I have read some miscellaneous blurbs in other threads about ways to light up your kite for night flying.

Can I get a rundown on a few methods?

LED keychain lights in the dirt-outs, glowsticks/necklaces taped to the lines (red/green! to know right from left!)

If you're not on private property, expect the police to show up pretty quickly from people callin in strange lights in the sky.(sad but true)

is there a more permanent method? like, led ribbons? I'd hate to make all that trash for a few sessions.

look in the pet store, they make great led lights for dog collars.

Can someone convince Feyd to draw me a quick sketch in paint with an item list?
his charger lit up at night was exactly what I'm looking for.

NVM I worked it out for around 10-15 bucks.
I'll post a little manual after I put it together.

I've used EL (electro luminescent) Wire on my kites a few times at night. I mount the transformers to the center strut with velcro, then I feed the wire (6 ft) through the bridle attachment points then zip tie the ends down. I use red or orange for left, and green or blue for right. Then glowsticks on my harness and board.

When we were using glowsticks earlier this year, we just put glowsticks on the bridle leaders, our harnesses, and our boards.

keep all attachments on LE or front lines. anything on TE will imbalance and cause stalling.

usually nothing is best, but "finger lights" worked well.

couple hundred sessions on the finger light set up roughly 20-40 hours of reasonable glow per light. about $1 each

i eventually stopped any use of lights, except on myself. ( typical water set up is with glow necklace which i think is wasteful. ) rear bike flasher is really nice on he helmet or board.

first dozen sessions finger lights in the back of the glove just in case u need help with set up and one one each FRONT pigtail of kite , ( a tube kite will tolerate front or back but foils do best with FRONT). eventually you will not need the lights on the kite.

ALWAYS RIDE A PERIMETER RUN to check boundaries, obstacles etc.

glow sticks are waste of money unless its a large crowd/ water session.

really will add to kite skills . it makes you fly the kite blindly and adds to feedback thru the bar.

i learned to jump in the dark! really fun!

cheap LED glow sticks worked great in the outer (closed) cells of the kite last fall @ WBB

magnetic body lights, very small and intense LEDs that blink. Put em in the dirt outs or use the magnet to secure em.

We use the cheapo glow necklesses from the junk shops. I also have LED lights but on a foil the battery pack messes things up. So the glow sticks and some tape work great.

Feyd likes to troll the UFO nuts ...

:Ange09: Just remember, you are adding additional weight to you kites. We in the UK suffer from the wind dropping at night (most times, except when we get leftovers from a US harricane!)

LED + battery + small magnet :bigok:

http://graffitiresearchlab.com/projects/led-throwies/

Nice one arkay ...

ok the picture with the lit up kite. how was that done and can it be done without maing the kite hard to fly.

That's my 12m Charger. I used Planet Bike 1watt Super Flashes in the tips and a Cygolight Expilion 250 as the primary light.

They're light weight (combined weight well under a pound) and super bright. Not on the cheap side but the results are great. You can see my kite at over a mile out in total darkness.

This season I'm goin to used an Expilion 450 (450lumens) and the new Cygo Hotshot 2w taillight. They will be brighter than the lights in the pic. The Hotshot can be programmed for different light modes and speeds. I have mine set to look like the belly beacon on an A-10.

All the lights used lith/ion (thus the weight savings) batteries and are USB rechargeable. Run time average is about 4hrs.

There are cheaper alternatives to what I use. They add a little more weight with standard batteries but if you're flying a bigger kite they work great.

Quote:

Originally posted by Kamikuza Feyd likes to troll the UFO nuts ...

Now THAT is SICK.