back, 18 fins (6 each of 3 patterns) and 11 aerofoil pieces – 31 pieces of ripstop nylon in total.
Hot cut using a soldering iron. Sophia has added about 5 meters of bias binding.
I need to do some maths to work out the location of some lines that will help distribute the towing tension, but figured drinking a beer has precedence.
A local childcare centre was throwing out some stuff, including a glass table top which had been a bit defaced with scratching. But a good size to put on top of our outdoor table to use as a kite cutting and pattern-making table.
I’ve calculated all the data points for making a large, but pretty straightforward, parafoil. It will be the fourth ‘proper’ parafoil I’ve made over the years.
The finished kite will have 10 ‘pockets’ – I’ve never made one with more than 6 previously. The kite will be about 1.5M wide and just under that in height – it will likely be too strong to hand fly. I’ll need to tie it down, I expect…
I’ve marked the glass with marking pens – and it can be wiped off later to start another project. Next job is to cut some brown paper pattern pieces.
My daughter Sophia is going to be doing all the sewing – that takes away a heap of trouble and worry for me…