Kitebuilder.com - Fly... with a little help from your friends.

stevef · Last edited by stevef on Wed Sep 07, 2005 2:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

yep, thats right... this FORUM is sponsoring/mentoring a kitebuilding team that will attempt to cross the Canada/US Niagara gorge with a kite! Cool

Our new forum member AIAA is actually a team of students from the University at Buffalo, with American Institute of Avionics and Astronautics. They will be designing and constructing the kite but they will need help... that's where we (the forum) come in. We are not going to solve all their problems but we can answer questions and point them in the right direction... cool eh?

Kite Studio will aid in providing materials....

More information on the Niagara International Kite Festival can be found HERE - be sure to check all the links on the top of the page as there is lots of good info documenting the history of this event.

The festival runs October 7 - 9, 2005 with the contest on Friday, October 7. The following info is from their website:

"The Homan Walsh 1848 Kite Contest Re-Enactment: 10:00AM - Will occur on both the Canadian and US sides of the gorge, from the Rainbow Bridge to the brink of the Falls. Staging will be along Queen Victoria Park to Table Rock on the Canadian side and Prospect Park and Terrapin Point on the American side. Wind speed and direction that day will determine exact locations of launching and landing. Prevailing winds are somewhere out of the southwest. With the effect of the gorge, this would normally have the winds coming from the Canadian to the US side, on a downstream, nearly Northerly direction. Of course, that’s only if it’s a normal day!"

This will be challenge and I am excited that the forum can be part of it... The festival is right around the corner, so watch for future posts in the Single Line Design & Construction forum from AIAA...

Can any other forum members attend the festival?
_________________

Steve Ferrel
Measure once, buy twice!

www.kitebuilder.com - Go Build a Kite! |

KiteSquid · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 12:29 pm Post subject:

This is too cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really want to see the results of this attempt!!!!!!!

and Steve, thanks for sponsoring them!!!!!!
_________________
VR/
KiteSquid AKA TakoIka AKA Harold of King George VA
PS Yet another post by the Squid... Shocked

Doesn’t he ever shut up?
PPS The wind is like the air, only pushier.
PPPS All information provided is for hobby use. None may be used commercially.
PPPPS Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur. x11.5K
PPPPPS Please excuse my speling errorors.

stevef · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 2:29 pm Post subject:

The Wizard · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 5:48 pm Post subject:

I took the liberty of sending news of this event out to our Club members (and a number of other Canadian kiters) and got a very interesting reply back from Mark Groshens (a well known Canadian kiter). The 'meat' of his email is below...........

I was there 10 years ago when they did the first re-enactment contest. Fran
Gramkowski and team landed the first kite across using an ultra light rokkaku
and as they got close to the Canadian side they let out a lot of line to let the
kite drop a block inland.

Michael Graves and Joe Finlay flew a fighter kite from the Canadian side to the
US - the toughest thing was directing that they were over the edge and to dive
it down. with such a huge line sag there was a big time gap in the kites response.

Richard Synergy even managed to fly a stunt kite across although he landed it
quite a way down the edge face of the gorge.

The really interesting thing was the huge train of diamonds that the Japanese
flew (if I remember correctly it was 2000 kites?) they attached sets of 50 at a
time and had a second slack line running from the top of the train back to a
flyer. As the train was let out to length and was well over the far shore, they
gradually pulled in on the second line which caused the far end of the train to
arch downward to touch the ground. I think I have quite a bit of that event on
video tape somewhere.

......... I wish I could go and witness this spectacle but health and finances won't allow, however, one of our Club members who lives much closer to the Border is very interested in attending if only to watch and not compete.
_________________
Larry Green
a.k.a. The Wizard
http://essexkites.studio1.net/

Russ Mozier · Joined: 19 Dec 2003 Posts: 491 Location: Christmas, FL

Pat and I attended the Niagara International Kite Festival October 7-9. On Friday we worked with the team from the University of Buffalo in their attempt to put a line across the Niagara Gorge. The gorge is about 1500 feet across. The kite was a delta/sled hybrid with an 8 foot wingspan. They built two matching kites, one blue and one red, with the help of Richard and Pete Dutton. The blue one was flown all day, the red one was a back-up. We flew from Terrapin Point on the Canada side with the hope of landing near Goat Island on the American side. On the last attempt with the kite nearing the American side the kite took a turn and was eaten by the falls. It was raining and it was too late to try again. There were a lot of teams flying DynaKite stacks, fighters and other kites, no team made it across. Our team from the UB got third place for being one of the closest. Links to photos are below, I still can't get them to show up in the post.

http://www.kitebuilder.com/forums/album_pic.php?pic_id=2910

http://www.kitebuilder.com/forums/album_pic.php?pic_id=2911

http://www.kitebuilder.com/forums/album_pic.php?pic_id=2912

Spence602 · Joined: 16 Sep 2003 Posts: 2042 Location: USA TX Houston

Congrats to the UB Team!

That's a unique design - look like an unfinished DT Box Delta or DC.

What factors spurned the idea to open up the front panels?
_________________
Spence

FlaArtGlass · Joined: 09 Apr 2005 Posts: 166 Location: Florida

WOW great idea!

I wonder what kind of kite was used on the original crossing.

The pictures on Steve's link are interesting. The picture of the two bols are amazing if it is all pieced. A lot of thought went into the colors and placement of the colors. Here are the bols:

http://niagarakite.com/images/2005/019_Sat.jpg

Ray

torontokitefliers · Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:31 am Post subject:

Russ Mozier · Joined: 19 Dec 2003 Posts: 491 Location: Christmas, FL

This was the year. On Friday afternoon October 3rd Tom and the team from the University of Buffalo succeeded in flying and landing a kite across the 1000' plus gorge between Niagara Falls and the Rainbow Bridge. The kite landed in the parking lot at Terrapin Point on Goat Island. The kite was launched on the Canadian side and landed in the US. Congratulations go out to all of those involved.

Pumpkin · Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 7991 Location: Birmingham UK

Seems ironic somehow

IIRC the first cable across the falls was towed after a kid won the contest to get a line over ..................with a home built kite.....
University of Buffalo took 3 years to repeat Twisted Evil

Just joshing...no offence and congrats to the team
_________________
Pete
Where did you say the string goes?

torontokitefliers · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 12:37 am Post subject: