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Flow Form enlargement

In article <1992Nov6.102854.8017@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> irving@white.toronto.edu (Irving Reid) writes:

>I've had a close look at the big flowforms Art Ross from Vancouver
>builds.  He has built a few in the 500-1500 square foot range, along
>with smaller sizes.

1500 feet^2?  That's a BIG kite.

>The main change is to make the airfoil thinner and move the high point
>forward.  There's not a lot of science necessary; flowforms are
>relatively forgiving about cross-section.  Guessing from only having
>seen his kites, the body proportion is roughly 3-4 units span to 5 units
>chord.  He also uses longer "legs" than the book plans show, partly for
>stability and partly for effect.

By legs I suppose you mean the keels?

5:4 sounds like most of the flowforms I've seen; mostly but not quite square.
(sort of like a TV screen)

>Cell width (the spacing between ribs) doesn't scale linearly for either
>flowforms or parafoils.  For 30 square feet it shouldn't be a problem,
>but for larger foils you need to put the ribs proportionally closer
>together to get the cross-section to keep its shape.

As I recall, the 252 has 8 cells.  I know everything up to and including 
the 30 have 4 cells.  What about the 60? 

>For 30 square feet, try a cross-section about 12% (of the chord) deep,
>with the highest point maybe 10% back from the leading edge.  This is a
>fairly radical departure from published plans, but then the published
>plans don't fly quite as well as one would like.

Sounds like a *very* radical departure.  In fact, if memory serves (I
don't have a copy of the book handy), isn't that more like the Flow Form
II (Steve Sutton's design) in Margaret Gregor's book, as opposed to what
she refers to as a better kite, the "Flow Form I"?

Any hints on venting?  


Thanks for all of your suggestions.  They've been quite helpful.  I'm still
at the "what am I getting myself into" stage, but I'm still eager to try
building the kite.  Unfortunatley, it'll be anothe 2 or 3 weeks before I
can order the fabric.

Got any suggestions (Pat, are you out there?  This means you!) for dealing
with, laying out, cutting, etc., the large pieces of fabric for the
top and bottom of the kite?  I mean this in terms of laying it out, marking,
cutting, etc.  I'm not really used to huge pieces of fabric, but I have
no interest in a little flow form...;-)

> - irving (Hey!  I finished my Masters, Moved, and got a New Job!) -

Congratulations!



Jeff
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