Date:	Tue, 7 Jun 1994 21:59:57 -1000
From:	higham_t@lincoln.gpsemi.com
Message-Id: <Cr2JJy.LuD@lincoln.gpsemi.com>
Organization: GPS Lincoln
Subject: HELP - Shuttle Out of Control

I finished making my first kite at the weekend, a Shuttle from "Stunt Kites
to Build and Fly". The book says that without a tail the Shuttle is a little
twitchy and so we started by flying it with a tail and it flew better than
I could have hoped. My six year old son and I had a great time with it.

I then decided to try it without a tail and to start with it flew great.
Fast and very manouverable. Unfortunately when I flew it close to the edge 
of the flight envelope or when the wind dropped it had a tendency to spin
sharply to the left. If this happened due to wind loss, when the wind returned
I could recover the spin, but if it happened because I had reached the edge
of the flight envelope the spin was unrecoverable until the earth halted
with its downwards trajectory!

Does anyone have experience of this problem? Can it be corrected by altering
bridling? My intention in building it was for my son to fly it with a tail,
but now I've tried it without a tail I think it might be quite a fun kite 
to fly once in a while and it might also be a cheap vehicle for my son to 
learn to fly less stable kites. But I must sort out this stalling problem
before it will be worthwhile to fly it again without a tail.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I've now started building a Standard 200 Delta and I'll let you know how
first flight goes in a couple of weeks.

Best Regards


Tim Higham


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