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spectra lines.
In article <1992Mar9.175354.20327@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>, north@kilo.egr.msu.edu (George M North) writes:
|>Also spectra has a very low melting point and lines like Kevlar and Nylon
|>will melt through spectra if they touch it. The dacron on the leading edge
|>of a kite has also been known to cot through lines. Many of the kite teams
|>will sleve kevlar into the last 10 to 20 feet of their lines so as to prevent
|>other team kites from cutting their lines.
Actually, the practice is to tie or splice kevlar on the kite end of
the lines. This works very well and almost every team that I've talked
to uses kevlar to avoid line breaking on kite-to-line collisions.
|>I have also been told that spectra has problems with ultraviolet breakdown
|>and water rot.
I don't know about water rot, but Spectra is pretty good with
ultraviolet light. It is certainly better than Kevlar in this regard.
|>I have also found that flying in light wind conditions will not generate the
|>pull to warrent the added weight of sleeving. I know sleeving doesn't weigh much
|>but every bit helps when you have to fly in lite wind.
Well, if you look at it the right way, then sleeving makes more sense.
My guess is that non-sleeved Spectra loses at least half of it's
strength while sleeved Spectra has about 80% of its strength. If you
sleeved you line, you could fly on lighter line and not risk breaking.
The weight of the sleeving would be far less than the weight of your
line...
--
Marty Sasaki sasaki@tle.enet.dec.com
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