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New way to use your whole quiver

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 10:10 pm
by MehYam

Re: New way to use your whole quiver

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:01 pm
by buckidge
How's the relaunch?

Re: New way to use your whole quiver

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 10:27 am
by lieutenantglorp
How's the bar pressure? ^^^

Re: New way to use your whole quiver

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 10:45 am
by windstoked
This concept could revolutionize kite design, especially for light wind. Stacking the kites closer for improved responsiveness could be experimented with. Imagine the quicker turning speed of a triple-stacked 5m kite (or 4/5/6) vs a regular 15m. Flotation requirements might be able to be eliminated for 2 of the kites and thus decrease total weight.

Re: New way to use your whole quiver

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 10:52 am
by le noun
Didn't slingshot do a video like this like a year ago?

Re: New way to use your whole quiver

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 11:34 am
by charlie
Back in the day
L.M.G. used to ride with kites stacked.
Did it in light wind.

Re: New way to use your whole quiver

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 7:44 am
by windstoked
Here's a link to a couple vids showing a double stack in action: http://www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kite ... ked-kites/
Look how much more responsive it is than the big kites on that 2nd video.
Here's one where they're stacked tighter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoXlfnVRZvM
Imagine incorporating it into a single unit, with an elongated C-kite combined with a flat LEI.

Re: New way to use your whole quiver

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 7:51 am
by Ron
First time I saw this was 4 years ago in Maui...the Wainman vrew. Cool though.

Re: New way to use your whole quiver

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 9:11 am
by ozchrisb
Yeah the concepts been around for a while :)
Image
Flexifoil's sizing was based around this. Want more power? Add more kites!
Two modern kites are okay, three gets messy. We used to do this with Arcs a bit. If doesn't feel quite as efficient upwind as one big kite. The kites above the top one lagg a little and slow the whole train down. Relaunch is a nightmare and self rescue is, well as bad as you'd expect. It's find for the novelty factor though.

Re: New way to use your whole quiver

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:43 am
by windstoked
ozchrisb wrote:Yeah the concepts been around for a while :)
Image
...It doesn't feel quite as efficient upwind as one big kite. The kites above the top one lagg a little and slow the whole train down. Relaunch is a nightmare and self rescue is, well as bad as you'd expect...
It seems that fusing 2 kites into a single unit would minimize kite lag and self-rescue issues. Relaunch is crucial, but a little yankee ingenuity ought to solve that. Perhaps the closer kite's struts could lay flat on the water so the wind catches the slightly larger distal kite to move it around the window, then when it rolls onto it's side the closer kite would open out for launching.
The advantages of 2 smaller kites are many, not the least of which is the increased pressure they can hold without risk of rupture, thus increasing rigidity and responsiveness. Laplace's law states that the wall tension equals the pressure times the radius, so if you double the leading edge diameter, it can only hold half the pressure without rupturing. In addition, Pascal's principle states that the pressure is equal in all parts of the system, so the struts on a big kite won't have as much pressure as a smaller kite and won't be as rigid.