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3 lines
In article <1992Jun23.155932.3097@ibmpcug.co.uk> gaffer@ibmpcug.co.uk (Andrew Beattie) writes:
>I tried something unusual at the week end. I bridled my Benson Wasp
>to fly on 3 lines. Given that a standard bridle looks like this:
Neat! I never thought of this one! I'll have to give it a try, probably
with an Extreme; they quad quite nicely.
>To fly this, I needed a special handle. I figured that some sort of
>triangular affair would be best, but I was unsure of the dimensions.
FWIW, the only tri-lined kite on the market that I know of (dunno if
it's even still on the market!) comes with a huge t-shaped handle--two
pieces of PVC tubing; the top is probably 2 feet wide and then the
bottom extends down about a foot. (I could be _way_ off on these
measurements; I've only flown the kite once or twice)
As you might guess from the description of the handle, the kite is a bit
different from what you describe. Two lines on top and one on the bottom.
It's actually quite clever--it's shaped as a heart! Construction is like a
rock--1.5 oz ripstop, with a hollow fiberglass spine. There are two thin
solid fiberglass spars through a sleeve in the top curves which get tucked into
the top of the spine to keep the top taut. I think there's a spreader as
well, and the whole thing is bowed. Due to this sort of construction, the
kite likes a lot of wind, but when it gets it, it's a blast! Even more
interesting is that it's quite easy to fly with one hand (unlike the
Rev, with which it's _possible_ to fly with one hand but extremely difficult).
I don't know who made this kite, how much it sells for, or even if it's still
in production, so don't bother asking me...;-)
>The Wasp is a handful to control at the best of times, a more stable kite
>would have helped. (The Wasp is my only delta)
>
>I wasn't very skillful at it. I find my Rev I difficult to fly and this
>is similar.
You might want to try rigging it as a quad (or any other delta). Usually
I just remove the outhaul (is the wasp bridled like the Phantom, with
the static line going to the spine instead of the leading edge?) and put
it on the top bridle point, and then move the upper leg of the bridle
down to the lower bridle point on the leading edge. At this point, the
bridle with the clip should stretch out horizontally from the lower bridle
point back into the spine at the t-fitting. You may need to adjust the clip
in or out to change the handling. Out too far and you'll tend to pull the kite
out of the air. You can use standard Rev handles. Recent I've been
seeing a new method of quad bridling which just involves a couple of
extra clips on the top and outhaul lines of your bridles. This has some
obvious advantages (you don't need to move lines) and some not so
obvious ones (no worries about getting the bridle caught on a wingtip or
on the stand-off sticking out from the back of the kite) and the kites
seem to fly just as well this way. I haven't had a chance to try it yet
(so I'm lazy...sue me...;-) but it should be interesting.
Quad deltas are actually much easier to fly than true quadlines, because
they respond like a delta. With a quad, you rotate your wrists to turn
the kite and move your arms to change the point around which the kite turns.
With a quad delta, you move your arms back and forth to turn to the kite and
rotate your wrists to tighten the spin (as well as control speed, hover,
backward take-offs from the nose, etc). In other words, you can forget about
the second set of lines if you want to! The kite will fly pretty much the
way you're used to until you start adding in some wrist motions.
>I'd be interested to hear how other people get on with
>different kites.
If I have time today I'll give it a whirl. Thanks for the suggestion...
Jeff
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