I thought maybe the wind would drop somewhat in the afternoon, but it sure didn’t. Rather the opposite. According to the online weather station the wind peaked at close to 19 meters per second (42mph) and averaging at about 15 m/sec (34mph). No time for ULs, that’s for sure.
So I opted for the Skiron, the kite I designed for those really windy days. And the kite did the job. The large vents let most of the wind blow right through the kite making it flyable. Despite really high winds I was able to squeeze quite a bit of quality flying out of it in the howling winds. Quite fun actually!
But it was cold down there at the beach and before things got too uncomfortable, I called it a day, packed up my stuff and headed back home. Tomorrow is back to work.
Oh yeah, here’s the video by the way!
2 Responses
I have never tried and not even seen a mesh quad, so I wonder how they are like compared to other vented quads: wind window size, figure flying, feeling…
Hmmmm… I’m on pretty thin ice here but here are my 2 cents.
I think the mesh is kind of keeping the kite “together” more compared to one like the Skiron, without any mesh, just “holes” in the sail. The sail of a meshed kite is a one-piece thing (despite consisting of several bits sewn together). The Skiron sail however does not hold that one-piece definition.
I also think the Skiron’ish kites have a more … I’m looking for the correct word … mushy feel. It’s not as crisp as the one-piece kite. That feel *could* very well be increased by other parameters like the bridle, the stiffness/softness/springiness of the LE and others.
My first version of the Skiron was without the (black) vertical’ish ribbons. That meant the horizontal’ish ribbons quickly started to flutter. Both when the wind picked up but also when the kite was put in a steeper angle of attack.
So to remedy this and supporting the (yellow) horizontal ribbons, I added the black, vertical ribbons. This reduced the flutter significantly and to reduce it even more I added pockets on the back of the black ribbons and inserted batons to increase support and reduce flutter. It surely helped.
My conclusion is that if the kite is constructed correctly – short(er) ribbons thus increased support – it will surely end up with very good flying characteristics.
I think something like the kite in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i5UPdADPus
I’ve flown it myself and found it has very good flying characteristics!
…but then again, I could be completely wrong! ?