Date:	Sun, 19 Mar 1995 22:25:45 -1000
From:	tanaka_be@swam1.enet.dec.com (Bert Tanaka)
Message-Id: <9503200816.AA18590@us3rmc.pa.dec.com>
Organization: Harvard University Office of Information Technology
Subject: Katana Stability

"a.hawken@qmw.ac.uk" "MAIL-11 Daemon" writes:

/I have been playing the the bridle on my Katana recently, trying to
/drop the tow point towards the tail, and I find that once the kite is
/in a stall, that it is very nose heavy, and it is difficult to keep the
/stall stable.  I guess that this is one place where the gravity does
/overcome the other forces.

If you have a Katana with a SkyShark frame, try this: cut a length of 
AFC 2400 and insert it into the top spreader, inside the SkyShark tube.  
The Katana is a radical kite and is supposed to be twitchy, but I have found 
that on mine, this change makes it a bit more stable in the stalls without 
negatively affecting the kite's ability to execute any of the other maneuvers 
that it usually does.  

Another thing that I have experienced is that even with kite that feels 
"nose heavy", you can get it to be very stable by finessing line tension.
With a kite that is naturally stable in a stall, you can "slack line" it
and it will still remain upright.  With a kite with a tendency to feel nose
heavy in a stall (and this is true of many kites that have a lot of oversteer
built in) it will help immensely if you always maintain a little bit of
line tension so that there is alway a little bit of extra pressure in the sail
to help stabilize it. 

Good winds,
Bert


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