I'm quite a dab hand with a sewing machine and the thought occurred to me that I could make myself one of these beasts.

Anybody have any tips, advice and more importantly plans on how to make one?

or is it better all round to buy one ready made and save countless hours getting the project off the ground?

Cheers

I got an old book - well it's old now, printed 2002 or something - with a couple of plans in it for power kites. I think it's called Stunt Kites Book 2" or something ... can check if you like.

If you like the making stuff, you'd erm like making stuff.
But if you want to fly, just buy one.

Oh unless you want to make a Nasa Power Wing - they're pretty easy (relatively!) to make and haul arse - ask the Goddess

Unless you want to take it on as a whole other hobby by itself, you are better off buying. Last I looked around some time ago, common popular designs like the Speed and Gaul are very dated and will likely be out-flown by common commercial designs that are tweaked every year.

There are free-ware versions of commercial kite CAD programs such as Foilmaker and SurfPlan.

Kitebuilder.com has a very active and useful forum that could add perspective for you.

I've gone as far as building a windsock and that was enough!

Quote:

Originally posted by Kamikuza I got an old book - well it's old now, printed 2002 or something - with a couple of plans in it for power kites. I think it's called Stunt Kites Book 2" or something ... can check if you like.

That's a classic and goes back to the 90's. What is still unique about it is that it is the only source I found that attempted to analyze design polars and L/D calculations. funny though they were coming up with L/D's of 2-3 and modern designs, according to Peter Lynn, are approaching 6.

send a u2u to taper123 here on the forum, he has built some kites and they are pretty cool

npw goddess and kitebuilder.com... good places to start...

a nasa wing is about the "easiest" place to start... and even then there is a pretty steep challenge... i've looked into it, and made a mock 1.5ish meter npw (cant remember the size exactly now, lol) out of a an bed sheet.... if you are serious about it, go to kitebuilder, and start soaking up the knowledge over there.... they'll point you to some design programs and answer any question you may have.... assuming you have a sewing machine... just getting the supplies on hand are kinda spendy... i think the 1.5 i had in mind, was going to run me about 100 bucks in materials (+s&h) most of it is start up type stuff tho (1000' line rolls for example)

but like angus said... its a whole 'nother hobby in itself!!

This is a place with lots of info, plans, calculators for all kinds of kites.

http://www.kiteplans.org/

However, I definetely agree with Drewculous that Naswings are the easiest to make and yet very powerful and easy to handle.