Hopefully some pictures will explain easier: i.imgur.com/oWTOuDN.jpg i.imgur.com/TW6Krek.jpg i.imgur.com/MW3jyvT.jpg Basically I cut the kite in half at the center line and sewed the keel in, creating a spine pocket at the same time. I made the keel with an adjustable tow point in order to find the best position. I just guessed the correct position for the cross spar. Because this kite has such a high aspect ratio I had to add small wingtip spars as well. Hope that helps

It is indeed, one of my favorites. In fact I bought a second one, hoping to get a different colour, but they are both identical.

I didn't make it, it's a cheap 10m rainbow tail which you can get from eBay or AliExpress. 🙂

@@lancman5630 thank you

Thanks Carl. The bridles did take a lot of trial and error as I remember, but I found the sweet spot in the end. Still miserable winter weather here but I hope to get out again soon. I've been busy making kites over the various lockdowns, some of which haven't flown yet so it will be good to try them out.

I'll see what I can do.

Sorry to hear that. I've just checked and the spine is 6mm diameter and 1025mm long (40.25 inches).

@@lancman5630 thank you so much will go a buy one now.

Thanks. I haven't tried mine without the tails as I think kites always look better with tails. If I get a chance I'll try it tail-less and see how it flies.

Thanks Carl. Can't believe this was posted over a year ago and we are still nowhere near out of the woods yet.

Thanks, obviously great minds think alike :) I do like the plain white one, it stands out from the crowd among all the stripey variants.

Thank you, I would be interested to hear if yours has the same nose-diving tenancies as mine did.

Thanks for the comment. Hope you enjoy yours when it arrives.

Thanks Carl. Agreed, a fuzzy tail is usually my first port of call to sort out troublesome kites. In this case I think they just needed to make the tail end of the body a bit longer to improve the balance, otherwise it's a nice kite.

Ah yes, I forgot to mention the tension line. Mine was only tied at one end so I presumed you were supposed to tension it yourself. To do that in the factory would mean completely assembling and then disassembling the kite, something they wouldn't want to do I suspect. Of course there were no instructions regarding the amount of tension so I just set it up so there was no slack in the line, but no great tension either. I'm not sure it makes much difference to the flying characteristics as the kite seems pretty rigid anyway. I recommend you get yours in the air ASAP - you'll like it.

@@lancman5630 mine was tied from the factory with some kind of slip knot but once I pulled it taught it would eventually slide back down loose. I am glad to know it probably doesn't matter. I see Premier Kites came out with kite in the same shape recently they are calling the Thunderbird with a printed Aztec or Midwest graphics on it. www.premierkites.com/products/16131?_pos=7&_sid=c74ba6b4e&_ss=r Since it its the same physical kite design with different graphics I don't know if they have to pay royalties or if any patent has expired. I am sure the Chinese sellers are not paying anything to the designer. The price point for the 11.5ft Premier version is about $77 still more than the $25 I paid for my knockoff from China.

Thank you Mark. I do like these bat kites and they fly fine as long as you fit a tail, but I agree with you; am not a great fan of front spreaders either.

I use 6mm (1/4") dowel for all my experimental stuff because it is readily available in DIY stores here in long lengths, and cheap. I use 8mm aluminium tube for ferrules, again easy to get from DIY stores. The theory was that if the kite flew well, I would upgrade to carbon or fiberglass spars. In practice, as long as you don't want an ultralight kite for low winds or an extra strong one for high winds, the wood spars have proved perfectly adequate and I haven't felt the need to change them yet. Even if they do break, they are easy to repair with superglue and sewing thread; see right hand spine in this photo: i.imgur.com/ASaq2I8.jpg Good luck making yours, I find it very rewarding. Be warned though: It can also become very addictive!

@@lancman5630 I like your reasoning for using the wooden rods first as it make not only a lot of sense to me as well as being very economical.

Thanks. Yes, Aldi and Lidl do kites every year here, usually timed to the school holidays. They are generally very good value, but you do get the occasional dud. I also have a pair of 4 line kites which were equally as bad, so I converted them as well (must post a video sometime). The main problem is they tend to use solid fiberglass spars, which just makes them too heavy to fly well.

@@lancman5630 would love to see a video of the 4 line kite conversion.

I managed to dig out a couple of clips from last summer, so I've just put a short video up.

Yes, I got mine in the sales a while back and I also got a partial refund because of the issue with the eyes, so mine ended up being quite a bargain. It looks great against a deep blue sky, not so great if it's cloudy. I also got a 7sqm one in the New Year sale (same colours as yours I think) but I haven't had chance to fly it yet.

I didn’t have any plans, I basically just laid the kite out over some lining paper and traced around it to get the basic shape. I then cut the shapes out and used them as templates. The hardest part was remembering to add all the seam and hem allowances. I did end up stretching the wingspan to 2m so I could use 1m spars without cutting them. I also did the tail spars slightly different this time. I thought the pockets would show through the white fabric and spoil the look, so I used some vinyl tubing as a connector. i.imgur.com/VajXvpl.jpg Great minds obviously think alike; my favorite type of flying is what I call ‘slacklining’ - those rare occasions when the wind speed is just perfect so the kite is only producing enough lift to support itself and the weight of the line. With a well balanced kite you can put the reel down and walk away, and it will just hang there as if by magic.

Thanks for commenting. Lets hope you get a good one and yes, it will probably be 2.6m. If so it would be worth opening a dispute as it is false advertising. Hongyung never seem to respond to disputes, so Aliexpress usually find in the buyer's favor automatically. I ordered two and got a full refund on the one with the short spar and about 50% off the other one because of the size difference. Hope you enjoy it anyway. It will be interesting to see if yours comes with tapered spars as well.

@@lancman5630 was that glider kite yours in the video as well with the two tails? If so did you add tail loops to attach the two tails. I have that kite too but mine didn't have any tail attachment points on it.

Yes it was the glider kite and yes I added the tail loops when I sewed up the ends of the spar sleeves. Mine had a slight tendency to lean to the left (as seen in the video) until I discovered that the bridle had been tied wrong and the tow point was off-center.

I finally got mine and it was not 2.8 m as sold but more like 2.6 m. It flew well though and with its high angle of flight I was able to fly it in my yard.

Glad it finally arrived and you got a good one, even if it was only 2.6 m as expected. I see there's another sale on at the moment, but I'm reluctant to get anything as I know delivery times are probably going to be months rather than weeks at the moment.