Single Skin Pilot (SSP)

Goal is a SS pilot kite that is reliable and steady in a wide wind range

This series started with 101 pink ¾ Serpent head (Jan 2019), and they  initially all had curved leading edges.

From SSP 8 , orange/pink, Nov '21, side keels were increased in depth to provide lateral area and reduce the requirement for tails. 

It was soon found that this area needed to be further forward than a semi-circular LE would permit.

The LE then became straight with tight radius corners and initial problems with the keels collapsing inwards in strong winds were initially solved by hour glass shaping of the centre panel.  This unfortunately also caused a depression in the kite's camber and eventually, SSP, it was found that an extra pair of bridles at the base of the keels LE's prevented their collapsing while allowing camber.

Extra sets of centre and side bridles were then added until there were no buckling problems in stronger winds- 34 bridles total were found to be necessary.

SSP 14 blue incorporated all these changes ab initio, then SSP 12 orange was modified by doubling every centre bridle (now 46 total), flown against 14 in stronger winds to check for any improvement.  There was none. !4 was then tried with a fin at the rear of each keel but testing against 12 showed that this did cause more zooming around in stronger winds, so they were removed. 

!2 and 14 fly satisfactorily in strongish winds, are more reliable but fly at a lower angle, are much less steady and have less pull than ISkin 79.

SSP 15 pink 24 Jan '22 was then made, checked against 12 and 14, then had a TE extension added on which single tails of various width were tried.  A 650mm wide x 14m (?) long mauve 80gm fabric tail was the best tried but it pulled the TE in, requiring the LE bridles to be let off by 3 notches for the same light wind flying.  In this configuration it appeared to be similar to 12 and 14 in stronger winds. 

26 Jan, the rear 6 outer bridles were let off up to 65mm which allowed the TE to regain its original width and for the LE bridles to be restored to their original settings (same as 12 and 14) In this version it appears to be slightly steadier and more reliable than 12 or 14 with 4 mauve tails in stronger winds (27 Jan tests).

 In strong winds (gusty southerly) this kite is now more reliable than 84 Singer with 4 mauve tails (without tails it zoomed and looped). I don't think any 1Skins would have been able to stay up that wind.

15 still needs to be steadier (while remaining free of the 3 nasties), and judging by Serpents, this should be possible with some combination of tail weight, tail drag, tail width lateral area, and lateral area placement.

To try:

Letting out rear outer bridles by more.

Small changes in the LE bridles.    

 Reducing lateral area.

Moving Lateral area forward and back

Splitting lateral area into front and rear parts (rear fin didn't work on 14 but maybe TE of keel's forward area needed to be cut back as well) .

Porous fabric areas in the TE and/or keels.

Reducing and increasing the gap between the body and tail

A slightly wider and a slightly narrower tail

A longer and a shorter tail. 

More camber near the LE

28 Jan '22 stiff easterly at Wakanui:

15 with keels reduced to 320mm max depth was WU, even with extra 4 mauve tails (made little difference).  Looped wildly.

 Restored to original depth, was reasonably steady, staggers a few degrees but not destructively - is this LE indents? Maybe slightly better with 4 14m Mauve tails (no difference noticeable between attachment points) but quite satisfactory with just the 600mm wide x 7m tail (which is ½ weight of the 4 mauve).

!1 with keels reduced to 320mm was very steady with 4 mauve 14m tails but LE shoulders were alternately collapsing- hung over right a bit, then left.  Why is this so different to 14 with reduced keels above- which looped violently?  Is it camber?  Is it the rear extension on 14? Is it that 14's rear outer bridles have been let out a lot?  11 is quite creased by comparison, maybe try increasing its camber. On 29th, light mid range, having added an extra LE bridle, reducing TE width by 160mm, filling in the hour glass shaping, and letting out rear outside bridles to compensate for narrowing, would dive over when launching, rarely recover but when it did would then fly very steadily, hanging off to one side or the other.  The degree of hanging off seems to be wind dependent- more wind makes for less.  There was less hanging off with 4 tails than with 2.  This seems like a classic example of proportionally too much rear lateral area.  Try in strong wind- will it still be so steady? And then try letting rear outer bridles out more (to reduce rear lateral area).

!5 with keels reduced to 450mm max depth was WU.  Restored to original it was steady, still moving a bit though- is this caused by LE indenting? Curved LE SSSLs don't exhibit this minor staggering, neither do the Rays- something to do with the straight LE?  Also, why will 11 fly so well in stronger winds with just 32mm keels whereas 14 requires full depth? 

30th Jan Wakanui kite event quite strong easterly by 4pm:

!5 with single 7m x 600mm tail flew faultlessly all day as pilot above 6m NZ Fag.  It does move around a little- not steady like Ray 4 but not destructive. 

14 eventually dived over- had just 2 x 13 m mauve tails.