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3.2 Neue Lenkdrachen und Einleiner, bauen und fliegen
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Subject: 3.2 Neue Lenkdrachen und Einleiner, bauen und fliegen
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From: Wolfgang Schimmelpfennig
The title translate to something like "New Stunt Kites and
Single-liners, Making and Flying". As the other "Making and
Flying"-book by Wolfgang Schimmelpfennig, this one is in German
and with very instructive drawings. It contains six stunt kite
plans, and I think they are all designed by the author:
Solar Fire A silent, fast 3/4 dart.
Bel Air An ultralight, 4-batten, Hawaiian Maui-type
kite. Precise and with a large wind-window.
Relax II An 8' dart with a very curved LE and four
battens. Fast, tight turning and a high pull.
Scanner A sort of Hawaiian Maui with a small keel and a
"Navy Target Kite"-type rudder.
Heavy Duty A 3/4 delta with scalloped TE, keel and
winglets perpendicular to the main-sail. A high
wind kite with a high pull.
Paradox A quad-line kite which can also be flown as a
single-line kite. It looks like two 4-cell
Tetrahedron kite flown side-by-side.
The three single-line kites are: Samurai (a Genki variant),
Starflake (a facet kite), Starbird (a flat star-something kite).
Bernhard Malle, November 1993
Since a few weeks, there is a new book from Wolfgang
Schimmelpfennig available called "Neue Lenkdrachen und
Einleiner" (New Stunt Kites and Single Liners). Wolfgang has
already published one book on stunt kites, one about single
line kites and one about making kites with kids (all of them
available via the Kite Lines bookstore). The new book had
been announced for August, but has only recently appeared in
the book stores.
In his new book you can find plans for six stunt kites
(Solar Fire, Bel Air, Relax II, Scanner, Heavy Duty and
Paradox) and three single line kites (Samurai, Starflake and
Starbird). The book ressembles very much his other books:
there is an introduction, a chapter about how to be creative
with colors and forms when building kites, one chapter about
materials and techniques. The book contains a lot of nice
color pictures, but the names of the creators and kite
builders (Peter Lynn, George Peters, Peter Malinski or
Schimmelpfennig himself) are very rarely given.
The plans themselves seem to be as detailed and good as in
all the other books of Wolfgang. As I am not an expert of
stunt kites I cannot say much about the different kites.
Nevertheless I have the impression that most of them are
already well known and not really new. As Wolfgang never
mentions any inventor or original designer of the kites, I
get the impression that he has invented them all by
himself......
There is one kite that is a little bit extraordinary: the
paradox is a quadline kite. It is build like a box-kite and
consists of seven panels. Wolfgang mentions in his
description that the kite can also be used as single line
kite if you add a tail to it. It seems that Wolfgang thinks
that everyone knows, which handles to use for a quadliner,
which length of kite line and which flying technique.
The chapter about the single line kites is introduced with a
two side picture of Wolfgangs soft-kites "Big Boss" and
"Jake the Snake", two stunt kites. The Samurai is based on
an ordinary genki, but a little bit modified to better fit
for the design of a samurai. The Starflake is kind of facet
kite and if I remember right, I have seen the same design
also in a book of Jim Rowlands or Margaret Gregor. The last
plan in this book describes the Starbird. This kite is a
combination of flat star kite and an Eddy in the lower part
of the kite.The book ends with some very general tips about
tuning a kite and some safety rules.
As a conclusion I am disappointed by the book. There have
been so many advances in kite design in the last years and I
have the impression that none of them are reflected in this
book. Wolfgang, who has developed "Jake the Snake"
(softkite), a new paraflex (soft stunt kite), who seams to
be a good friend of Peter Lynn and other well known kite
builders, could have put some more effort in finding new and
interesting designs.
Publisher - Falken-Verlag GmbH, Postfach 1120,
D-65521 Niedernhausen/Ts, Germany
ISBN - 3 8068 1353 1
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