Hey gang,

For the last couple of years I have taught a class for my daughters' homeschool co-op on Kite Making. I've yet to try making any NPWs or anything but my history of being interested in making single line kites is what started me down the road that lead me to power kites; and I've made my share of single line stuff... mostly box kites but a few old school diamonds. Its fun to unpack the big foils and see the kids' eyes widen at their size. I usually show one of my buggy videos as well.

The class has always been for the middle school aged kids (once just the boys, and last time the boys and girls) and the previous times I've taught the class, I made a simple box kite with Tyvek and a simple frame of 1/8" fiberglass rods. This year I have just the boys again and there are only 2 students. Since that was the case, I opted for bigger and nicer material. I bought some 3/4 oz ripstop and found a simple delta design on Kite Plan Base: http://www.kiteplans.org/planos/deltafor/deltafor_2.html

I made up my prototype this week and wanted to share with you guys:


The colors didn't turn out to be as bright as I expected but I do like how it looks. It is roughly 24" tall and 48" wide. I chose to make a Y style bridle rather than a keel to save material as well as expense... plus its easier. I've yet to test it but we shall see.

What about you? any kite-kid combos of you?

Nice, that how I got into kite made just one and now my house is full of them. I can't give then away fast a enough. As my kites got bigger less people wanted them, don't know how to fly them.

So I went ahead and added the keel in and have decided to simplify the kites for the 2 students. I have made 1 sail with the aqua with a silver (gray) keel, and 1 silver (gray) sail with an aqua keel. I'm also adding tails to improve stability. My prototype looks pretty nice, but I've yet to get a good test in due to a lack of good test wind and generally cruddy weather.

I know this isn't necessarily power kite related, but since we're all kite lovers here, I thought it'd be fun to share. Plus all the sewing and kite building has me giving serious consideration into building an NPW5.

If I get some good pics during the class, I'll post them here as well.

This was my very first build, from left over material I crossed the line to the dark side and made a 3m NPW5

Impressive bigE123! First build - wow.

BigE - that's just showing off!!!

:D you should see what I made before that!! and it wasn't anything that flew :D

Kite I just finished - for my sister in law. The plans actually say its an easy kite for kids when made out of plastic bags. Took me a lot longer than the indicated 4 hours sewing it out of fabric. Now I might make one for myself.

http://www.kiteplans.org/planos/panflute4/panflute4.html

Cool!

Very Cool Randy,... where'd you end up getting fabric?

Thanks. It flew pretty well - doesn't seem to really need much wind. I got some fabric from the local kite shop, Piedmont Kites. I got all they had (3 yd) in a pretty good yellow fabric and they gave me the green since it was not a full yard. I also got 1 yd red from them. I got the blue from JoAnn a while back, but decided I would use the yellow instead of blue for the project I'd been saving it for. I have been running out of ripstop so I have been hoarding it for something special, whatever that turns out to be....

I still think I can make a tarp/pool noodle/duct tape (LEI) style kite work one of these days...6x9 would make a nice little 4M equivialent...got an old bar sitting right here next to me...hmmm...gears turning/grinding...
Maybe that really strong double sided carpet tape..better...click click..

Is piedmont kites in little 5 points... I guess I never realized there was a kite shop in Atlanta