Saturday, June 13, 2009

Stacking EO Kites


EO's are very easy to stack and stacking them will create more stable designs that can produce some considerable lift.
There is 17 metres of fiberglass in an EO 10 and it has 2m2 of surface area, so a group of five or six can easily act as a camera lifter or header kite.
The basic formula for the shock cord (2mm) is 2d - with d being the depth of the cell you are connecting. Thread the shock cord through a 6mm end-cap then tie an overhand knot in the end to form a loop and then do a double larks head around the spar. I also put an o-ring at the point and form the larks head over it, this gives it a good structural memory whilst still room for give.
The spar is 6mm - sufficient for triple stack or width, 3d in length if stacking 2 high, 5d if stacking 3 high, leaving room to fit one in-between to go wider or higher. A set of full width cross spreaders at the front cell prevents compression of the structure giving a stable platform, these fit into leading edge style connectors on the joiner spars, one on the front end-cap and one placed 1d from the end positioned with an o ring.
Then a bridle is fashioned to support each kite a good rule of thumb to start from is 0, +50mm, and +250mm for offsets on a 3W (W = width of kite)

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