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.