A few more construction details from LeQuartz

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[Ara Ararauna]

Hi,

I've completed the album of construction of my LeQuartz so that you can appreciate some of the construction details:

[Hadge]

Very, very nicely done, beautiful stitching...you should be proud of that my friend!

One question, on the first picture of the upper spreader, does it have any knotted adjusters on the uphaul line to adjust for wind speed? Or does it have some other way of adjusting...maybe a sliding prussic knot? just curious.

Nice colours...I like green kites.

[Ara Ararauna]

Thanks Steve.
In fact I am really proud. When I see it finished next to my Soul and Talon I really can't believe I did that... 
It took a huge deal of patience and concentration. And at some steps I thought I had messed it up but luckily I had been cautious enough and everything was OK. Only my paranoia that made me think things were going wrong...

Concerning the bridle, I did it exactly as described here: http://www.tweelijners.com/tom/tomskitesite-en/KBB5.html
So all the knots are exactly the same.
Except for the pigtails at the spine end of the inhaul, where I added an extra knot 1cm closer to the spine from the original ones to try to change the length of the inhaul as you suggested.
This morning I tried it and I didn't notice any apparent change whether the inhaul's larkshead was placed at the first or last pigtail... :-?

I also read the web site that you suggested to me about the design and construction of bridles. I read all about the "sweet spot".
So I checked where my tow point was falling when "projected" onto the sail. It was not in the centre of the outer panel. It is much closer to the leading edge.
So before touching anything I thought to myself: "where are the tow points in my Soul and Talon placed?", to compare...
I saw they have their tow points also much closer to the leading edge than to the centre of the outer sail panel...
In other words, they do not respect the "sweet point" theory and they are placed much more "open" (away from the spine). But they fly like angels!
So I'm now lost again.

However, I also thought the following (doing a lot of thinking lately as you can see    )
If weight is placed to help tricks that need rolls, then perhaps I had too much weight on the LeQuartz... I had 10grams whereas the Soul only has 6gr. From 6 to 10 we have +150% of weight.
So I made a 5gr weight and changed it in LeQuartz.
I went out to test it in the afternoon and guess what... no wind. Zero wind... argh! 
So I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see whether that makes any difference...

Cheers.

[Hadge]

I've just read through the bridle instructions on Tom's site and I can now see how the adjustment works.  It is the same as my HQ Jive. The uphaul and outhaul lines are one piece on bridle line fixed to the leading edge.  The inhaul line is attached to the uphaul/outhaul with a prussic knot which is locked into place. To adjust for wind you pull the uphaul/inhaul line either side of the prussic knot to loosen it and then move it up or down the up/outhaul line a couple of cm and pull the knot to lock it down again. My Jive uses the same system and it works well.

Try it without the weight - my Pulsar came with a 14grm weight and flew terribly, I took the weight out and it was a different kite!

Bad day yesterday, I was flying the Pulsar in some gusty wind and one of the lower spreaders came out of the LE fitting. I managed to land it, but before I could get to it the wind rolled it and put the spreader through the sail!! ... I've fixed it with tape, but I'm still annoyed

[Ara Ararauna]

Ok about the bridle.
So that means that for low winds I slide the prusic knot up the uphaul to bring the nose towards me and for high winds I slide it down the outhaul to push the nose away, right?

For the weight I'll try both with 5gr and without weight. I'll tell you what the results are.

Shoot! Really bad luck about your pulsar...   
I hope you can fix it well.
Which tape did you use for the provisional repair?

[Ara Ararauna]

EUREKA!

I just tested the kite with the 5gr weight (instead of 10gr) in a light but constant breeze and it flies sweet!!!!   

I not only managed to do the half-axels and axels without tip wraps, but I also did a few almost full 540s. No unwanted yoyos and the kite does not swing back and forth when the wind suddenly drops. I can also recover from bad moves in mid air much easily without it inevitably falling to the ground.
And I even managed to do 5 Lazy Susans which I had never been able to do so well (with the other kites I used to do them by chance and here the 5 I did completely willing).

So I'm now really happy with my new kite. I was starting to get quite anxious about having done something wrong in the construction process or about having chosen a "not so good" kite.
But now I'm delighted. I can now say LeQuartz is fully incorporated in my bag.

Thanks all for your comments and support, and especial thanks go to Steve (Hadge)!   
Cheers.

[Krijn]

I'm happy for you!

 

[Hadge]

Ok about the bridle.
So that means that for low winds I slide the prusic knot up the uphaul to bring the nose towards me and for high winds I slide it down the outhaul to push the nose away, right?

For the weight I'll try both with 5gr and without weight. I'll tell you what the results are.

Shoot! Really bad luck about your pulsar...   
I hope you can fix it well.
Which tape did you use for the provisional repair?

Yes thats right, it's a good adjustment system that works well.  I made a couple of marks on the bridle above and below 'centre' mark as a guide.

It's amazing how much difference just a small amount of weight can make, glad you've got it sorted out!

I've used 'moonie' clear repair tape on the sail - the tear is 'T' shaped along the grid lines of the icarex about 2cm long- too big to use superglue. The tape has made a very strong repair and cannot be seen when the kite is in the air only close up.....I'm still annoyed!

[Wayner]

Love the colors on your new kite.

Stunning construction detail.

Glad to hear you got her all sorted out.

Looking forward to a video soon. 

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