Posts | Crossed Lines | Custom kites and musings from Jerimy Colbert

Another step forward, on more than one front

Posted on April 1, 2015 | Leave a comment

2 inch Sotich Eddy kite, cocktail napkin.

Yesterday, I had a few minutes between my chores and errands and a couple of meetings, so I knocked this kite out. I’ve wanted to play with a different sail, and this element of a cocktail napkin called to me.

One of my meetings was canceled at the last minute, but that meant I could stay longer at the other meeting, so I learned on the spot when the review of my son Zach was approved by his Eagle Board. We still need to hear back from Oregon Trail Council, but I’m looking forward to being able to say that I’m proud of my Eagle Scout. I’m proud of my son anyway, but it’s a nice feather in the cap to look forward to.

Not completely successful Hata kite.

Since I had a finished kite to share today, I decided to play with the Hata design. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts on the Hata, I’ve framed and tensioned the kites differently than my other kites.

So this one is an attempt to use the same materials as the Eddy and Shield designs, and use a bowline as well. Fortunately all the materials worked the way I had hoped (instead of the way I feared), Unfortunately it’s apparent I need some more practice with the techniques that I applied.

It works, but my OCD won’t let me be done with it. I’ll try again soon and share the results.

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Posted in Eddy, Hata, Miniature Kites

Tagged Eagle, Zach

A challenge

Posted on March 31, 2015 | Leave a comment

1.125 inch Sotich Hata, cocktail napkin.

I’m still playing with the same cocktail napkin from the last few days. One more of the butterflies was calling to me.

This little guy was wedged between a fold and more lettering, but I really wanted to see if I could pull off making it fly.

It isn’t really from a pattern, but I did use one of my Sotich Hata templates to pull it together, so I’m sharing credit with Charlie where it’s due.

The flying line is a bit heavy for this little one, but it does fly. I really enjoyed pushing my boundaries a little further, making the 2 inch kites is a pleasure, but the challenge of making this kite was wonderful.

By the way, I had a great time at the Pinewood Derby for Pack 53 in Waldport. The kids were a lot of fun, a sister entered a car (with horses on it), and they even fed me dinner.

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Posted in Hata, Miniature Kites

Freehand butterflies

Posted on March 30, 2015 | Leave a comment

2 inch freehand Shield kite, cocktail napkin.

After the success yesterday, I decided to try another butterfly from the same napkin.

This started out as a 2 inch Sotich Shield, and then I trimmed the sail down to avoid the same lettering.

Now, I’m off to run a Pinewood Derby for Cub Scout Pack 53 in Waldport.

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Posted in Freehand, Miniature Kites

Freehand shield

Posted on March 29, 2015 | Leave a comment

1.5 inch freehand Shield kite, cocktail napkin.

I’ve wanted to do something with the butterflies on some cocktail napkins for several weeks.

After doing several kites from templates, I decided to brave making one off template (freehand) to avoid getting some stray lettering onto the sail.

This little beauty is the result. I’m very pleased with how well it turned out, and how well it flies.

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Posted in Freehand, Miniature Kites, Shield

Something a little different

Posted on March 28, 2015 | Leave a comment

2 inch Sotich Hata, balloon tissue

This is my second Hata, but the first this size.

It is a bit different than my other miniature kites, so far.

My first Hata was larger than the spars I currently have to work with, so it is framed with monofilament (which is heavier and more flexible than the other spar material).

My spars fit the 2 inch Hata fine, so being lighter, I used them. However, being stiffer the kite was too flat to fly. I hadn’t left room to tie the bowline that I’ve used on my Eddy and Shield kites, so I tried bending the spreader to create a dihedral, as shown below.

Bending spreader to create dihedral in flat kite.

Fortunately the immediate results were perfect, the kite flew great.

I’ll see how the dihedral stands up to my current storage method.

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Posted in Hata, Miniature Kites

Limitations and possibilities

Posted on March 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

2 inch Sotich Eddy, balloon tissue.

My new templates (I made one for each kite and size) are allowing me to better see the graphic layout of the sails before I cut them out, and while working on yesterday’s kite a graphic element caught my attention.

The 2 inch kite is one of my favorite sizes, but many times severely restricts the graphics that can be utilized. I was tickled that this ribbon fit the kite so well.

Enjoy.

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Posted in Eddy, Miniature Kites

Spring Broke

Posted on March 26, 2015 | Leave a comment

Prototype cellular kite, Missile, on maiden flight.

It’s taken several days, but I was finally able to test a new kite I designed.

Despite (or because) it’s Spring Break, the weather has been damp with strong and gusty South winds. Today however Spring Broke with a clear day and Northwest winds.

It took stopping at two beach accesses to find a parking spot, but I felt fortunate that I didn’t need to drive the length of Lincoln City to find one. As it is Spring Break I was lucky to find a parking spot at the beach and I don’t quite live close enough to carry all the gear I wanted to fly.

My son Luc has dubbed this design a Missile, and since I have a mental block on naming designs, the name will stick.

The kite was framed using the rods from a Rev I after it’s sail had disintegrated. Waste not want not. Mostly I wanted to see if the sail tensioning system I use for the Cody would work with wrapped rods.

I need to make some minor adjustments to the design, but I’m happy enough with the concept to proceed.

The winds were light for a cellular (6 mph gusting to 10) but built to a solid 10 a few minutes after I put the kite up. The temperature was also very mild and the beach was crowded with families from the surrounding weekend rentals, so I was glad I hadn’t brought any sport kites to play with.

The ocean was very active with the remains of the storm systems from early in the week. There were lots of kids playing in the surf, I hope that there were no surf rescues required.

A quarter moon was also in the sky adding to the idyllic scene, which I tried to get in the picture above.

I puttered with training a couple Cody War Kites, but the wind tapered off just as I was getting them in the air. Just a couple hours after packing the car, I was back at the sewing machine working on my next prototype project.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Missile, Prototype, Rev I, Revolution