ok. so in terms of the sail construction (I'll return to the frame once the sail is complete); to catch everyone up, my last significant post regarding the sail was the sewing of the trailing edge.
The next step is to place the leech line. My choice is to use 100lb bridle line, although I have a number of kites that use heavy Spectra/Dyneema. I know bridle line is expensive, but I use it because it is easier to sew in place at the wing tips. (if you plan to use spectra for a leech line, I would recommend looping it around the wing tip nocks as done in the prism zephyr or flying-wings silverfox kites.)
To start, I measure a length of line using the plan... I measure out a single length that equals the distance of the entire trailing edge + the distance from the tip to the center T + about 3 inches of extra to account for any error.
Once cut, whatever line you use will be frayed at the end. Melt the end with a lighter to prevent the line from unraveling.
Now, before you thread the leech line (I use a tapestry needle), you need to cut the tail of the kite just enough for the line to come through. Pictures show tail before and after the cut...
Now thread your leech line through the trailing edge. Work it through from one wing tip to the other. When I get to the tail, I pull a significant amount of slack through the first portion I thread... it makes it easier to work the line through the second half of the trailing edge.
Once the line is threaded through the entire trailing edge, I pull up any slack at the tail so the line is flush with the wing tips. Then I sew in place to look like this at each wingtip.
Here you can see the tail with the leech line coming out. I had to cut the tip a little further back than the previous picture so that I could thread the thick line into my dacron trailing edge.
Thats it for the trailing edge (right now)... about the last thing I do on the sail is sew on the standoff re-enforcements. I don't know why I wait, it's just habit. So I will go over that later. The next post will be a few weeks out again, as I'm officially packing up my kite studio to move to Reno (will leave Seattle on the 1st, so stuff will be in boxes for a while). I've actually finished the sail, and taken all the necessary pictures, so I may be able to put up a few more posts during the transition.
Another big thing (that I hope I can fix without anyone noticing) is that I am loosing the domain space where all of the pictures are stored ... I'll be moving them and updating the posts so hopefully there will never be a time when the pictures won't load; that being said, forgive and bear with me if some of the pictures disappear for a while.
Next post will be sewing on the spine tunnel/tail strap... then I'll move on to the leading edge.
