Where to get a decent kite

[Mosey]

I've bought a few kites in the last few years, usually at Walmart, and they are all junk. They won't stay upright and they fall apart easy. I've been paying $5 to $10. What will I have to pay for a good one and where can I get one?

[Gatorboy]

Here are some links to try:

Coastal Kites
Kites Online
Sun Oak Kites
The Kite Loft

Some good Kite Flying information can be found at: Kites and Kite Flying

Good luck with your search. You will find much better kites at these sites than you can find at Wal*Mart. Prices depend on how elaborate you want to go, but you can find good ones from $20-$50.

[RobS]

Years ago I bought a kite at a place called Kitty Hawk Kites on the outer banks of NC. There is a place in Southern Michigan that sells high end kites (one of the antiqueing towns along US 12). Gatorboy gave some good recommendations too. There must be someplace in B-ton that sells decent kites to all those college students???

Kites are cool [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[wiltat2]

Get one of the stunt kites, they are a blast. I have had one for several years and it is a lot of fun. Mine is a delta wing dual line set up that rocks. [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[GaryM]

I used to buy kites from intothewind: http://www.intothewind.com/

They have kites that run several hundreds of dollars if that's your wish. One of the fist stunt kites I had, and still have, is a Hawaiian Team Kite http://www.intothewind.com/cgi-bin/d...&sql=wing. In a good wind these things will drag you down the field while you sit on your butt.

The Flexifoils are also great kites but can be tricky to launch by yourself. http://www.intothewind.com/cgi-bin/d...2&sql=wing These can be stacked easily to fly two of more at a time. Flying a stack of these will make your arms longer!

[Pat]

One of the most robust kites I ever had was purchased from an Army Navy Surplus store and was a box kite designed to pull a long length of multistrand radio aerial aloft. It was part of a life raft's equipment.

It was easy to assemble and take down again. Its frame was made of high quallity aluminum tubing and the covering was man made cloth, probably Dacron polyester or some such. Not particularly aerobatic but it could be assembled and aloft in seconds and as easily broken down for storage/transport.

We used to put a button or other "stop" along the string. Once the kite has taken a couple hundrred feet of more of string your helper (or you can secure the kite to a stationery object if you are anti-social) put your arm over the string and "walk it down" half way or so to get to the button. You hang a glider, parachute, or... from the string just to the kite side of the button. You then release the button and the kite will rapidly regain its original height. A good long strong yanking and slacking of the string will serve to dislodge the payload (glider, parachute, or...)

Enjoy!

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

Recently I've entertained thoughts of building a kite from poplar wood laminated into an airfoil shape of some weird "Egon Devised" shape. At my rate of project completion this may be a few years down the road.

I do have a 9 foot triangular Kite but haven't flown it in years.

Egon

[Pat]

One of the neatest kites I've seen was an engineless gyrocopter tethered on a long rope in a windy flat area. It was being used for flight training prior to flying a single seat powered gyrocopter.

Unfortunately some erratic bozo pranged it in doing patently stupid things with it. It probably isn't PC of me to say that he hurt his leg in his self induced crash when it may have been better if he had achieved a Darwin award.

Hundreds of people at a dry lake with everything from personal helicopters to hover craft and the only press attention is a bozo who does something stupid in a tethered gyrokite.

Gyrokites (tethered gyrocopter) per se aren't a bad thing if the pilot has an IQ above room temperature and doesn't try dumb things to see what might happen. (We talked to the guy who owned the gyro and was trying to instruct the bozo via a wired intercom up the tether and he was NOT HAPY with the erratic SOB.)

Anyway, if you have enough wind and a long enough rope, these are a lot of fun. They can also be towed, I prefer over land but some fit floats and do it on the water.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

Had the plans for a powered gyrocopter many a year ago but never quite got to the building stage.

Egon

[GaryM]

Hey Pat!

I had that same kite back around 1957 or so. It came packed in a aluminum or fiberglass, don't remember which, tube. The reel of copper cable was mounted to the lid of the tube. There was a thumbscrew that held the lid closed against a rubber gasket. The fabric on mine was kind of an orange color.

I used to fly it at Jones Beach on the Southern shore of Long Island.