Looks fun Randy. I didn't know what a land sailor was so I looked it up. Did you ever use it with the mast? I'm waiting for you to throw a strop on your handles so you can do this with your kite:



I added official granny wheels to my board a few weeks ago, but still haven't had the chance to test them out. Yours look like the ones they use on industrial dollies, but I think they work on mobility carts as well. The grey granny wheels don't leave marks on the floor. The treads on yours look great for off roading where you're at, supposedly the straight groove treads on the grannies are better in the wet sand.

Yeah - I did a lot of landsailing over the years, including at JIBE when the wind was offshore using old windsurf rigs. It seems like it take less wind (and less effort) with a kite than with a windsurf sail but you can sail in places you could never kite. The terrasailors came out around the year 2000 or so, and were intended for use with windsurf sails. I used mine for several years, and pretty much wore it out. I got this one from a friend of mine who never really used it. I got interested in the "granny tires" reading one of your posts, I think.

That picture reminds me of the times I practiced waterstarts on my terrasailor in a parking lot.

Here's a picture of my original landsailor taken ages ago. BTW - for parking lots, longboard skateboards are better and take a lot less wind.

Took my 7m and 5.5m Nasas out for a test drive today to check em out in some low wind. Not sure of the wind speed, probably in the 3-8mph range and was wishing i had my buggy with me while the 7m was up... cant believe how much pull it has in such low wind! Kinda makes me want to get rid my depowers and only use my Nasas, lol. As a strictly inland flyer i know i should use my depowers but FB (especially the single skin variety) work so much better for me.

Adam - glad to hear you got out with the NPW's. Keep us posted.

I spent a couple hours yesterday printing out templates (about 130 pages printed) and today I started cutting an pasting templates together for a 4.2 M g-kite. 2 panels down, 2 to go.

No templates today. We had a ton of wind and the prospects of riding my buggy in mud and wet grass wasn't appealing so I tried using a single handed handle (homage to our favorite kite innovator) with my 2.5 M NPW in a nearby parking lot. I started getting the hang of it pretty quickly. With some more practice and a place to ride with better wind (such as no trees 30 from where I'm riding) this could be a pretty fun way to Streetkite. Hopefully the ground will be dried out a bit and there will be some wind left over for riding the buggy.

Quote: Originally posted by Randy

No templates today. We had a ton of wind and the prospects of riding my buggy in mud and wet grass wasn't appealing so I tried using a single handed handle (homage to our favorite kite innovator) with my 2.5 M NPW in a nearby parking lot. I started getting the hang of it pretty quickly. With some more practice and a place to ride with better wind (such as no trees 30 from where I'm riding) this could be a pretty fun way to Streetkite. Hopefully the ground will be dried out a bit and there will be some wind left over for riding the buggy.

Well played Randy, well played. I liked the single handle mod; way to make a scratch day into something you could work with. I'm scheduled to get my single handle flyer back from Germany later this week and hope to borrow somebody's board at IBX and try a little cruising around like you showed in the video. Nice music and still cuts on the bumpers; I definitely got the Western vibe.

Thanks Steve. I am a going to have to try that at a proper place to ride, like JIBE or at least my lakeside parking lot.

I did the improbably yesterday - I installed and dialed in an auto pilot for my Single Keel NPW kite. I'm still trying to figure out why I wanted to make a single kite out of an NPW, but for whatever reason it worked. The autopilot is the shinny thing you can see sometimes at the end of the bridles.






Oh, and I buggied too, but it wasn't that memorable of a day.

Today I grooved my first Nanco tire. I did 8 grooves, spaced at 1/2".


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Time to catch up. Wednesday - good day with the buggy. Thursday rode my kite boat. Friday, just some static flying and cut out some templates. Today - static and cut out more templates.

Perfect day at the lake. No people in the way. Or to watch me botch the launch and landing.

still cold and wet in the uk but the winds are good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWw22z8BAIU

Another day when street kiting was the best option. Too cold for the water and too wet for the buggy. Used my g-kite this time with the "handle bar" mentioned above. I think this setup will work best with a harness. I've tried it a few times now (w/o the board) and the kite always seems to fly better. Just need to gain the courage to try flying that way.

I think I will make the red, white and blue g-kite version the buggy (boat?) kite, and this one my street/landboard kite. A bit underpowered most of the time today, but that's ok because this takes a bit getting used to and my arm got tired enough.

More of the same today. Two or 3 cars just stopped to watch me from what I could tell. Then, I a police car pulled in. I could see him shooting pictures/vid either on his phone or a camera. I thought "A crap - first rule of Street kiting - don't get busted for street kiting." After a few minutes he came by and said "Hey that's really cool. Have fun," Police have come by this spot before, but never talked to them.

Today was the first day where I went home thinking I need a smaller kite. The winds were 13-29kn and my 4m Scout was really stretching my arms in the gusts. I was riding my longboard with the carver trucks on the tarmac and had some nice grass slides when I ran out of runway. All the while there was a beautiful kiter, wearing short-shorts, cruising with such amazing style, flying a 2,5 ribbon of a kite on handles and a strop. I took a breather during a brief sprinkle of rain and really enjoyed watching how easy she made it look.

The control she had blew me away. It wasn't all grass stains for me: met my tacking goals for the day and had plenty of nice turns. Next goal is switching the feet without a cheating pavement hop. Speed control toeside could be better too, but then so could the janky wind.

Finally "finished" my 4.5 M g-kite and got a few minutes of enough wind to get it into the air today. Coming soon to an island near you. Not quite finished, but didn't have enough wind to see if bridle tuning, etc is needed. Maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday me, my brothers, and my Dad taught some friends how to fly im about 10-12 mph of wind. My friend fell in love with the 2m buster and is wanting to come with us again so she can fly it more and possibly find a similar kite to call her own. My brother's friend flew the 2m, then decided to try the 4.4m and discovered how fun it is to fly a kite which will drag you across the beach easily. He is now interested in a 4.4m or similar kite of his own and wants to come with us again.

I flew both the 2m and the 4.4m, sadly with the wind the 2m was a tad too small and only pulled me a few feet in the window while the 4.4m was pulling me a bit too hard for static even at the top of the window. My brother ended up holding the harness and I just chilled in the air so that I would not end up 30 feet down the beach. Made me wish we had a buggy since the 4.4 would be a riot in that wind with a buggy.

My 17 year old brother also flew the 4.4, he is about 50-75 pounds heavier than me so it was better for him. There was a gust and I heard howling, so I looked over and there he was, being pulled across the beach on his back, face in the mud. He then brought the kite down low, then turned it to the top of the window to get back on his feet and carry on as if nothing happened. I asked him if he was ok and he said he will be once we get a bigger kite.

The 4.4 impressed me since it could yank around me in its sleep, give my brother a pretty fun time with out too much trouble, and even pull my Dad when he put it in the window, yet when we let our friend fly it the kite was friendly and predictable enough to not hurt him. He is a bit heavier than my brother, so he was able to be pulled around a bit and had lots of fun without ever being out of control. Both friends are eager to come with us again to the beach and learn how to fly better so that they can work their way up to bigger kites and possibly get into kiting as a hobby.

We have been in serious wind draught but I did finally get enough wind to fly my latest - a Stealth NPWC kite. I'm figuring that once I scale it up, this will be perfect for places where kites have been banned.

....? nope. Genius.



:bigok:

Quote: Originally posted by Randy

We have been in serious wind draught but I did finally get enough wind to fly my latest - a Stealth NPWC kite. I'm figuring that once I scale it up, this will be perfect for places where kites have been banned.

Randy - outstanding! Have you considered flying it on fishing line? Even stealthier!

I thought of that. Spectra invisible would probably be perfect. :D

I made an invisible kite bag too. No more trying to figure out which kite is in which bag.

That's pretty cool Randy!... what kind of material is that?

Definitely recognize those fields too long

I used clear shower curtain liner from Dollar Tree. You get about 3 sqm for $1. It is also quite light only about 2 oz/sqm. It is quite tough, and takes quite a bit to stretch it out of shape. Sewing is super easy because you can see right through it and it stitches very nicely. This particular kite has curved seams which used to be a challenge (though my sewing has improved a lot) but was really easy. I'm not sure how useful this stuff will be for traction kites which need a long life, but for prototypes it might replace my blue tarp. I think with proper reinforcement it might work ok. The other cool thing is you don't even have to sew it - it can be hot welded with a soldering iron and some parchment paper. For kite bags it is pretty good.

The other thing I've thought of is putting windows in kites or making it look like they have holes in them or something. I was thinking of making a Peter Lynn Pilot kite for lifting line laundry, or maybe just a simple single line kite with a bird or something painted on it. I made a kayak sail recently, with a window in it, using regular vinyl, but this stuff would probably work just as well. In fact, I think I could make the whole sail from it.

Randy, that is ingenious! When you said stealth, I was thinking the lines were going to be invisible. I clicked on the video and thought meh.

Then it dawned on me, where's the kite!! That made me laugh. Seriously impressed! Please make me a stealth LEI, money is no object...ish. This fits my humor perfectly.

Oh and the holes in the kite thing. Inspired! :D

Best yet Randy. I needed it yesterday when me and the 10 got drenched.

Thanks everyone. With all this encouragement I'm thinking i will try to make an invisible buggy engine. Maybe debut at JIBE 2019. :D

RedSky - if I just had some plans for an LEI, I have been wanting to try to make one. Since money is no object, I'll hire a design team to start working on it.

Quote: Originally posted by Randy

We have been in serious wind draught but I did finally get enough wind to fly my latest - a Stealth NPWC kite. I'm figuring that once I scale it up, this will be perfect for places where kites have been banned.

That is wild Randy. I love it!!

Quote: Originally posted by Randy

RedSky - if I just had some plans for an LEI, I have been wanting to try to make one. Since money is no object, I'll hire a design team to start working on it.

I allowed my enthusiasm to get the better of me. :D
Invisible buggy engine for JIBE 2019. You must do this!

Ok - buggy engine first. :D LEI after winning the lottery.

Me and my family tested out the 7.5m Brooza we ordered from bigkid. It arrived today and me and my brothers decided that we would be going to the beach instead of the movies. It was pretty easy to convince our Dad to come to the beach with us since he has been pretty excited about us finally getting something bigger than a 4.4m Buster. The wind was about 4-5km/h and the kite had no problems staying up in the sky. Got hit by a 12km/h gust later that day at the park and the kite had no problems dragging me 20ft across the grass.