Wanted Good parafoil or Flowform Plans
Andrew Francis Rumming
and they worked really well. I have now decided i would like to make a
single line parafoil or flowform to lift a few (small) windsocks. I am
finding it difficult to get any plans, and then people are telling some
plans just dont work. Is there anybody out there whos made a really good
foil or who knows of some plans that work, if so i would love to hear
from you, eiter on the e-mail or at my address below,
from Andrew Rumming
Reading University
Whiteknights Road
Reading
Rg6 6gb
Carl Crowell
>Is there anybody out there whos made a really good
>foil or who knows of some plans that work, if so i would love to hear
>from you, eiter on the e-mail or at my address below,
no
____________________________________________________________________
email: ccro...@willamette.edu http://www.willamette.edu/~ccrowell
____________________________________________________________________
The only true freedom is the freedom from the heart, freedom from
passion. I am content in the cell of my mind. When the worms of decay
eat though my skull and set me free, will I then be so content?
____________________________________________________________________
Copyright 1995, Carl Crowell
Kevin Lahey
Andrew Francis Rumming <aaur...@reading.ac.uk> wrote:
> Earlyer this year i built several soft stunt kites from various books
>and they worked really well. I have now decided i would like to make a
>single line parafoil or flowform to lift a few (small) windsocks. I am
>finding it difficult to get any plans, and then people are telling some
>from you, eiter on the e-mail or at my address below,
I've had some success with the plans in Margaret Gregor's _Kites for
Everyone_. There are two flow-form plans in there -- use the second one;
the first one has an airfoil shape that is basicly flat on top and
bottom, and allegedly doesn't fly as well. I scaled up the plan a bit
to build a 16, rather than the 8 or so that is in the book. Check
your dimensions -- the top doesn't scale linearly (as I found out to
my dismay).
I've been working on building the flow-form from Jim Rowland's latest
book (_Soft Kites and Windsocks_? I'm not sure of the title). I've heard
mixed reviews of the kite, but I've got enough parts cut and hemmed by
now that I'm certainly not going to stop! The book also has plenty
of regular foil plans, although I've found it simpler and easier to
build flow-forms...
As Carl so pleasantly reminded us, he has some nice-looking plans for a
flow-form on his web page. I have no idea how good the kite is -- he
doesn't seem to like it much... :-)
Build kite!
Kevin
--
k...@nas.nasa.gov
k...@mathcs.emory.edu
http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~kml/
Jeffrey C. Burka
Kevin Lahey <k...@mathcs.emory.edu> wrote:
>In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.951107...@suma3.reading.ac.uk>,
>Andrew Francis Rumming <aaur...@reading.ac.uk> wrote:
>I've had some success with the plans in Margaret Gregor's _Kites for
>Everyone_. There are two flow-form plans in there -- use the second one;
>the first one has an airfoil shape that is basicly flat on top and
>bottom, and allegedly doesn't fly as well.
Interesting. I don't know anybody who's built a kite based on the 'second'
("FlowForm II") plans. The the II is more closely based on the original
sutton flow form, while the "FlowForm I" is like the slightly modified
version as marketed by Air Affairs. Doesn't Gregor herself suggest that
the I flies better?
I've built 2 8's and 3 16's based on those plans and have been very happy
with the kites.
>I scaled up the plan a bit
>to build a 16, rather than the 8 or so that is in the book. Check
>your dimensions -- the top doesn't scale linearly (as I found out to
>my dismay).
It's very rare to see a flowform that's been scaled directly -- usually the
height of the profile is not scaled linearly.
When buliding a parafoil, it's *always* best to measure the length of the
top edge of your profile template before cutting any fabric. Even if
you're very careful when creating the template, there's a pretty good
chance that that length will be a bit off from the published length.
A couple of years ago I posted to rec.kites a file of difs to use with the
Gregor plans to scale to a 16. I'm not sure if they're in the archives or
not, but I imagine I still have a copy floating around my home
system. I'll have a look for the difs when I go home...
Jeff
--
|Jeffrey C. Burka | Pithy, insightful quote to be inserted when one |
|jbu...@glue.umd.edu | occurs to me. *If* one occurs to me. |
|http://www.wam.umd.edu/~jeffy/html/home.html |
Dan Weinreb
I've been working on building the flow-form from Jim Rowland's latest
book (_Soft Kites and Windsocks_? I'm not sure of the title).
Since I just happen to have a copy next to me: "Soft Kites and
Windsocks", Jim Rowlands, St. Martin's Press 1992. Trade ppb, $15.
First published in Britain as "Kites and Windsocks".
I just got it and haven't built anything from it yet, but it looks
like a very nice book, with extensive directions, good diagrams, etc.
Kevin Lahey
Jeffrey C. Burka <jbu...@Glue.umd.edu> wrote:
>In article <47quf4$t...@cssun.mathcs.emory.edu>,
>Kevin Lahey <k...@mathcs.emory.edu> wrote:
>
>>I've had some success with the plans in Margaret Gregor's _Kites for
>>Everyone_. There are two flow-form plans in there -- use the second one;
>>the first one has an airfoil shape that is basicly flat on top and
>>bottom, and allegedly doesn't fly as well.
>
>Interesting. I don't know anybody who's built a kite based on the 'second'
>("FlowForm II") plans. The the II is more closely based on the original
>sutton flow form, while the "FlowForm I" is like the slightly modified
>version as marketed by Air Affairs. Doesn't Gregor herself suggest that
>the I flies better?
Ooops. I probably got them mixed up -- it has been a couple of years
since I built the kites. I certainly *meant* to point him at the
plans that were similar to the commercial kites.
>I've built 2 8's and 3 16's based on those plans and have been very happy
>with the kites.
I've been very happy with my two 16's -- they still fly pretty well in
most types of winds, and pack up nice and small. I've flown them all
over the country (including my western hemisphere altitude record of -260
[or something like that] in Death Valley).
par...@argonet.co.uk
like me spent many hours making it only to find it won't fly.
We all built them exactly to the book, and the kite is so unstable it
dosn't stay in the air long. I even got Stretch Tucker to try to trim
mine he gave up after half an hour and suggested that instead of scrapping
it, I send it to Jim Rowlands to fix.
It looks good on the front cover of the book, but the photo must have been
taken with a fast shutter before it crashed.
I hope this has saved you some time and money.
Regards Martin Parsons , Avon Kite Flyers. England
--
Martin Parsons par...@argonet.co.uk
Kai Griebenow
Hi,
thanks for the warning! I was going to build that kite this winter as well as some
other parafoils. By the way, does anyone know how the whale flies (also in
that book). And has anyone tried the big Parafoil in the Schimmelpfennig book
"Drachen bauen und steigen lassen"?? How does this fly?
Thanks again,
Kai
Bernhard Malle
> other parafoils. By the way, does anyone know how the whale flies (also in
I know that the "if someone asks for my ultimate kite than I suggest the
flowform"-flowform is also difficult to bridle. Esben Collstrup, Simo Salanne and I have
all built the same flowform with always changing success.
> that book). And has anyone tried the big Parafoil in the Schimmelpfennig book
> "Drachen bauen und steigen lassen"?? How does this fly?
Do not do it!!!!!
Particularly this kite is said to be completely wrong and not very stable.
Hope this helps.
Bernhard
--
+--------------------------------------------+--------------------+
| Bernhard Malle Tel: +49 7305 22203 priv. | Go fly a gecko !! |
| Ulm, Germany Fax: +49 731 505-4210 +--------------------+
| email: Bernhar...@dbag.ulm.daimlerbenz.com |
| WWW: http://derwin.wlu.ca/bm/bernhard.htm |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Mark Pelletier
>
>Don't build the "CROWN-RIGGED RAINBOW". I now have meet two people who
>like me spent many hours making it only to find it won't fly.
> We all built them exactly to the book, and the kite is so unstable it
>dosn't stay in the air long. I even got Stretch Tucker to try to trim
> mine he gave up after half an hour and suggested that instead of
I built the crown-rigged parafoil from Rowland's book with fair
success. Mine was accurately scaled to 72" x 36". I found the
keels in my scaled version to be way too small (IMHO) and the
bridle way too low.
I did not enlarge the keels but I did move the bridle point up.
Bridling is fairly easy with a crown-rigged parafoil as the lines
for each row of keels are the same length...moving the bridle
point up only involves shortening/lengthening an intermediate
bridle to the keel-line bundle for each row.
I do agree that this kite is not nearly as stable as the one I
built from Maxwell Eden's book "Kiteworks", which has a flat face.
The crown-rig needs a substantial tail/drogue, where Eden's only
needs a small one in heavy winds.
I've noticed the crown-rig seems to have two equilibrium points;
the first one is at about 40deg and the second (with a little
pumping) is closer to 60deg. Could be due to many factors. I
plan to rebridle this guy with much lighter bridle lines (I have
28 lines of 100lb dacron - overkill). I'm hoping this will
lighten-up the kite a little. and improve its wind range.
See ya'
Mark
Andrew Beattie
>Don't build the "CROWN-RIGGED RAINBOW".
This seems to come up from time to time, with exortations not to build
this parafoil or that flowform, just to be met with comments from
other builders who say that it worked fine for them. Maybe we're not
learning the right lessons here...
Are the designers building production kites directly from the published
plans and seeing them fly perfectly first time? I doubt it. They'll have
rigs to cut and build from. The kite will change organicaly every time
they build it. Look for example at Nop's Pirana in SKII. The bridle
in the plans has a *completely* different bridle to the picture on the
cover. The Lynn display fliers talk about new octopuses and other animals
being babies - They have a detailed manual describing how to bridle them,
and computers to help them get the configuration for new designs correct,
yet still they need time in the air to check and to tune each one.
Maybe adjusting these things is simply difficult. I'm certainly aware
of how little I understand of the different forms of instability and
the ways that the bridle and drogue adjustments can affect it. I think
that it would be more accurate to say "don't build a parafoil unless you're
willing to put a lot of time and effort into learning the craft..."
I'm still distressingly close to the bottom of that learning curve, but
it looks line an interesting and worthwhile climb.
Andrew
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