Power Kite Forum

packing arcs

ejmichel - 2-12-2012 at 04:45 PM

I had about an hour to fly my "new to me" 16m venom II... Wow Arc's are a new experience... I want to pack with spars in and line on for quicker setup... What type of bag are people using when you pack with spars left in the kite? I was thinking about a giant stuff sack that I might find at REI, but not sure it would be long enough... Any advice for a guy with three kids and not much time to sneak away for my addiction...

markite - 2-12-2012 at 05:00 PM

Did you get the bag with the kite? The bags unzip to expand the top and bottom to make a bag long enough to roll the kite and put it in with spars. When putting the kite in the bag you'll need to fold down the top 6 inches of rolled kite but the spars will not be all the way to the end so it'll stuff in easy.

doneski - 2-12-2012 at 07:06 PM

Get an old ski bag that has a full length zipper. Works great. No need for expensive padded ones. No one uses the old bags anymore so ask friends, check used sports equipment shops and ski swaps.

Feyd - 2-12-2012 at 07:08 PM

I use snowboard bags. One bag can hold 3 arcs EASY any size up to 19m with bars and blower if needed as well as spare battery. They usually have a suitcase style handle and a carrying strap. Also a pock or two for pigtails or whatever.

24m has it's own bag. I need a ski bag for her, spars are too long for a normal board bag.

For travel I use a Dakine 2 pair ski bag. Holds my 186 Rossi, 3 kites, one bar, boots and some clothing. Weighs a bit fully loaded but is wicked easy to get around with.

markite - 2-12-2012 at 07:32 PM

The nice thing about arcs - if I travel south on a holiday i can pack several kites no problem - great to have more kite sizes available when you get there. They roll up tight and then a cinch strap keeps the shape - but that's for traveling. Oh, if you are getting them wet with snow you should take them out to dry and not keep them tightly packed in a bag for a extended time.

Flyfish - 2-12-2012 at 10:25 PM

Snowboard bag.... Very nice!
I'm off to big 5 tomarrow. Good call!

packing arcs

ejmichel - 3-12-2012 at 09:29 AM

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.... great ideas...

Feyd - 3-12-2012 at 09:46 AM

If you really want to get nit picky about traveling with them you can do what I did which is make the spars more universal by cutting some segments to certain lengths and then numbering them to correspond to a given wing size. Example: segments 1-2-4-5 may produce a spar length for a 12m Phantom 2 where 1-2-3-6 can produce a spar for a 15m Phantom 2.

If that makes sense. Seriously it's a little overkill for space savings mostly it's handy if you are in the field and have to improvise a spar in the event of a failure. Handy in race situations more than anything.