What's a wind tamer screen?

• Subject: What's a wind tamer screen?
• From: carlsonr@news.delphi.com (CARLSONR@DELPHI.COM)
• Date: 15 Sep 1993 23:00:34 -0400

WVOSS@novell.com (Wes Voss) writes:

>Bob Carlson mentioned a wind tamer screen in a previous post. What's that?

A wind tamer (I've also heard it called a diaper) is a rectangular sheet
of screening material.  It is attached to the kite between the bridle
clips and the flight lines.  It is typically 3 to 12 inches in width, and long
enough to hang between the bridle clips with at least 6 inches of droop
when the kite is flying.  They can be purchased for about 10 or 12 dollars.

The affect of adding this screen to the kite can be dramatic in high
winds.  Although it has very little affect on the kite's handling, it
creates enough drag to slow the kite down substantially.  Since the kite
is moving more slowly, it generates much less pull.

We used 6 inch wind tamers with our Stingers on the Air Art team.  They
extended the upper end of the kite's wind range by nearly 10 mph.  When
high winds forced us to use vented kites, we used the wind tamers with
them too.  Remarkably, the wind tamers never interfered with the plug-in
(refueling) maneuvers we frequently used.

These screens are one of the most cost effective kite accessories I know of.

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