From: jburka@Glue.umd.edu (Jeffrey C. Burka) Newsgroups: rec.kites Subject: Re: rev II sul Date: 25 Jan 1995 20:16:05 -0500 Organization: Project Glue, University of Maryland, College Park Lines: 109 Message-ID: <3g6t4l$el0@geog20.umd.edu> References: <3g24p5$9fb@geog20.umd.edu>NNTP-Posting-Host: geog20.umd.edu In article , >I've notice that Jeffery Burka made an indoor Rev II.. Any suggestion on the >materials that should be used or how to work with mylar?? My indoor Rev (which makes an extremely brief appearance in the Wildwood video -- the only red and black rev flying in any of the indoor segments... ;-) The kite is made from 1/2oz Icarex on SkyShark IIp sticks. It uses standard plastic endcaps, light-weight bungees (see below), 1.5oz nylon leading edge, and kevlar and heavy dacron reinforcements. It *is* vented, with the normal fiberglass screen door material seen on stock Rev's. It is not bridled. The kite weighs just slightly over 3oz. The triangular reinforcements in the bottom tips were shortened a bit, and the 4 reinforcements along the leading edge were made a bit more narrow. These 4 reinforcements were also only a single layer of dacron, not doubled as on stock kites. These slight trimmings probably weren't necessary, but it made me feel less guilty about the two-panel sail with 3 pieces of applique'. Usually on my Rev's I do a single fold hem on the outside trailing edges and a double fold (rolled) hem on the inside trailing edges (I find they flutter more than the outside edges...). The indoor kite has a single fold hem all the way around. I've heard a lot of people question whether or not the screen is necessary at all on a Rev II, and especially on an indoor kite (on which the screen adds a bunch of weight, never mind the reduced sail area). My answers to this are: a) Having flown the kite for an extended period (2.5 hours, thursday evening at the convention), I'm convinced that it's *plenty* light. b) I love the way my Rev's glide. I prefer my own handmade kites to any other Rev II I've ever flown. I have no idea what effect the extra weight and lack of sail along that inch+ just below the leading edge spar is, aerodynamically speaking, but I see no reason to muck around with what works. Simply trying somebody else's unscreened Rev II won't convince me, because my kites fly a bit differently. And I've not had the time, money, or frankly felt the need to make an unscreened kite. A note on bungee attachment: My bugee attachment method is based largely on info gleaned from Lee Sedgewick, with some help from Ron Young. It involves drilling a couple of holes in your endcaps. ____ a | | b __ c | | | | | | d a is the solid top of the end cap. b is the hole through which the bungee passes in a normal attachment c is the solid bit that the spar butts up against. d is the open end that you fit over the spar. I drill two holes in this cap. The first hole, made with a fairly large bit (slightly larger than your bungee) is made in the center of c. To drill this hole, put the cap in a vice and push the drill through opening d until you drill through layer c. The second hole is for your towpoint line. Using a much smaller drill bit, I go through the first hole I've drilled, and drill through layer a. You can also go directly from the top, but the bit tends to skitter a bit and my holes come out better if I do both through the opend end of the cap. To attach the bungee, I tie a knot maybe a 1/2"-3/4" from one end (and leave the tail on) and then push the other end through opening d and through the large drilled hole. With a pair of pliers, I then pull this end out through opening b and pull the bungee until the knot is flush with the inside of d. A little bit of the tail of the bungee should stick out past the cap opening. After the bungee is attached to the cap, I make the line attachment. I use 80# dacron line in short lengths. After melting the ends, I tie a rather large knot at one end and then feed the free end in through the side at b and up through the hole drilled in a. I then measure a distance from the surface of the cap (usually 1") and then tie an over hand knot around which to larkshead the flying line. It's easiest to do this before the endcap is tied to the kite. To attach the bungee'd caps to the kite, I pass the free end of the bungee through a single hold on the surface of the sail and tie an overhand knot on the back such that the sail is taut. The tail from this knot is trimmed (and the end melted) to reduce the danger of catching a line during 3-d work. Overall, I've found this to be very successful. I've been doing it in one for or another for about a year and a half. If the kite will never get a bridle, just add the second hole and attachment points to four caps. However, I often to do this treatment on all 6 endcaps. When I make Rev II bridles (out of old 150# spectra, which is very easy to work with), I shorten all attachment legs by 2", and then use 2" attachment lines on my endcaps. This gives me a sort of "quick release" bridle, which I can put on or take off in about a minute. This is great on kites which may occasionally see higher winds or which sometimes serve as the lead for a train. Jeff -- |Jeffrey C. Burka | Pithy, insightful quote to be inserted | | | when one occurs to me. *If* one occurs | |jeffy@glue.umd.edu | to me.