Kite Making FAQ

Why bother making your own kite?

Because I want to find out how they work, and try out different designs, and end up with the sense of flying something that is mine!

It will end up being more expensive than something you can buy

Possibly, or possibly not - it depends on what you build, what materials you use, and what you are doing it for. If you have to buy all the spars for a kite it will become expensive (buying the 5 spars for a Revolution EXP will cost around £40 for a Revolution 1.5SLE around £70). Same if you use expensive fabrics such as Icarex at £10 per square meter, rather than cheap ripstop nylon at £4 per square meter. However if you are building a new sail for an existing kite it will be substantially less.

It won't fly as well as a 'proper' kite

Again that may, or may not be true. Unless you are a) very gifted at sewing and/or b) have loads of experience of kite making what you produce may well not fly as well as a 'proper' kite. It depends what you are making. If you are trying to make a Revolution kite using 6mm standard carbon fibre spars to keep the cost down I bet it won't perform in the same way as the genuine (and much more expensive) Revolution spars. But it will still work & you probably have something different anyway.....

Anyway you can't sew, can you?

No I can't. That is until 30 minutes after having my first go with a sewing machine. I might not be good, but it's not that hard. Anyway you can't fly a kite until you try - don't let no sewing skills put you off. Borrow someone's machine, or buy a basic old one second hand (I paid £40 for mine - you may get lucky and get one cheaper), and have a go. Two days after buying mine I got fed up with sewing fragments of fabric together so started sewing the actual kite panels I had already cut. Much to my surprise they don't look that bad!

If you go into a shop and ask about sewing machines won't they think it's a bit, well, silly?

Yep. But then so is standing in a field with a kite (especially in winter). If you don't want to look silly go and do something else. My local sewing machine shop was very helpful once I had explained about what I wanted to do. I think they were more interested then anything else.

OK sounds good - but how do I start?

At the risk of being controversial I would suggest copying a simple kite you already own. But read my thoughts on this first & understand the moral and legal issues surrounding this - as I found out it is a difficult area and other kite fliers/makers have very strong views on this subject! I did this with my Revolution EXP since I knew how it flew. Therefore when I fly my new sail that I have made I have something to compare it against, I also have the expensive parts already (the spars, lines & handles) and I can work out the tricky bits by looking at the original. Alternatively get a book - 'Stunt Kites to make and Fly' has some plans and tips in, and searching on the Internet will find a load of sites (looking a kite-plans.com is a good starting place).

So is it legal to do this?

As I said above - read & think about the legal & moral issues. The bottom line is: if it's a published plan then it should be OK for personal use legally (assuming the published plan is OK of course), if it's your own design then it's OK (again assuming what you have designed is original and not already covered by patents), but if you are copying a commercial kite design without permission it's not. So if you are really that worried then don't risk it. But then you can't copy that CD for listening to in the car can you? Or keep using that 30 day evaluation copy of WinZip you downloaded last year? And so on.

What do I need?

A simple electric sewing machine (just a simple straight stitch is fine - but one that does a zig-zag is even better), long straight metal ruler, sharp craft knife, glue, pencil, and possibly something to hot cut fabric (that is melts the cloth as it's cutting, rather than just cutting - an old soldering iron with the tip filed down sill do this). You also need sail material (ripstop nylon or similar), spars, fittings, bridle lines, and other bits and pieces to actually fashion into a kite. You need an largish table to work on and loads of time!

And a design for a kite might be useful.