This thread has driven me to madness. The time has come for my daughters beginner sewing machine to come out of retirement for the last 5 years.
Will this one work?
I'm going to start small. My first project will be a 10m npw
If it can do a straight stitch you can build a NPW. My old machine was a Kenmore from Goodwill. It might make a good boat anchor. Of course, there
is always Dollar Tree tarp and duct tape. I'm sure that one will be fine.
One bit of advice. If you are going to sew - get a "cording foot." They cost only a few dollars. Most valuable kite tool since ripstop. Go on you
tube and watch a video of how to use it. (I learned the hard way after making my reinforced seams w.o one.)
No machine yet though, and my wife will no way sanction a purchase. Going to have to be clever.....
Try this. Tell her friends you want to learn to sew to make kites. They will be so impressed, they will either give you a machine they aren't using,
or ask her why she doesn't get you one. (All of my wife's friends are really impressed that I am learning to sew. I don't know why, but I'm rolling
with it.)
It's a really good way to amass brownie points as well..... oh that looks like it needs fixing, don't worry I'll run it through the sewing
machine....kerrrrr ching :D
Blade V 4.9m & 8.5m VIP,Ozone Frenzy 11m, SS Flexifoil buggy, PL hybrid suspension buggy (PTW), MBS core 95.
homemade:
NPW 9b: 7m (Union Jack). NPW 9b HA 3m (Damien) and 10m (Jolly R). NPW21 3m, 5m (aka Zombie), 8m (Batman), 11.5m (NASA), NPW 21 HA 6.8m
The Hammers 5m, 7.2m & 12m
Randy and bigE123 this is the way to go Ha Ha Ha :P
I seen that I about fell over. They are selling it for $60.00.
I have a feeling that you can only go one way with it. How do you get home??? Just wait for the wind to do a 180.
Firstly a big big thank you to Robinsonpr for meeting up yesterday, the first time I've seen a Peak in the flesh. Bright sunny day wind very low just
a slight breeze @3mph.
These are only my thoughts and as a test was completely unfair, I'm writing this just out of interest and in no way looking to slate one way or the
other as they are two very different kites:
In the blue corner: the Peak I standing at a 6m flat area, de-power.
In the red corner: the Hammer junior standing at 7.2m flat area, fixed bridle.
First impression, how does the Peak get it's aspect ratio figure of 4? Mine has a AR of 4.7 and the two shapes are very different. The builds are also
very different, the Peak appears more rectangular and uses partial ribs with very deep wing tips, the hammer has full length ribs all TE to LE which
reduce in height to the wing tips.
With the slight breeze the Hammer inflated and stood up ready to fly, was able to take off with a slight backward step, rise up to the zenith and do
some loops. The Peak needed some jiggling of the lines to get it to sit up and managed to get airborne with a bit of work and some fluttering.
I can see why the Peak build is different, the Hammer is very labour intensive, the Peak with it's partial ribs would reduce build costs and maybe
side step any existing patents.
I'm sure there will be another chance to try them out in better conditions where the de-power will prove it's worth and use, plus a few pics will be
in order. I'll throw my board in the car as well so we can see how usable they become in an area that we know is gusty, while there the wind changed
by 90degs!
Blade V 4.9m & 8.5m VIP,Ozone Frenzy 11m, SS Flexifoil buggy, PL hybrid suspension buggy (PTW), MBS core 95.
homemade:
NPW 9b: 7m (Union Jack). NPW 9b HA 3m (Damien) and 10m (Jolly R). NPW21 3m, 5m (aka Zombie), 8m (Batman), 11.5m (NASA), NPW 21 HA 6.8m
The Hammers 5m, 7.2m & 12m
I don't have a hammer to compare my peak to but compared to my nasa kites, it
turns much slower especially in light wind. The peaks will fly in very little wind but they need some decent wind to start handling well in my
opinion.
edit: The peak 1 6m starts to handle better around 8mph+ and starts to produce enough power for traction around 12+. My target wind range for buggy
with it is 14-20ish
:D cheers, like I said the conditions were really unfair for a performance comparison, but still very interesting to see how the two designs looked
side-by-side and food for thought ;-)
Blade V 4.9m & 8.5m VIP,Ozone Frenzy 11m, SS Flexifoil buggy, PL hybrid suspension buggy (PTW), MBS core 95.
homemade:
NPW 9b: 7m (Union Jack). NPW 9b HA 3m (Damien) and 10m (Jolly R). NPW21 3m, 5m (aka Zombie), 8m (Batman), 11.5m (NASA), NPW 21 HA 6.8m
The Hammers 5m, 7.2m & 12m
My latest - only 1 meter. Its a NPW5 - P which has an extra line of bridles parallel to the center bridles on the wings and an extra pair of darts.
It is intended to give more rigidity to the kite and widen the wind window. Comparing to my original NPW5 1 M, I do think the nose is less prone to
collapse. Now I need to think of a bit of decoration on it, to make it a bit less boring. This is sort of my poor man's stunt kite. 1 M was about
as big as I could make it from one yard of ripstop.
Hi,
Will I been thinking about this for a lone time. Took a brake from working on my kites shop and made a bar for "golden girl".
I could Have got by with one brake line, but I put 2 there just to be safe. the brake line can be adjusted for what kite you are flying. The NPW are
very touchy about their brakes. I going to put ends on the bar for the line set.
renny:frog:
Not exactly a NS3, but I thought it was cute, so I built this .7m NPW 5. Simplified bridles - only 22. Flew right away, as a two line, though the
plans don't really specify. (Had to have google translate the plan from Spanish, but I don't think it says one way or the other.) Would be very good
for the first NASA to build.
Not exactly a NS3, but I thought it was cute, so I built this .7m NPW 5. Simplified bridles - only 22. Flew right away in very little wind. This
shows it flying as a two line, though the plans don't really specify dual or quad so I flew both ways. (Had to have google translate the plan from
Spanish, but I don't think it says one way or the other.) Would be very good for the first NASA to build.
![[*]](images/perspective/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
but compared to my nasa kites, it
turns much slower especially in light wind. The peaks will fly in very little wind but they need some decent wind to start handling well in my
opinion.
