Been putting off fixing my Phantom spar pockets until today. I finally bought a commercial quality walking foot sewing machine. This baby uses kite lines for thread !! :singing: Talk about heavy duty. It can handle needle the size of a toothpick.



Here's the issue I have after every session:



Seat belt webbing sewn over the defective area:

I'm jealous - I'd love a big beefy machine like that! Whenever I ask to use the wife's mega-buck machine, her eyes roll up in her head and she starts twitching ...

just a quick question about the original damage. was this done by crashing the kite or weak material? usually on a crash the spar gets poked out of the end of the pocket not the side, unless the spar wasnt seated properly.

My ? Is where did you get an orange 15m phanny...?

I was going to say something along the lines of what Carl noted. On a few earlier kites of different models the stitching on that upper end of the spar pocket was stitched right across and through the spar pocket on that webbing. On your photo the far left stitch at the top of the spar pocket is correct, the next one in that follows the edge of the white webbing should not be going right through the pocket. That would stop the rod from seating to the top properly into the re-inforced area. The rod stopping at the stitch put pressure on the thinner material to eventually punch through.

PS- nice machine

I bought the kite from Dylan. It was actually already torn when I got it. After many sessions, the tear got worse. I noticed that the fabric is very thin for the spar. The most likely cause is due to the aluminum spar cutting thru the fabric during crashes. The spar did not have all the end caps so the sharp aluminum was exposed.

When I took the fabric apart I found the end cap!! it was wedge in at the end and got stuck in there. I was never able to push the spar all the way to the end. This is why the spar tore through farther away from the end of the pocket. Near the end of the pocket , there's a rubber lining inside. The tear was very close to the edge where it was sewn. There was not enough fabric left to keep it strong. The pockets are also very tight, so the fabric was already very stretched when the spar is inserted.

So it was a combination of weak fabric, crashing, unprotected spar end and bad spar end placement ( an inch from the end).

all of this could have been avoided if the origiinal owner of the phanny had wrapped abit of tape around the end of the rubber cap to keep it in place!! a good tip for everybody else who flys arcs!

Yes and the other striking thing is that the plastic end cap is intact. Usually when the sticks go through the front of the pockets, they have already punched through the caps. That supports the notion that the stick could not be seated properly and went through weaker material.

EDIT: we were all typing at the same time and I was responding to MarS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K-s comment.

Good tip!! I'll have to do that. I was using the electrical tape to repair a piece of the spar that split open but didn't think to tape the rubber ends onto the spars. Thanks for the tip.

Angus,

I think the main problem was the spar not seating in there correctly. I was never able to push the spar all the way in. An inch of the spar always stuck out so it was hard to close the overlapping velcros. I didn't realize there was an endcap stuck in there. Not sure if Dylan realize that either. So basically I was always forcing the stick in real tight so I can close the velcro straps. So I think this cause the fabric to stretch more. So if I crash, it tore through the weaker part of the fabric.

Excellent work and props on the sewing machine. Now about that orange phanny?

I don't know the history on the orange phanny. I got a great deal from Dylan on it as my first arc. I still enjoy it although it seems to fly alot slower than the Scorpion. I love the stability of the arcs but I need to get myself Charger. I like fast kites.

my charger are for sale but i think the postage might be quite abit!