I am considering it.

Any thoughts?

Cheers Al

Making your own kite can be fun and rewarding. If you are doing it for kicks, kite making is a good hobby. But if you are hoping to make your own power kite (foil or tube) that will offer suitable performance for traction kiting, I believe that is more like a pilot trying to build his own aeroplane. I mean the Wright brothers did, but theirs in no way was a fine flying craft.

The thing is that you miss out on the wealth of information and experience that established designers have gleaned on their way through the R&D process. I'm sure their first several design prototypes landed far from the mark.

So if you have aspirations to become a new manufacturer or just want to start up a new hobby, get yourself a good 3d design program and start laying out your new design. Reserve several months for development, construction and testing.

However, if you want to make your own kite in hopes of saving money, you will find that by the time you've made one that works well, your investment of time and materials far outway the money you would have spent for that kite that you thought was too expensive to purchase.