Principles of Kite Making

                         Some Principles for Single Line Kite Making.

1.      Lateral symmetry is very important. Lateral assymetry will always cause flying problems but some kite styles are more sensitive than others. Generally, low performance kites and kites with tails wont be overly sensitive (eg maxi octopusses), high performance kites (eg Rays) and kites without tails (eg Pilots) will be.

2.      Cording is critical for lateral symmetry- cord from the same roll (and that has been equally pre-stretched, if at all) should be used for each pair of cords

3.      Fabric: Warp and weft are not always at right angles.  In some critical places, this is more than enough to cause lateral assymmetry unless  paired panels are placed as mirror images.

4.      Cording and bridles should be appropriate to the loads they will take; neither over-designed nor under-designed.

5.      Cording may not change direction unless there is another attached cord sewn out from the corner.

6.      When bridles or diagonal thru cord are to be attached at a cord cross point, the cords should be attached sufficiently well to each other (by extensive back tacking for example) so that the bridle or thru cord loads can't break this connection.

7.      Bridles should be tied to cording crosses in such a way that they can not strip out along one cord or the other.

8.      Where different panels come together at a point, there should not be noticeable mis-registration.  Customers and other kitemakers judge the quality of our work by this

9.      Even when there appears to be a unidirectional load at an attachment point, the reinforcement should be able to resist loads from every direction, because bridles and rigging lines will occasionally get snagged or pulled from unexpected directions.

10.  Fabric in leading edge and flare panels  should generally be oriented so that either it's warp or weft is exactly parallel to open leading edges and forward facing flare edges.

11.  Every closed space needs at least one sand hole, they should be big enough to let out lumps, and should be at the lowest points when the kite is flying at it's usual angle.

12.  Every square meter of fabric used is equal to about 20minutes labour- so it's well worth spending 10 minutes to save a square metre.  In some places where warp/weft orientation is not critical, templates can be swung a few degrees to enables a panel to be cut from an available piece- and this is never a problem if such panels are placed as mirror pairs.

13.  Pleats or folds in seams are never acceptable.

14.  Customers generally like conventional colour schemes- colours that are universally regarded as "going" together, rainbow sequences, colour progressions.  Within this, contrasts sell, pastel combinations don't.  Eyes should be the brightest colours in the kite,  should be completely different colours, and may clash with the main body colours.

15.  Thread tension used should generally be the lightest tension that doesn't loop- more than this will shorten seams and can have deleterious effects on flying and appearance.

16.  What can seem to us to be a trivial mistake or easily corrected misbridle or flying problem can be a major issue for a customer.

17.  Bridles and thru cords connecting from the kites flying line to any Pilot kite need to be strong enough.