I managed to get half an hour or so after work down the beach today with my 2 line 2.2HQ..a nice onshore wind,sun going down behind me over the sea
and a full moon in front with the kite whizzing around the moon..headphones on, music on, beautiful ... but went dark very fast. This got me wondering
about kite flying at night. I'm thinking of something like attaching LED's to the corners of the kite...would look so good against the dark sky.
Which then made me think...someone will have already done this...which THEN made me think...hang on...I'll ask my fellow inmates
If the beach is open at night you may not be the only one there. I'd be careful to make sure no one gets tangled up in your lines. Could end up
getting banned. LEDs on the kite would probably work well but won't make your lines visible. Glow in the dark lines would be cool, if there was such
a thing.
Shining a light down your lines also helps keep them visible but remember in this scenario.. ALL the responsibility is on you for safety. You are the
only one that really knows where your lines are. Someone walks into the danger area crash or land your kite immediately until it's safe. Take no
chances
Get the lights right and your kite will look like a Romulan Warbird. Mark the lines at the bridle point and it starts evoking memories of Tron.
Wow,great responses,really great. thanks randy and esp those vids riffclown..god they look so good don't they, that's next level. ..im gonna start by
having a look for clip on led's I think.And I take the points relating to flying safely...last thing I wanna do is cause a problem so I'll keep that
very much in mind.
i like the sound of glow in the dark lines though.
make sure you get a very strong clip. i tried clipping my bike tail lights on the intake of a kite once. on a diving turn, one flung off, landing
upside down, quite a ways away from where i was flying. took a long time to find it.
the other, though, whizzed right past my head and scared the he11 out of me. i did not put them back on again.
since their clips are made to keep them from falling off of mounts or clothing on rides, i'd figured they'd be strong enough to keep 'em on a kite.
NOPE. the lights ARE relatively heavy, which was a large factor, of course.
there are lights available for bike frames and spokes that are long filaments, but the ones i had were more like a glow-stick light than a real light
such as seen in riffclown's provided vids.
the LED light strings that all of the business around me are putting around their shop windows intrigue me. i'm guessing they're 12 volts, which
would require a large battery pack.
looks like it's time for a little research...
OR, i just find a better way to secure my bike lights. they ARE super bright and go about 100 hours before recharging. i use them on the front and
back of my bike and they have absolutely helped. cars now will back up in intersections a block away, instead of just sitting across the sidewalk as
usual. i think that if i were to ever get my buggy out, i'd put the lights on that, too. there'd be no mistaking ME on a beach or field. https://cygolite.com/product/hypershot-250-usb/ they make other models that have even more light, and some that are less intense.
i used the 80 lumen lights before the 250 lumen models came out. on a bright, sunny day, i had people tell me that they could see the lights a half
mile away. the 250's are three times brighter. it's pretty cool riding home in the dark and seeing all of the reflective traffic signs light up like
it's christmas.
tom
That is super-helpful too tomdiving, thanks for your post...Yes, time for a little research...I had the thought of magnetic clips but I have the
feeling now that they might fly off too which definately adds to the safety concerns!
had some luck tonight by using the old 80 lumen bike light and simply clipping it into the croc grip on a blurr 2.5.
had planned on something much more extensive, but i was losing daylight and i just wanted to get it going.
i think that i'll soon be making a squared "U" shape holder and clamping the regular bike mount to that. that'll allow me to set whatever angle i
want on the light.
the U will be sized to set within the A and B bridle attachment points, or maybe the B's and C's. possibly covered with pipe insulation to keep it
from rubbing the fabric.
i'll drill holes in the tops and bottoms of the U and use short lengths of line to tie it into the bridle attachments. that way it's not stuck to
just one kite.
i KNOW this will work, now i just gotta get around to sourcing the pipe and two 90 degree elbows.
the single light can go on the bottom of the U, or i can put 2 lights on the uprights across the span of one cell.
glad this discussion popped up again...
tom
Great videos!
That one above from Jeff is just magical. Is that Seattle? I think I recognise it after carpet bombing it continuiously in a Commodore 64 game back in
the day. :D
@Tao, I know what you mean. A great experience yeah. Those evening sessions are other-worldly. The skies have been perfect for night flying just
recently, especially with the full moon and barmly weather.
We used to put glowsticks in our kites which worked okay, but buggying along a dark beach at a fair lick makes for an experience, especailly when
hitting a huge sand castle or dissappearing down an almighty hole. You are so lucky to live next to the beach. Can't wait for this lockdown to end.
Here's my shameless unlit offering from March 2011, an evening session during a super moon event.
i KNOW this will work, now i just gotta get around to sourcing the pipe and two 90 degree elbows.
the single light can go on the bottom of the U, or i can put 2 lights on the uprights across the span of one cell.
glad this discussion popped up again...
tom
[/rquote]
Hi tomdiving...Can you send a pic or two with the ideas if poss? I dont think the led's with magnets I was looking at will be bright
enough..do you think the 80 Lumens was bright enough?
Laurie and crew are from Toronto, their YouTube channel is worth checking out. They spend a lot of time researching various kite topics; weather,
wind, kites and make some pretty great videos.
We just had a supermoon a few days ago (or at least it looked like one), but no kiting unfortunately. Looked really cool rising over Pittsburgh
(visiting for a few days).
i ended up going with a quickly slapped together setup instead of the U. it's more like an upside down T with the vertical part being a tube just big
enough for the light mount to go on and the top (bottom) being a 6x2" piece of 3/8" insulation board. it was too dang cold to try it last night, but
it worked well in daylight.
a pic is worth a thousand words, for sure. however, i have no idea where the card reader is for my camera. if i find it i'll post pics.
at the top of the tube are 2 holes. in the middle of both sides of the board, at the ends, there is one hole per side. the tube is zip-tied to the
board.
i have a shoelace strung through the tube holes. (not through the tube itself) as the contraption sits over the center cell, the ends of the shoelace
go through the A bridle attachments.
from there, they drop down and come back through the B bridle attachments towards the center cell.
once through there, they go into the holes in the insulation board and i now have a rectangular set of lines holding everything over the center cell.
i tied the ends together and dropped the excess line down into the croc grip.
takes about a minute to tie it in, 30 seconds to undo it and move it to another kite to start the mounting process over again.
i tried to angle the light out in front of the kite instead of blinding myself and aiming it straight at me.
i would imagine that none of this makes any sense to anyone but myself, so i'll search for the card reader now.
80 lumens is more than enough for what i need, which is just the novelty of having a kite with a light on it. i'm not trying to use it to see
anything. a bonus, though, is that the 250 lumen light fits into the same mounting assembly. so if i wanted to blind the space station occupants, i
could.
being in a school field, with houses and parking lot lights all over the place, i could see any kite on any night without any problems.
tom
tomdiving@yahoo.com
Hi RedSky..yes, i'm lucky to have the beach only about 12 mins drive away..must be a great experience buggying /landboarding with a
moon like that.I'ts one of the things I would really like to experience when I get a buggy.
had to dig out an old iphone4 to get this job done. here's the light rig using scrap material laying around the house and garage.
hopefully the (rather poor) pics help and make more sense than my written description.
tom
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