Fantasy Kite

The "horns" were inspired by George Peters Flying Man kites (20K); the rest of the kite is my own creation. It is about 2m by 1.5m and made of Polyant (40g per sq.m.), 6mm/4mm carbon, 2mm fibre-glass, bamboo and rattan.

(6K)

The construction isn't particulary innovative. The only tricky bit is the attachment of the little auxiliary sails to the main sail and frame. It also took me a while to figure out what material to use for framing the little disks - even 2mm fibreglass was too rigid for that size. I finally resorted to using rattan, which bends easily and has performed very well, even in quite strong winds. Consult the plan for further details.

The bridle also required some experimentation: At first the legs were too far down the spine resulting in a somewhat instable kite...moving the attachment points a bit further up solved that problem. It now flies well with a simple 2-legged bridle. Of course, it's not a terribly efficient kite, achieving an elevation of maybe 50 degrees. But in this case aesthetics take precedence over efficiency.

This was my first kite made from Polyant. I have heard contradictory opinions about this material. Plus points seem to be:

• good, saturated colours
• not as crinkly as Icarex
• less stretchy than Carrington

Negative aspects seem to be:

• absorbs moisture
• colours fade faster than Icarex or Carrington

The plan for this kite was published in Drachen Magazin, issue 8/98.

The following picture was taken at Fanoe 2000, so obviously somebody was able to follow my building plan. If you are the owner of this kite, I'd be interested to hear about your experiences with it.

(6K)