I’m on a kite kick these days. It started a few days ago, when Travis picked up a kite belonging to one of the neighbours. We flew it for awhile and I think both of us were hooked.
Travis really enjoys flying the kite. Well, what he really enjoys is flying the kite for a few seconds, letting it go and watching dad chase it across the not so frozen tundra. So the day after we flew the neighbour’s kite we went to the store and bought one for Travis. The kite cost all of three dollars and was worth every penny. One trip across the tundra and the subsequent nose dive punched the dowel through the plastic wing.
So I got thinking about making a kite and went on line to check out plans. Now this probably shouldn’t have surprised me but there is a whole kite subculture out there, and kite engineering that would make your head spin. Or my head anyway. All I wanted to do was make a kite. So I downloaded a plan which I soon discovered was for a kite with a 10 foot 6 inch wingspan, with supports made of carbon fibres and wing stiffeners made of aluminum.
So I got to thinking, I’ve got tons of scrap tyvek at the site, it would probably make a great kite. Turns out I’m not the first person to think that, tyvek is such a popular kite sail material that Dupont has a whole section on it on their tyvek web site. So I got a chunk, cut out a “kite” shape, and found some scrap wood left over from cutting a rabbet out of trim. The whole thing was taped together with tuck tape (great stuff tuck tape, not as versatile as duct tape, but it certainly deserves it’s own Red Green).
Now all the time I was building this, Leah was there saying that it would never fly. The gauntlet had been thrown down, this kite would fly. Leah insisted that it was too heavy and would never get into the air. I wouldn’t rest until it did.
Its first “flight”, was an utter, dismal failure. It certainly had potential, and really grabbed the wind, but it would immediately turn to the left and “fly” into the ground. Hmm, maybe there is something to all of this engineering. But not willing to give up and admit that it wouldn’t fly, I decided to look a little closer at my (somewhat homely) kite. Sorry that should be Travis’ kite, I’m building this for him. Right?
I quickly learned that the probable reason my kite went to the left so drastically, is that the left side of the kite is significantly heavier than the right. So all I had to do was balance it. In true northern engineer fashion, I taped a pen, and when that wasn’t enough a pencil, to the right side and balanced the kite.
Late last night as I was taking the garbage out, I noticed that the wind was still blowing pretty strong. Perfect time to test out the newly balanced kite. Almost immediately the kite grabbed the wind, and flew, so I paid out about twenty feet of line. The instant the line went taut the kite climbed as straight up as the line woud allow. The moment it reached its apex, it turned 180 degrees and shot down, I swear with enough force that I felt it hit the ground. Alas, the kite suffered, um, a loss of structural integrety.
Travis can hardly wait for the arrival of the carbon wrapped struts, half ounce sail cloth and that 200 lb Spectra/Dacron line.