"Santa" brought me my new LeQuartz!!!!

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[Ara Ararauna]

Hi!

Finally! I have now my new LeQuartz fully finished and I flew it today for the first time! 



Here you have some images from the construction process (at some point I was so tense and concentrated I completely forgot to take more pictures...)
https://plus.google.com/photos/107184604178095062123/albums/5827053007099493201

And here are some pictures of the finished kite and a short video of the maiden flight:
https://plus.google.com/photos/107184604178095062123/albums/5827058912730569185

However, the wind was not collaborating today...
It was only a gentle breeze that could barely hold the kite up. Moreover it was very irregular very often falling to no wind at all...
So I had to row a lot.
Nonetheless, the kite flew in this little air, so I'm happy with the lower end of the range (it is not a UL in any way though).
In the video you will see an almost 540 towards the end (this is the bait for you to watch one of the most boring videos in history! But it is the FIRST flight of my newly built kite so it has a reason of being...       ).

I really cannot provide an opinion of how it flies due to the wind conditions. It seems to be slow at turning (or slower than my Soul and Talon) but I will be able to better tell when the wind is decent.

I can now REALLY appreciate the difficulty and hours spent in the construction of a dual liner so I can understand the prices of those hand-made kites in the market.
My deepest respect to all of you professional kite-builders.   

At home it has been chaos throughout the process since we do not have sufficient space (let alone a place that could be dedicated) for the construction... So I had to set-up and put away every day or every few hours of working. This was really a drag.

In any case I'm Soooooooooooooooo happy and proud of my first stunt kite build!       

Cheers!

[Krijn]

Congratulations!
Looking good.

Nice workshop, by the way.


Quartz: the best Fade-kite I know.

[Ara Ararauna]

Nice workshop, by the way.

Do you mean the place I went to get the laser cutting or my dining-room 

Congratulations!
Looking good.

Thanks

[NormP]

It looks fantastic............I'm jealous.   

[NormP]

Quartz: the best Fade-kite I know.

Just what you needed.   

[fidelio]

I love your color choices! Congratulations on completing the build.

[kitebug]

excellente, este cometa es uno de mis favoritos!
i have almost flown through my first one, i think its time to build a second!

[Tmadz]

Congratulations Ara. It looks terrific.

[trigger]

Love it!  Enjoy

[Ara Ararauna]

Today the wind was much better.
However, I'm totally puzzled... 

It's as if I were starting to learn to fly all over again!
Apparently the inputs for this new kite are quite different to the inputs my Soul and TalonUL need... 

In the last 6 or 7 months I was not getting any tip wraps with my two previous kites.
With this LeQuartz I'm constantly getting tip wraps and falling to the ground. In fact I very often get both lines wrapped around the same wing tip...   
I'm getting tip wraps even with the half-axels which I can now almost do asleep!

Also I have noticed it doesn't like too much to spin. On the other hand it yoyo's like crazy... 
I was trying to make some 540's just as I do with the Soul or the TalonUL.
With the same inputs, when I pop the line to make it start to spin, it instead yoyos. It is really strange.
I have tried letting it go deeper into the pancake and then pop... nothing, it yoyo's...
I have tried popping immediately after I give slack so that it barely flares... nothing, it yoyo's...
I have tried popping half way the pancake... nothing, it yoyo's...
 

I have also tried to get the kite into a fade by diving, flaring and the fading. When I pop to get the fade, guess what... you got it... it yoyo's!

And it also gets into turtle really easy. Too easy in fact, because I want to start a trick and off it goes into turtle position...   

Do you think I have too much (or too little) weight on the tail of the spine?
I currently have a weight of 10grams made out of 42mm of 10mm diameter copper tube

Other than this I cannot imagine what I'm doing wrong...

I would appreciate feedback from other LeQuartz pilots.
Cheers.

[Ca Ike]

YOu have a balance issue with the kite.  REcheck ALL your frame specs and bridle specs  first.  Most common thing to cause what your describing is spreaders too low and because of that bridle too low.  If all that is right then you need to go over the sail and see if any seam is off. I've flown a couple le quartz and didn't find these issues so I would assume you did something wrong in layup or assembly.

[DWayne]

You just need to move your tow points back a couple of mm. 

Denny

[Hadge]

When I'm setting up a new bridle I like to fit long pigtails to all the attachment points with maybe 8 or 10 knots about 1cm apart.  On the bridle legs I like to leave a long loop. Set the bridle to give the correct (or best guess) length for each leg when the loop is set at the middle knot on each pigtail. Now spend a few hours in the field trying adjustments until you get it flying well.  Once you have the adjustments right, you can then fit shorter pigtails to the outhaul and spine and retie the long loops to suit  or even tie the outhaul/inhaul lengths direct to the frame.

I'm sure you will soon have it sorted out, just some fine tuning.

[Ara Ararauna]

Gee! That sounds daunting! 
I followed Tom's instructions for the bridle and I've checked all the lengths and knots, all the positions of the spreaders, the sail, etc...
Everything is correct.

I really don't understand what Denny means by:

You just need to move your tow points back a couple of mm.

Which tow points and move them which way?

Or you Steve by:

I like to fit long pigtails to all the attachment points with maybe 8 or 10 knots about 1cm apart.

Which pigtails? Where?

or:

On the bridle legs I like to leave a long loop.

Which legs and how are the loops to be made/placed?

I'm so "saturated" of building that I now see this as an extra effort that I really dread to do... 

OK, I'll breath in deep and try it but please give me more details 'cause I'm lost. 
Thanks!

[Hadge]

Hi Ara,  We sometimes get a bit over complicated in our replies!

Ok, the tip wraps are because the kite needs more slack - all kites fly differently and take some getting use to - My Pulsar is the exactly the same and tip wraps really easily because it is a very pitchy kite - sounds like the Le Quartz is similar.

To make the bridle simple - you will almost certainly have to make small adjustments to the bridle to suit the way you fly, it quite normal.  I've had a look at Tom's kite site and if you have made the bridle the same way you can try this - if the kite won't turn or spin easily you might need to shorten the inhaul line.  If you have followed Tom's plan, there should be a knotted pigtail at the spine attachment points. Try moving the loop one or two knots closer to the spine - so instead of the inhaul measuring 62cm shorten it to 60 or 61cm and try it again, it should turn more quickly.

Check this out if you haven't already seen it.

http://www.ian.ourshack.org/kitedesign/bridling.html

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