1oldkid - 22-5-2015 at 07:29 PM
Well here is my first attempt at making a NASA kite.
Similar to mbseto, I had chosen to try a teega design.
It is about 3.6m.
Working on the bridles:
I tried to get some video of it flying from the side veiw on it's second outing
so I could see if it had the right shape. Don't know how to get mini-disk video (old Cannon disk camcorder) onto the pc.
I think the B lines may still be a bit long, the edges don't seem to have the classic shape
I've seen in other peoples pictures while flying...So I shortened them a little and tried again.
It fly's ok, but not much for a window, I'm sure the bridle needs more tuning!
The TE had some flutter to it, so I went back and re-measured the tension lines and pulled another ~1cm on them just to see if might help ....didn't
help the flutter.
Just a few days ago, I found an older post by Big E on another forum that gave me some tips on TE adjusting, so will try that too.
I can't pull a Randy (kudo's for your talent man!) and get a face on snapshot of it flying , I'm not good enough to controll it with just one hand!
Maybe that's the "twitchy" Susan mentioned...
I discovered brake line input is certainly required!
Woohoo!
So I took my first trip to Alvord a few weeks ago, (my word that place is huge!)
Just to see how far across west to east it was, I drove to the east side and more to the north half and stayed behind a small line of scrubby sticker
bushes.
I put up a single line sled kite with streamer tail so I could watch the prevailing wind direction, (ok, really it was so I could find my way back to
camp!)
Wind was off and on, it would blow good 12-17 and then gust up to 28 and then drop to 6...often the wind would drop to zero for a minute or
so...someone in another thread mentioned "quality of wind"...
I primarily flew the homemade NASA, since the wind speed variations were a bit wide, ( no wind to 28 within 10 minute time span) and it handled the
27mph gusts just fine.
There would be times when the kite would be pulling right along side where you would expect it to be, then quickly the kite would drop back behind
your shoulder and the lines felt like
they pulsed three or four times, then the kite would catch up back to where it normally would fly. Kinda weird, I have never noticed that happening
with other kites before.
The quality of wind certainly improved that evening, winds evened out at 8-12, no more gusts...
I deefenitly will be baaach!
After a hard day at Alvord (dirty little kite):
It has since gotten a bath, and ready to try TE adjusting...
bigE123 - 23-5-2015 at 03:41 AM
:D nice one, going for the Teega first will have given you a go at pretty much all the techniques you need to learn to make any kite!
Don't forget to switch how you hold the handles, hand below the power lines, helps getting the power/brake line tension. In gusts the kite does tend
to speed-up then a lull you will see it drop back.
Since you have gone for "classic" bridling, what I would do if you think there is something not right, is hang the A1 bridle tab on a hook/nail and
measure the A1 bridle, now from the collection point put the A2 next to the A1 and hold the two together back to the kite, see what the difference is.
Then A2 to A3 etc until you are happy the differences are all correct. It's a pain but worth checking, the important thing is the difference between
the lines to achieve the profile. Then check B1 against A1, B1 to B2 etc. Hope that makes sense :D
ssayre - 23-5-2015 at 03:54 AM
Wow, nice work. 
3shot - 23-5-2015 at 05:39 AM
Very nice indeed
Randy - 23-5-2015 at 06:35 AM
Nice work - really impressive. I'd echo what Ian says and add a few ideas. One question is what is the wind window? NPW kites don't have as good
window as most foils. If it's around 140 degrees that is ok.
Another thing I've seen with a new build is sometimes it's easy to fly past the edge of the window making it seem disappointing till you find it.
Third what concerns me with Teega is the comment the trailing edge is slightly cupped in the plans. NPW kites I've built are very sensitive to the TE.
I missed the measure on one of mine once by 1 cm- less than 1%. And it flew terrible. Once fixed it flew great. Sounds like you are on top of that
however.
Finally-and I'd do this before you do anything else. Send an email to the plan author and describe the issues with kite. I've contacted all of the
plan designers and experts from time to time and they have all been incredibly helpful. I don't know the Teega designer but I bet he would be happy to
hear from you.
bobalooie57 - 23-5-2015 at 10:12 AM
I was just thinking that you might benefit from a set of the PKD adjustable brake line handles that Big Kid has. They make minute or major
adjustments to your brake lines on the fly possible.
soliver - 23-5-2015 at 03:07 PM
The Kite certainly looks outstanding!!! I'm sure you'll work out the kinks and have it humming soon!
1oldkid - 23-5-2015 at 07:01 PM
Thanks for the kind comments and suggestions.
The pictures are not real great, and I didn't mention it, but I tried the cascade bridle approach.
So question, would that change how I measure A1 to A2 to A3 etc. for differences?
The wind window I think seems narrow from left to right..I don't know how to tell you what degrees it would be. If you were to hold your arms out
straight level in front of you palms together, then move them apart to the width of your shoulders and then add (widen) about half that width again,
that is about the width of the window left to right that it fly's to now...
And I did discover I had to change how I hold the handles in order to keep some brake line input on them.
I noticed when the brake pressure was adequate, the kite fabric looked more "taught", fewer wrinkles and outside edge flapping at the tips.
I will send off an email to the designer and see what suggestions they may offer.
I'll look at the PKD handles.
Thanks again!
Hope you all have a great fun and safe Memorial weekend!
Randy - 23-5-2015 at 07:24 PM
Lots of ways to measure wind window but an easy way is to see how far you can fly it to one side then line up on a landmark (tree, house, telephone
pole). Imagine that is 12 o'clock of a big clock. Then go as far as you can to the other side and try to figure out what hour it is. Each hour Is 30
degrees. If you can go from 12 to 3 that's 90 degrees for ex. If you can line up landmarks on each end you could use a compass or gps for more
accurate measures. Do it several times.
BTW wind quality is pretty important. You might go to a spot with clean wind before making any judgements about the kite. Good luck.
1oldkid - 23-5-2015 at 07:35 PM
Hey thanks Randy, that helps a lot!
As soon as I get some breeze and it stops raining here I'll give that a go and report back.
