CASVE-1

- A Handmade Dual Line Sports Kite -
with Traditional-style Painting

In Japan, a kite has been made using bamboo and paper for a long time. I also used to make kites of a traditional style in my school days. Even now, bamboo and paper are important materials for kites. Several months ago, I purchased the rods of bamboo for a gardening. I found it is very light and has toughness, so they can be used to make a sports kite. I started trying to make a bamboo-framed sports kite, and fly it.

Main feature:

• Almost full size kite.
• Using materials of reasonable price.
  • Spars of Bamboo rods.
  • Sail of TYVEK-like house wrapping sheet.
• Japanese traditional-style painting.
• Not A bit heavy but performance is acceptable enough.

Spec:

• Wing Span : 244cm
• Height: 109cm
• Weight: Approximately 500g (not correctly measured yet)
• Wind Range : 2m/s - 5? m/s

Flight Characteristics:

• Straight tracking - Very good.
  
• Speed - Very slow.
  
• Turn / Spin - Not best. but easy to control.
  
• Trick - Maybe good. For a stall/axel, the easiest kite of my own.
  (Shadow Phantom / Scorpion, and some TOTL's)
  Other tricks ? I can't. ( I have'nt trick skills. )

Materials:

Some of the materials described below are hard to obtain outside of Japan. Please search for the alternatives around you.

• Bamboo rods with a diameter of 8-10mm
  - 160cm (80cm x2) x2 [ for leading edge ]
  - 80cm x2 [ for bottom spreader ]
  - 50cm x1 [ for top spreader ]
  - 105cm x1 [ for spine ]
  
• SEKISUI TSUYU-GARD House wrapping sheet 1m(width) x 2.6m [for sail]
  - TYVEK-like waterproof sheet.(maybe 80 g/m^2).
  
• Aluminum pipe 12mm(outer diameter) x 15cm [for leading edge connector, T-connector]
• Vinyl tube.
  - 9mm(inner diameter) x 30cm [ for connectors ]
  - 4mm(inner diameter) x 10cm [ for wisker holders]
  
• Polyester inside belt 50mm(width) x 100 cm [ nose gard, connector gard ]
  - Also called "fusible interlining" fablic tape, Used often for making hats. Glued at sigle side, and it can bond to a cloth with iron.
• Fragments of 200lb spectra line [ for bridle ]
• Bamboo skewers 25cm x 4 [ for wiskers ]
• Double-sided tape 5mm(width) for polyethylene or polyester materials.
• shock codes, edge fook, rubber bands, etc, ...

made of bamboo spars(before painting)

Kite Plans:

• Sail outline
• Sail finished
• Framing
  * values are desribed in mm.

Bridle:

I'm not a bridle expert. So, these length are not the ones of best-tuned, but acceptable for me.
Each length are measured from connector to tow point.(measured on kite)

• a) 3 poit (static) bridle
  • Upper leg: 60.0cm
  • Outer leg: 70.5cm
  • Inner leg: 73.0cm
  
  
• b) Andy Wardley's Dihedral Active Bridle
  • Upper Leg : 59.0cm
  • Outer Leg : 71.5cm
  • Inner Leg : 73.0cm
  • Pitch Activator (Upper-Inner)
    -- Distance: 22.0cm (end to end 27.0cm)
    -- from tow point: 30.0cm
    
  • Cross Activator (Inner-Outer)
    -- Distance: 6.0cm (end to end 11.0cm)
    -- from tow point: 9.0cm
    

Painting:

I'd used color marking pens.

• 1) Wash out the product name (this task takes the most part of making this kite--about 10 days!),
• 2) Draw a picture with pencil on a letter size paper,
• 3) Enlarge it to a larger paper,
• 4) Trace with marking pen on kite sail.

Special thanks to:

Mr.Notoya / Mr.Fuse / Shuno

by CASVEKITE