Mini-Train

I wanted to build a small and simple train so I adapted a plan for a fighter kite from Philippe Gallot's book. For stability I added a looped tail. The kites are made of Icarex with bamboo spines and 2mm fibreglass spreaders (wing span about 50cm).

Actually this is not a very good choice of kite for a train - after all, fighter kites aren't noted for stability. It has a nice dashing look though...and with the tail it's alright. Due to the flexible sparring it stands up very well to heavy winds. What it doesn't like is erratic winds with lulls in between: the tails than have a tendency to get entangled and usually no amount of tugging at the line does any good.

A kite is hooked up to the train by attaching the bridle lines to the tow points of the preceding kite. I use the ingenious yet simple technique (sorry, can't remember where I first read about it) of larks-heading the bridle line to a bit of knotted line (aka "pig tail") attached to the other kite's tow point. This allows me to quickly disassemble the train and fly the kites individually as well.

The downside is, that the train can't be extended beyond a certain limit, because of the cumulative stress on the tow points. The proper way to do this is, of course, to have continuous lines running the whole length of the train. Each kite would then be attached by a larks-headed ring or similar device.

The sails were my first attempt at applique. The results of this technique are good - unfortunately I made the details too small for them to be properly visible in the sky. Well, at least they also look good on the wall of my apartment.

The tails were initially simple strips. Later I modified them to obtain looped tails, which are much more effective. Actually the tails are too long for a train: You're asking for trouble if the tail is longer than the distance in between the individual kites. But the train flies well enough in spite of this...and I find the long tails have more visual appeal.

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Here's a picture of one of the train kites flying on its own...my favourite, BTW. (6K)