Kitebuilder.com

[Gary]

I was recently asked a stick question I couldn't answer so I thought I would throw it out here.

Someone in Great Britain wants to make a Rokkaku from my 8 foot plans but says that FL-505 and FL-414 are difficult to obtain over there and wants to know what their equivalents would be in (metric) Carbon. My response was that my experiences with linear Carbon tube in applications that require bowing haven't been good, wrapped Carbon tube would be better.

Any thoughts on what would be best to use to replace FL-414 and FL-505 in an 8 foot Rokkaku, and might be available across the water, would be greatly appreciated.
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good heavens;
Gary E

[KiteSquid]

Premier usese SkyShark P300 Carbon Tubes in their 6'6" rokkakus... with a 4 point bridle and they battle GREAT!!!! meaning they are durrable....

A 6'6" Rokkaku has 19.36 square feet of sail area while a 8' rokkaku has 31.36 square feet of sail area.

This equates to a scale factor of 162%.

So I would recomend that you find a Carbon tube that is abut 162% as stiff as a SkyShark P300, and you should be all set...

I figured sail area NOT projected area so if you redid the problem using projected area you may come up with a diffrent answer.

Aslo if you wanted to shift the wind range than that would change the problem too.

BTW I would not use sticks as most woods do not have a high enough stiffness to weight ratio, but you might be able to use a grass i.e. Bamboo if you want to....
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VR/
KiteSquid
AKA TakoIka
AKA Harold
King George VA


P.S. Yet another post by the Squid..... Doesent he ever shut up???

P.P.S. The wind is like the air, only pushier.