Why Kites...

[Thumper2]

RDM is out driving his new car or should we say his womens new car? He will have to get it out for a road trip so he maybe past soon!! It is a pretty tiny car!! Almost like the flintstone type!

[Winnie]

OK so I''m bored...

I bought a kite the other day at Canadian tire, an inexpensive one for Canada day, so here is the technical question:

Why in the name of something, does the kite accelerate when there is a gust of wind?

I am an instructor and I guess I should know, but it is still mind boggling.

We fed the line out a afir bit, got the kite airborne, and she would lag downwind a little, but as soon as the wind picked up, the kite seemed to accelerate to a more vertical position. Does anyone on this forum of the knowledged people have any ideas?

 

I''d be happy for any cool conclusions.

Oh, the reason for being bored, is that we are waiting for RDM to come visit again, so that he can administer another one of those test to one of my students.

[407 Driver]

Winnie old boy, just a gut feeling here, but perhaps you should lay off on the MEK Sniffing for a while???

[Commodore64]

To answer the question, my guess would be it''s a combination of lift and centripital or was it centrifugal acceleration, since the kite''s path is an arc. I dunno... that''s my take on it.

[RDM]

First off............Winnie, I agree with 407 get of the glue man, sheesh find a hobby, oops that''s right ya got one "flying kites"

 

Thumper.............bite me, shouldn''t you be being helpful to the Capt like by getting coffee or something and and about the car, remeber size dosen''t matter

 

Hey 407...........one of your Alpine brethren is here in Sin city gettin married, a bunch of us were out last night with him for his "last night out" party, wasn''t a pretty picture

 

[RotorPilot]

Hi Winnie

 

QUOTE

I am an instructor and I guess I should know, but it is still mind boggling.

UNQUOTE

 

I agree with you. You should know !!!

 

The lifting force of all kites is produced by deflecting the air downward, the resulting change in momentum producing an upward force. The reason for this is that the air traveling over the top of the curved surface of the kite is going faster than the air passing underneath. Fast-moving air creates less pressure; this means there is more pressure underneath the kite, and this helps to force it upwards. (you did read this in your manuals didn’t you, when they where showing how the air flows around the wing…)

Think of the kite as a wing. The air tries to push the kite along. But the string the flyer holds keeps the kite tethered. Since the kite cannot go with the wind flow and the kite is tilted so that the air is deflected downward, with the increase in lift provoked by the increase in the wind’s speed, the kite has no where to go but up.

Both the lift-to-drag ratio and the stability of the kite are functions of the length of cable. The more cable released, the more drag created. That’s why when you want the kite to go up with slower winds, you also reduce the length of the cable and run, to reduce drag and, at the same time, increasing the wind’s flow speed for some extra lift

The only reason for your question is either you are joking or didn’t have your coffee this morning or you are too lazy today to think about it

 

I flew lots of the stuff when I was a kid but had all kites built by myself... Fighter kites included and bigger than me at the time

[RotorPilot]

Winnie

 

Since you are so bored, is here something for you.

Try to break this one

 

 

A Delta Kite Did It

New World Record, 14509 feet above the soles of our feet.

On Saturday, August 12, 2000, at 17:44 EDT, a high tech delta, having 270 square feet of nylon kite skin, measuring 30 feet from wing tip to wing tip, and 18 feet tall, sporting hollow fiberglass spars 1.5 inches in diameter, flying on 270 pound woven Kevlar line 3/32 inch in diameter, flew from a flying field in Kincardine, Ontario, 860 feet above sea level, N44 degrees, 13 minutes and 08 seconds/ W81 degrees, 31 minutes, 41.2 seconds, to a height of 14,509 feet above the flying field, thereby establishing a new world record for altitude of a single kite on a single string. (previous record 12,471 feet, set by Henry Helm Clayton and A.E. Sweetland, in 1896 at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, south of Boston.

 

I wonder if TC knew about this "flight "

[412driver]

all i know is that those #$%^$%$ kites fly at over a 1000'' in SE Asia constantly. the locals use steel wire because the things are so huge!!!!! you fly there in fear everytime center would instruct you to descend!!!

[MINI]

Hey Winnie.If Your really bored try driving down the road really fast and sticking your hand out the window.You can vary the angle of attack or is that the angle of incidence and with varing the speed you can see what happens.Just like your kite or airplane wings.If your s300 is fast enough you could try sticking your hand out the window of that as well

[Winnie]

Rotor Pilot:

But there is only one thing, the kite is not nose down, it is nose up, thus shouln''t the lift vector point up and back, not up and forward? Anyways, seems like people woke up, to answer, even though the others were about RDM''s new car.

But the string is only a minor part isn''t it, and I also noted that if you pull ont hte string, that also make it accelerate, suppose that has to do with lift/weigh/load factor as well.

Guess I was trying to think too hard about it!

Well, one thing is for sure, my kite won''t even make it to 200 feet above the aerodrome, but it sure is fun!!

 

407D:

They won''t even let me look at the MEK bottle, let alone sniff it!

 

Thumper2:

I though everybody down in YYT drove minivans, not cars, atleast that is what it seemed like when I visited in my Giant Scweizer a few weeks ago

 

 

 

RDM, I guess we have a test coming up in wekk and a half, as the maintenance will only take 3-4 days, and goes in on monday morning. Will give you a call today or tomorrow.