The kite was a toy one which came with really crappy lines and cost something
under £30 a bit back as my first two line kite ever. Nice for flying circles and
stuff but not much good for anything else and a not very good wind range despite
some kind of carbon frame. Pretty indestructible however which was what I really
needed for my first play with quad conversions. I had two pairs of 80lb 80ft
dyneema lines (matched as pairs, but the two pairs different lengths) as the top
and bottom lines as that was all I could get hold of at short notice.
Due to some stupidity on my part I managed to lose one of the top bridle lines,
I think when I was letting someone use it as a two line kite the day before. I
was still determined to try it so I simply attached them directly to the ends of
the upper spreader connector by looping them round the outside of the upper
spreader connector and then around the upper spreader which wasn’t the handiest
of ways to do it but seemed to work perfectly well. The lower bridle was the
simple two part bridle as on the web-page.
For the handles I stuck with my wooden ones made from two hammer handles.
Basically to make these just go to any old hardware shop and buy a couple of
hammer handles and drill a hole in either end of each of them (attach the line
by poking it through the hole and then pulling the loop over the end of the
handle.) I attached two pieces of spare cheap nylon kite line to the top hole of
each handle to allow adjustment and then larks headed the two shorter lines onto
these, attaching the sleeving of the bottom lines directly to the handles. I’d
have preferred to use bridle line for the adjusters but I didn’t have any handy.
Once I’d done this, it flew quite nicely, much nicer than I’d been able to tune
it for two line flight. When I held the handles quite loosely the kite seemed to
pull them into the right angle for flying it quite like a two liner by just
moving the handles back and forth. I managed to get very fast spins by using the
bottom lines in some way, still not quite sure of how it all works. By twisting
the handles in opposite directions (I think) I managed to fly it sideways. The
only things I could do very repeatably however were stop it very quickly from a
dive and hover, and dive into a stop followed by a spin. This is probably more
due to my lack of quad line skill than the setup however as I did manage the
other things at times. It didn’t seem to like going backwards, had more of a
tendency to spin round into forward flight, again I’m not sure if this is me
going wrong or a problem with the pointy kite shape.
Overall I’m quite chuffed with this, a flyable quad line kite for £20 worth of
lines, £5 of handles and an old kite I have around for people to play on anyway.
I’d been wanting a quad for a bit but couldn’t be bothered to buy a rev as
they’re way expensive for something I’d probably play with less than two line
kites. I recommend playing with this as it only takes about 5/10 minutes to
setup and a teensy bit of bridle line costing about a pound.
oops that last one was supposed to go to the kites newsgroup, sorry. “Joe
Marshall” <joe_marshall@bigfoot.com> wrote in message news:981379311.766793@ananke.eclipse.net.uk… > Okay, I’ve now tried the super simple quad line bridle as at > http://kitefisherperson.homestead.com/QDelta1.html but scaled down a
little. > > The kite was a toy one which came with really crappy lines and cost something > under £30 a bit back as my first two line kite ever. Nice for flying circles > and stuff but not much good for anything else and a not
very > good wind range despite some kind of carbon frame. Pretty indestructible > however which was what I really needed for my first play with quad > conversions. I had two pairs of 80lb 80ft dyneema lines (matched as pairs, but > the two pairs different lengths) as the top and bottom lines as that
was > all I could get hold of at short notice. > > Due to some stupidity on my part I managed to lose one of the top bridle > lines, I think when I was letting someone use it as a two line kite the
day > before. I was still determined to try it so I simply attached them
directly > to the ends of the upper spreader connector by looping them round the outside > of the upper spreader connector and then around the upper spreader which > wasn’t the handiest of ways to do it but seemed to work perfectly well. The > lower bridle was the simple two part bridle as on the web-page. > > For the handles I stuck with my wooden ones made from two hammer handles. > Basically to make these just go to any old hardware shop and buy a couple
of > hammer handles and drill a hole in either end of each of them (attach the line > by poking it through the hole and then pulling the loop over the end
of > the handle.) I attached two pieces of spare cheap nylon kite line to the
top > hole of each handle to allow adjustment and then larks headed the two shorter > lines onto these, attaching the sleeving of the bottom lines directly to the > handles. I’d have preferred to use bridle line for the adjusters but I didn’t > have any handy. > > Once I’d done this, it flew quite nicely, much nicer than I’d been able to > tune it for two line flight. When I held the handles quite loosely the
kite > seemed to pull them into the right angle for flying it quite like a two liner > by just moving the
handles > back and forth. I managed to get very fast spins by using the bottom lines in > some way, still not quite sure of how it all works. By twisting the handles in > opposite directions (I think) I managed to fly it sideways. The only things I > could do very repeatably however were stop it very quickly from a dive and > hover, and dive into a stop followed by a spin. This is probably more due to > my lack of quad line skill than the setup however as
I > did manage the other things at times. It didn’t seem to like going backwards, > had more of a tendency to spin round into forward flight, again I’m not sure > if this is me going wrong or a problem with the pointy kite shape. > > Overall I’m quite chuffed with this, a flyable quad line kite for £20
worth > of lines, £5 of handles and an old kite I have around for people to play
on > anyway. I’d been wanting a quad for a bit but couldn’t be bothered to buy
a > rev as they’re way expensive for something I’d probably play with less
than > two line kites. I recommend playing with this as it only takes about 5/10 > minutes to setup and a teensy bit of bridle line costing about a pound. > > Joe > >