advice required; portability of sled?

[mati97]

hi, everybody; please help a novice; i want a kite to lift a radio antenna wire while i'm out and about on foot; i understand that a parafoil would be the most portable, having no spars; but what about a sled (+drogue)? how easily removable are the spars? and along which axis would the spars be fitted? (that would tell me how long they might be; i would be able to carry spars on the outside of my rucksack, if they were not too long) and, not to deviate too far from the soft kite theme, how easy is it in general to assemble/disassemble a framed kite in the field? thanks for reading

[PeterB]

Welcome to the forum. Many of sleds on the market (e.g Premier) have spars running front to back which are flexible. Here's a picture of one.



The spars are flexible enough to double over as the kite itself fits into the drogue which happens to also act as the bag.

Don't forget that by using kites for radio work you'll be following in the steps of Marconi and Bell. In fact Alexander Graham Bell invented the Tetrahedral kite for this very purpose.

You may also be interested in this although I'm sure there's plenty of other relevant information out in Googleland

[John Williams]

Go for a flowform as widely used in KAP. The "Becotised" versions are even better:

http://www.kapshop.com/index.php?cPath=3_54

If you want to make your own there are good plans e.g. download plan.

Here's mine:


This one will lift about 350g above 8mph and fits in the small side pocket of my rucksack (same size as a water bike water bottle). In lower winds or with larger payloads a larger kite would be needed e.g. 16sq ft. This would cover most needs in low to moderate winds.

In high winds... don't!

[andrew clarke 341]

Hello mati and welcome to the mkf forum,

Have not been kiting since probably September of last year and only flew a very few times last summer.

This is a project that my mate and myself have both mooted as an idea for a project but never got started.

We are both radio hams and were interested in doing what the "old boys" did many years ago and had thought about making a box kite but using modern materials to replace the old wooden dowels and cotton fabric.

Will watch this post with interest

[mati97]

thanks for the replies; good to know that a sled packs down somewhat; i have been aware of the g4vgo site for some time; lots of information there; thanks for the flowform suggestion and plan; a parafoil's extra portability is attractive, but something is drawing me toward sleds; will one tend to fly at a higher angle than the other? are there any other discriminating tendencies?

as for the radio aspect, the thing that recently got me thinking about kites again was an increase in suburban electronic noise; i wanted to get my radio out in the clear, to remind myself what it's supposed to sound like; since playing with wires in anticipation of going portable, the noise seems to have reduced; but i'm still attracted to the idea of radio pure and simple, outdoors with an efficient wire and low power;

i'll keep this forum posted as to my progress; i'm still open to ideas; if anyone has further tips, please air them;

edit 16:43Z; a kind online retailer just quoted 60x40x2 centimetres for a spiritofair mega sled; the 60 sounds fine; i suppose the 40 and the 2 can be munged into something packable

[Michael Wilkinson]

If you look up Scott Sled in Wikipedia you will find plans for the simplest sort of sled. That is a single flat piece of fabric with two or three spars.

The spars run parallel, longitudinally. That means the sled will roll uo. These are among the simplest kites to make.

[mati97]

http://mashoo.org.uk/radio/antennas/kite_vertical_antenna.php

here's the gear; cheers

[mati97]

http://mashoo.org.uk/radio/antennas/inverted_vee.php

and here's my new kite antenna; best wishes