The Art of Bridling Soft Kites

Presented by Tony Killip, Wataga, IL

TYPE OF CLASS: Theory Class

CLASS SIZE: 15

SKILL LEVEL: All Skill Levels

CLASS LENGTH: Half Day Project

TIMES OFFERED: Offered Once

DISCUSSION/THEORY CLASS---PRESENTED ONCE!

THEORY CLASS-- No Cost

Tony Killip The Art of Bridling Soft Kites

Description

Join the Midwest undisputed Bridle Whisperer as he lets you in on how to properly bridle new soft kites and more importantly, rebridle problem soft kites.

Tony will share concepts and techniques he commonly uses on many soft kites and handy hints for correcting bridles on FlowForms or commercial Pilots (Gomberg Pilots 50 and/or 90 FlowForms)

If you have a problem with a soft kite, you are welcome to bring it as a class example for Tony to work his magic.

The Class will include:

1. Kite bridling – How to calculate bridle length for a new kite or the re-bridling of an older kite. The difference between flat rigged and crown rigged kites.

2. Why you may need to re-bridle a kite.

3. How to tune a kite, you should never have to tune a new kite an older kite maybe. But I’ll cover that subject.

4. Also will discuss how a kite tail can make your kite fly with a tilt.

5. Design creep – What is it?

6. Why that kite you bought didn’t fly. I want to discuss kites produced by GKPI. I will talk about the Gomberg pilot 50 and 90 they had bridling problems; tuning is a waste of time without a re-bridle then a gentle tuning and they fly great. I have fixed many of these kites. Next up I will discuss the Gomberg floform 60, a prime example of design creep. Bridling problems could be corrected but the basic build of the sail or canopy was haphazard and not always correctable. The Gomberg 125 was a great kite, go figure. The 252 version WOW. A couple of big problems like the 60, the big 450 had similar problems to the 60. I will cover the problems with these kites and what to look for on your kite if you have one that does not fly and hopefully be able to fix it.

7. Tuning pilot kites, if needed, try before re-bridling if bridles look ok.

8. Of course, there are other kites out there that have problems so if you have a kite with problems let me know.

9. Inflatable kites, why yours may not inflate or parts of it do not inflate.

10. If you have any topic or question you would like covered let me know and I will try to cover

11. If you have a kite that does not fly or has flying problems bring it along and time permitting, we can take a look at it and maybe figure out what might be wrong. Sort of a class show and tell.

12. I will have a couple of handouts that may be useful to you in the future. You may want to bring along a tape measure and a protractor if you bring a kite in. Maybe some bridle line.

13. And time permitting we can go over flo-form kite building.

Supplies/Equipment Needed for class -- Camera or video phone, pen and notebook.