Design of a Rev II Style Indoor Quad
As many of you guys know, I always have crazy ideas about quad kites. At the indoor competition in Leipzig (Germany) in 2003 I was so amazed about the selfmade indoor quadline kite of Nico Low ( a rev style kite ).
So I sat down and planned to build my own rev II style kite for indoor and super ultra light winds.
Christian (User: Milindur of www.Drachenforum.net) was interested in building a indoor Quad too.
We both already have flown the original Rev 1.5 SLE and Revolution Indoor, which both dissapointed us for indoor usage. Christian was much faster in the construction of the kite and so he build the first prototype with my ideas and thoughts.
First of all I thought about :
What is nice on the available Revs and whats not ?
So I came to this:
The original indoor rev from Revolution is far so soft. Even for indoor usage, the leading edge is bending too much, which does not allow the typical progressive and radical european indoor kite flying style. The other thing is that the handles are quite large and not so handy, because the Indoor Rev has no Bridle attached.
Nico’s Rev style kite was so super easy to fly. Much less foot work than an original Indoor rev, but Nico was flying with Skyshark P7 in the leading Edge and P100 in the verticals, which is definately heavier. So having a stiff framing helps alot when flying indoor.
The worst thing when flying a Rev indoor is that you are often landing the kite and lines getting wrapped around a spar. Thats even more frustrating when you are currently learning to fly indoor.
Three points to fix:
1. Linewraps:
If you are flying indoor the kite should be smooth and does not have parts around it, where lines could wrap around it.
2. Gliding Capability:
When flying indoor or outdoor at near zero wind, the kite must have as much sail area as possible. the Wingspan of 2 meters is great, when you have sport halls that are just 5 meter high. Flying a 2,50 meter kite makes it nearly impossible to make a curve without spinning.
3. Frames should not bend:
Because the stiff framing and using a bridle to stabilize, helps alot to make the kite as stiff as possible.
1. Avoiding wraps That’s a job for me :-)
Why not doing something thats already done at the dual line kites ?
Thats it!
Get these overhang stuff away thats causing the wraps.
Since I don’t wanna use rubber bands, I solved the vertical spar problem like this:
A Velcro Band at the lower edge of the leading edge is holding the spar. Then a fixing tunnel is holding the vertical in place. At the bottom of the kites triangles I made a small rubberband bag which is a bit bend when the spar is inside. (So the sail is getting tensioned over this way).
The Bridle attachment on the verticals will be passed through some holes in the sail.
2. Sail-Area
Thats quite easy, we just raised the middle of the kite a bit larger so that the sail catches more air. We made the middle of the sail 36 cm and the outter two triangle around 70 cm.
The sail should help when flying indoor and at zero wind outdoor that the foot work of the pilot is very low.
3. Holding the kite stiff.
The absolute no no is to fly without a bridle. So we attached a bridle which let you use small handles, which are very handy and give the whole kite stability.
The bridle allows you to multiply your handle motion, so smaller handles can be used. When you are experimenting with your own bridle setup, you can increase the motion multiplier by moving the upper and lower tow points together.
The Framing should be as stiff as possible. Don’t think too much about weight, because thats not really an issue on a quad line kites. Skyshark 7P, P400 or Dynamic D15, D18 or D20 are very useful for the leading Edge. I believe some strong Avia GForce spars could be fine too. The verticals we used are Skyshark P100.
Finaly:
The first tests have proven: at the verticals you have no wraps anymore. Controlling the kite from the slightly changed attachment point does not harm the control. With the strong framing and the quite large sail, the indoor flying is very easy.
That kite prototype already makes fun ;-)
Things to do:
Since the first testfly works fine, we will change the leading edge with a smoother coverage which will be made of a combination of Velcro and the already used rubberband.
The lower corner of the triangles will be rounded and will get a little reinforcement, so that the kite can land on the two verticals without wearing out the sail fabric.
The upper bridle attachment will be changed to fix the vertical and leading edge spar and we will try out the new dynamic bridle setup for Revolution 1, 1.5 and II’s, which is published in the spanish kite forum . That dynamic bridle is already test flown by several rev kiters and the precision and the backward flying got very improved.
The End:
We are not ready the with creation of the smooth quad, but we are already happy to see how good it’s working.
Especially if you are building Revolution style kites privately on your own. Don’t copy the original ones, but try out ideas on yourself. In the quad line area nearly everything is working and only over that way the quad line scene will evolve.
If you know that an original indoor Rev, Rev 1.5 SLE, or one of the other real good kites from revolution kites is the best for you, then go buy one from revolution instead of looking for kite building plans.
Any requests for kite plans will be rejected by myself.
To the Revolution Team: Please don’t see my Rev II mod project as a flame war. I met you guys (and girl ;) in january 2003 at the KTAI and I know you are the good ones. The european rev community is very progressive and flying quads indoor is not similar to the smooth flying, what we see in videos coming from the states. Flying hard tricks forces us to create our own kites.
If you like some of my ideas, please get in contact with me. We all would have our benefits, when the revolution kites are fitting better to the market needs.
The very last thing:
Thanks to Nico for letting my fly his rev style of kite and getting answers on framing and shaping questions.
Thanks to Milindur (from the german Drachenforum) that he starts building the first quad based on my ideas and let us modify his kite till it’s in a way we like it.
Thanks to Arne, who worked a whole night to get the first prototype done.
[...] To be continued ( By sure ! )