Thanks for all the input on the idea of limiting the ways of rigging kites, hopefully to only one correct way. A lot of good ideas and comments have come it. The point that careful preflighting is still needed is absolutely correct. In much the way you checked your car's gas level you figure you are ok, but have you checked the oil level in the last year? It is all the preparation.
The last photo series titled "No More Painful Kite Rigging Mistakes ...", located at:
phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=3684&forum=1
was a starting point. The crude, rapidly assembled design had shortcomings as might be expected for a discussion piece. A key problem with the original approach was that riders could easily defeat the limitation of "only one way to rig" by undoing some of the adaptors and attachments.
So, the next version, that is also a discussion piece and starting point for other improvements, can't be as easily untied. It still relies on connecting "like with like" to help differentiate the leading and trailing edge connections. At least the critical trailing edge connections MAY be a bit more certain. It is still possible to misconnect the front and backlines but hopefully the dissimilar lines may help to avoid this. More improvement is needed in this aspect. Also, I have tried to take the AirBlast specific considerations out of it, discarding the manufacturer supplied pigtail extensions and ignoring the trailing edge pulleys. So, this approach should work with a lot more different kites as shown. As before, some four line inflatable kites, I am told anyway, don't fly as well with tight leading edge and loose trailing edge lines. So you need to tune and adjust this as appropriate for your kites.
So please check it out and continue to send in your ideas and comments. For those that question the need for all of this, think of it as a safety rail. If you walk carefully, aren't pushed and don't make mistakes safety rails shouldn't be needed. Then again, stuff happens so lets use the safety rails and while we're at it, why not something like polar kite connections. Like a lot of safey stuff for kiteboarding , it is for just in case.
Photo 1:
This photo shows all four flying lines with the respective attachments. The pigtail extension is larksheaded in place and should not be easily undone as are the other connections. The leading edge nylon loops should be the same length and in reality are pretty close but don't look that way in this photo.
Photo 2:
The two leading edge attachments are identical. The reason for this is that it shouldn't matter on most four line inflatables if you mix the two leading edge lines up with one another. It is important to use heavier line, I used 1/8 " nylon to help avoid rigging errors. The rule is to rig heavy line with heavy line.
Photo 3:
The is a view of the left trailing edge components. The Q Line pigtail extension is larksheaded on to the flight line. .
Photo 4:
Here are the left trailing edge connections in place. To aid in making this system more fool proof this approach relies on using substantially different line diameters for leading and trailing edge line connections. In this case thinner, Q line is used.
Photo 5:
A view of the right trailing edge components. In this one case, the flight line is unmodified.
Photo 6:
A view of the connected components of the trailing edge, right side.
Photo 7:
The is a view of two homemade trailing edge pigtail extensions and two factory supplied ones. They are quite easy to make.
So this is the second of many possible "polar" or fixed way of connecting flight lines to the kite. There has to be dozens of other ones possible and many no doubt better. So have at it, make your own and tell us how it works out. One thing is for sure, the longer all of us continue to use the existing color coded systems the more avoidable, serious incidents, accidents and injuries will result. We all still need to carefully preflight out gear. The fixed line polarity concept is only a simplifying aid but is no substitute for basic precautions during setup and launching.
FKA, Inc.
transcribed by:
Rick Iossi
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: RickI on 2002-11-21 19:40 ]</font>