Cody Kite Train

[@kiteflyingdownunder....car6272]

Well done Bill! One can only imagine the pull of Mr Samuel Cody's original kite trains. No wonder they were man lifters. I can understand your " phew" . The one attempt I had taught me the preparation needed to have the right rigging and launching with hopefully a cooperative wind can take some time and effort. The reward of course is they do make a recreation of the grand sight that the early kite fliers saw.

[@JimNicholls]

Carl, I don't think you fully appreciate what Bill did here - those were BIG kites, over 8ft across, not the little Codys that you have, and I know from flying just one of them that the pull is enormously greater. I wouldn't even attempt flying three of them together.

[@cloudybongo]

Indeed it was a grand sight and quite an effort. I was perspiring freely during the launch!

[@cloudybongo]

My replys keep disappearing, no idea what is happening... I think anyone who has flown a decent sized Cody will get the idea. I think Carls' Codys are comprable to the HQ size. Mind you the other two whilst not of the same quality are quite a bit bigger! You learn something every time you fly and this time I discovered it is a good idea to have extra ground stakes to tie the kites to prior to launch and at recovery. This was the key to success. The first efforts didn't quite go to plan and it got a bit ridiculous all the running about! Once I twigged the plan it was not too bad. I was a bit worried about the bridle lines though. They are not the same strength or quality as the flying lines. If anything was going to go wrong this time it would be here. But not a swivel in sight this time, sound advice... Anyway, back to the sedate world of trilobite flying and some video-ing of the scenery. Maybe get a little flying time tomorrow...

[@JimNicholls]

Tempting fate there, Bill - after being elevated to the doctorate at your recent ceremony, you nearly got elevated again in a less desirable manner! Very brave and impressive, anyway. I hope you have some help if you try that again.

[@cloudybongo]

This is one of the strange things about kites, they have enormous pull but they have very little lift. It's all about de-composing the vectors and the fact that kites "fly" in a stalled manner. Most people don't believe me when I tell them it's not the wind that's keeping the kite up there, it really is the string. When you tug on the line and feel the tension what you really feel isn't the kite it's the re-action force going into the ground (via you or the ground stake). It is totally counter intuitive. So I have no fear of being lifted off the ground but I am terrified of being dragged along the ground, and having had it happen it is extremely undignified!!! Next time it will be less windy and (maybe) more sunny!

[@bearshield7138]

very cool

[@Freddystapersma69]

Wow the red one is really flapping. I thought that the flexin was stopped by the tension lines. I am very scared to fly more than one cody in a train. I already had an adventure with a smaller train of kites. I was happy someone was there to help me because I could not get it down on my own. Love your kites :)

[@cloudybongo]

Hi Freddy, Thanks! I have other video of the red codys' wings almost folded back. The first breaks were due to over crimping of the ferrules during manufacture and after this flight I thought I was going to be re-placing the new ones already. It didn't look good at all! The new spars I put in are like drinking straws, very light weight but VERY flexible. I might put heavier ones in again.

[@danokitemanotoo1791]

@@cloudybongo I would venture to say you would be better off using Heavy fiberglass tubes (thick walled) or the stiffest Graphite spars you can find!

[@danokitemanotoo1791]

It looked as though the kites were connected via a single line each instead of a multi-point system. Causing the kites to try & make their own path instead of playing Follow the Leader, where they would be more stable. Looks as if you had good fun though! LoL

[@cloudybongo]

As each was slighty different in construction there was no way to be sure they'd all fly uniformly off a leader line, I tried and the results were tangled lines and crashes. Looping round the front spars of each one was the only way to prevent this. It was pretty wild and a lot more pull than I anticipated. Single kites ever since 😉😁

[@VueloLejanokites]

Hello friend