Kiting Today KFDK

[Chris Burgess]

Got some kiting today at Frederick. Winds 23 gusting to 35 and variable in direction. I installed a rotor tach (Schwinn) just to gather some numbers to play with. As rotor got around 280 the nose would lift. It would get light with the tail still on the ground around 290. Try to takeoff around 300 but stabilized in the air around 330. Rpm would vary from 328 to 333 for most of the air time depending on how hard the gust hit me. Bob Trout took the photos. He pointed out to me that you can see my helmet reflected in the rotor in the side view and see me reflected in the front view. Had a bunch of fun "Going Green".

[GyroDoug]

Chris,

What brand and size of rotors are you using on your glider? Looks fun! What kind of physical location are you at? How long of a rope are you on?

[Chris Burgess]

GyroDoug, it's the standard hub Bensen, I think 22 feet. I am staked beside runway 30 at KFDK Frederick Maryland, winds variable but favoring 30. No airplanes flying in these conditions. We are normally a VERY busy non-towered airport. Steel cable, 50 feet long. Can't go very high with the gust we were having. I got literally "thrown" to the ground at least once. Today was smoother than Valentine's day when we had gust from about 20 to 50 a few times. It got too violent to continue so I quit. The quick "shear" in direction gets pretty hard to deal with. We should have milder more constant winds later this Spring. Strong cold fronts are the only time you get enough winds here.

[StanFoster]

Chris- That is neat. Back in 1985 I was training myself to fly my Bensen. One windy day I tied up to a fence post trying to lift off. I was just barely off once, but needed a few more mph of wind. Thanks for posting that. Stan

[WHY]

Hi Chris

Notice you got a HS on the kite, do you notice any "effect " of the HS ??

Tony

[Riff Raf]

Where is your seat belt???:confused:

[All_In]

OK that looks like just a whole lot of fun.

Thanks for sharing!

[Timchick]

Very cool.

[Chris Burgess]

WHY - no noticeable "effect". I even gave it full rudder left and right and there was little effect. The cable pretty much keeps it pointed towards the stake. You can drift easily left and right with stick alone. The rudder and horizontal could have been removed and you (I) would not have noticed. BUT, if the cable breaks, you better have all controls.!!!!

[Irishpilot]

Very cool Chris!

[okikuma]

Hi Chris,

Too Cool! Makes me want to get off my butt and finish restoring my B-8 Gyroglider.

All I need to do is reweb the seat (or make a fiberglass replacement), fabricate the pump handle cyclic (out of 4130 and 6061) and pick up a set of blades (or fabricate a wooden set similar in method to Ken Wallis). I already milled out the rotorhead.

Wayne