Kite Lines - Vol.1 No. 3 - KiteLife

NEW LIFE MEMBERSAnonymousJoseph ArenaCharles BernsteinDr . Myron BernsteinWilliam K . BiggeLt . Col . and Mrs .Bevan H . BrownWyatt BrummittDr . Floyd Cornelison, Jr .Elliott N . CoudenThomas F. . CowlsWood and Virginia EllisDale FleenerPat York GilgallonPaul Scot GilgallonPat HammondEdward HanrahanHugh A . HarrisonAI and Betty HartigJohn HastingsRobert HieronimusGary HinzeA . Pete IanuzziRobert and Hazel IngrahamBill JonesNat KobitzTheodore T . KuklinskiTed ManekinManistee AviationCurtis Marshall, M .D .William G .B . OchseRobert S . PriceRogallo FlexikitesWilliam A . RutiserDr . John H . SeipelCharles A . SotichBernard A . SpaldingTal StreeterJohn F. Van GilderCleveland J . WallBruce WulfsbergLIFE MEMBERSGregory A . ApkarianJohn C . ArmaninoGuy D . AydlettClifford BantelWilliam R . BiggeWyatt BrummittKenneth BryanJ . H . BuggJohn F. CarrollLincoln ChangThomas W . DietzSn Mary Ann Lenore EifertDouglas FalesJohn D . ForbesPaul Edward GarberAylene D . GoddardEdwin I . . GrauelHugh A . HarrisonEugene HesterHenry H . HowardDomina JalbertTony JohnstonMrs . David JueBen KimTheodore KuklinskiOswald S . MarkhamCarol MasterFt . Col . Joseph O'BrienLt . Raymond ReelFrancis M . RogalloGordon ShuteCharles SipleRobert SmithH . J . (Hod) TaylorWilliam E . TempleDr. Alfred ThelinThomas TroyerArthur VashMike WrightHarold WriterWill YolenAnthony ZieglerLettersDOUBLE-CROSS?The cover of the Summer 1977 Kite Linesshows three Japanese kitefliers pulling thegreatest hoax of last year and this year withtheir claim to the record for the most kitesflown on a single line .I SEE TWO LINES! PROTEST!!Henry H . BoutwellNew Orleans, LAHenry H . Boutwell has pointed out thatthe 1585 kites flown by Takeshi Nishibayashiand crew were not flown on oneline but on two closely-spaced lines . Myimmediate reaction is that the pair of lineswas handled as a single line on the ground .When I first saw the pictures, it seemedthat the two lines tend to keep each kitefrom lateral looping but tend to increasethe risk of accidentally overloading a kite .Boutwell apparently held the record forabout two months but there has not been anagreement as to how many of his kitesshould be counted -that is, as flying at thesame time, not merely_ launched butsufficiently anchored to continue to fly,and anchored by a single line or by two ormore lines acting as a single line . To me,retrieving all kites to be counted is adesirable but not essential means ofvalidating the number .The question of flying on a single line isa significant idea in kiting . A suggestedprimordial kite is a leaf in a spider webor suspended by a strand of spider silk . Aleaf suspended by two or more strands mayshow more flying ability than one danglingon one strand . There is a drawing of afanciful stickless man-lifting kite whichdepends on having several lines to theground . The Wright brothers and theWheat brothers have flown sophisticatedairframes as kites by using two linesthesemay not be kitable on a single line . Apurist might call them quasi-kites . Controllablekites as a rule, however, will flyon a single line or with both lines togetherin the hand and of the same length-thismode is good for climb .William R . BiggeWashington, DCTAIL TALK DRAGS ONI was favorably impressed with PeteIanuzzi's sound comments on tails (Spring1977 Kite Lines) . The general discussion on"purpose" of tails seemed to stray a bit inspots . A tail doesn't provide any lift to thekite . The function is exclusively drag .However, we should not overlook the factthat a wide tail, as in the case of the socalledcobra kite, provides significanttorque which prevents rolling and sideslipping. We should bear in mind thatsome kinds of tails are just as efficient aslifting devices as the kite, so that stabilitycan be achieved without impairing elevation.Weight need not be detrimental and canbe very beneficial . A properly placedballast of only 5- 7% of the gross weightwill have scarcely a discernible effect onminimum launch velocity . Attitude andelevation will be improved in the sense thatthe acquired stability will permit the optimumbridle connection . Moreover, ballastcan sometimes enable more surface to beutilized in providing lift which more thanoffsets the bit of weight .Usually, in box kites of cells in tandem,the aft cells are behaving pretty much asrigidly connected drogues rather than tails .That is because we don't design properlyor else the desired motif doesn't oblige .The performance of box kites is quite sensitiveto both aspect ratio and spacingof cells .John LoyCochin, IndiaWINGING IT : UPDATEThe story about "Person-Lifting Kites"brought back vivid memories of our ownsimilar activities here in Kitty Hawk beginningabout ten years ago and runningto about four years ago when I began flyinghang gliders at Jockey's Ridge .We used four different all-flexiblewings, each of about 300 square feet ofarea that we made at home, with some helpfrom a dress manufacturer in NewportNews where we then lived . Two of thewings were single-keel designs like theFlexikite and two were twin-keel designs .The materials were two-ounce rip-stopnylon of red, white and blue .We flew many of our friends and relativesin the sea breeze up to heights ofabout 50 feet . Our daughter Carol wasprobably the most frequent flier. I recalltaking one of the twin-keel wings to aMaryland Kite Festival where we tried todemonstrate it by flying our grandsonMike Samuels in a rather turbulent condition,nothing like sea breeze .Although our usual mode of flight wasanchored and in the sea breeze, we madesome flights by boat tow and some freeflights from Jockey's Ridge and other highdunes . The low glide ratio (2 to 3) of theseall-flexible wings and the launching problemsof a completely flexible wing relativeto the now conventional hang gliders,however, were the reasons that we switchedover to gliders with aluminum- tube framesfor foot launching .It's surprising that two-line control has