here is some of the strange behaviour with the NK5..unfotunately most of the problems were off camera...
this is some kind of flick out after a loop

It would do worse than this, almost tumbling down.
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problem (0 min 6 sec)

Thanks for the comments guys about the 1.2m DoubleDiamond. Me and Dave have renamed it the 1.2m FANCY

Dave and batusaix I will post up a build thread over the weekend.

Been out flying again tonight, messed with the cg and it appears that I pretty much got it right with my first guess.

As for the flying characteristics;

Not noticed any adverse yaw from the elevons, i think the "pointy" elevons are less likely to cause yaw.

I did notice the kite doesnt like flying slow in turns at high bank, the lack of a side profile means it drops the nose or slids, dependant on the cg position.

Ive tried the slow flying and it really flies slow, stalls by dropping a wing but you can catch i easily. As for flying goflykite test video style it does it easily.

One other thing I noticed is if I take it up into a power stall the whole kite is really effected by torque as you power up and it "stally flips" just like in your video Dave

post more details soon

DAvid

David .....if it does the test video flying that does it for me.. I will be building one this weekend

thanks for the report...dave

Ive been playing in sketchup, with the Fancy design...
As an exercise in cutting the cost down I resized the Fancy so that it could be built using only 1M C F rods with no joins to get the lengths needed.
A 1200 kite will require joins to get the longest lengths...the two main curves are about 52.5" long..to make these you will probably need to have the joint central, so each curve will need two rods, and you will have bits left over, which might or might not get used... anyway more expensive..
I found that a 875 span would be the correct size ..the long curves need 3' 2 1/4" so a 1M 3'3" rod will do...

This was for interest only, to show how usefull the sketchup program can be, but it would make a nice small kite for one of the blue wonder motors..ive also selected the faces which then shows the areas for the 875 and the 1200 kites
Looking at the areas I think for me it will be easier to keep the wing loading down on the 1200 size...I can never do a good job of building it light

david ....what was your AUW on the 1200

dave

My 1.2 has no joints at all i used 1.6m rods i got from a kite shop for £3 each

I'll post details later

David

lucky man... no where round here for them only 1M at £3...I wonder if they will post


richard found this in our local paper...its amazing what people see compared to what is...we never saw anything and we were out flying at the same time..nice clear night as well
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weve been checking the maps...both these sightins are in nearly the opposite direction to where we were...so thats a relief... not us then..

There probably flying lanterns, loads went over our way the other week after a wedding




Imagine what you could do with a fully led'd night kite

David

we were flying our night kites at the same time as the sightings...but ours would have shown as red and green, rather than yellow.. I think youve got the correct answer

those are an accident waiting to happen...flying incendary devices.. a responsible thing to do....not

Ok,as promised heres a brain dump of how I built the 1.2m DoubleDiamond.

Its built without any joins in the rods, I used 1.6m carbon from decathlon
3mm rod and 4mm tube 3mm rod 4mm tube the tubes are only £2.95

Components
Fuz is a 5mm tube
Trailing edge 4mm tube
Middle bow and LE 4mm tube
Front bumper, I used 4mm tube and it shattered so I'd go for 3mm or 4mm rod
rear curve 3mm rod
inner trailing edge 2mm rod
The elevons are made from 2mm rod....dont forget the elevon has a leading edge

The whole thing is coverred in polyester dress lining stuck with uhu por and shrunk with an iron

Power is an Overlander 1650kv outrunner running a 9 x 4.7 gws and a 800mah 3s lipo... plenty of power it will prop hang

I've added a load of photos with a bit more detail. CG is marked on the pics

What I would do next time possibly would be a bigger fin as she tends to nose in on slow turns. Rudders would be nice too

Anyway, enjoy

David

Took some video tonight, the wind was 5>10 mph.

I'm going to redesign the fins on this, they need to be bigger... it doesnt seem to be holding its line when flown slow and just before the stall I get a nasty torque effect.

Plus has anyone fitted rudders to one of these kites as it wont do a rolling circle or I couldnt get it to do one

RC Kite 1.2m DoubleDiamond (aka Fancy 1.2m) flying in wind. vid 1 (1 min 32 sec)

RC Kite 1.2m DoubleDiamond (aka Fancy 1.2) flying in wind. vid 2 (1 min 20 sec)

David

The performance is not looking at all bad david..
maybe a rudder on a larger single fin is worth a try..mind you I cant do a rolling circle in any case.. I am happy if I can get a straight axial roll.. It should be an easy mod, to fit a rudder, and give it a go. I might put one on straight away when I build the kite.
The slow speed handling is much better than the NK5 falcon mod. that would have dropped a wing when doing the slow speed corrections you were making.

edit sat..A.M...... what about adding some side thrust area in the form of a fuz, perhaps 3" above and 3" below the wing, then have the larger tail and rudder for yaw...if you think that might give us even more controlability... I will try it ...

Here are some pics of another build for the Fancy kite
I made some different choices to davids build...as joins had to be made in the rods where the length was over 1M
My main fuz is a 4mm tube.
Main curves and structure are all from 3mm rod, except for the central curves that are 2.5mm

Elevons were originaly from 2mm rod, but have had to be remade after a mess up using 2.5mm rod (thats all the shop had)

edit note on bumpers... the bumper I made from 2.5mm CF rod which is more flexible than 3mm, it fits into the front tubes and all that holds it is its own tension, but this tension is high enough that it does not move easily, and you can use it as the carry handle.. 3mm rod would have been much harder to bend and I think would put to much stress on the framework.. I havnt filled the back of the tubes so in an impact the rod will be pushed back through and act like the crush zone in a car reducing damages...I hope..

more pics....after the central big bend is fixed there are another couple of curves to add which are done in a similar fashion...
Where ever possible leave the threads in place, removing them will let the tensions out into the framework which will cause distortions.

Way to go Dave, youve fitted those joins in nicely

Are we going to see it fly before the end of the weekend?

David

No ..
.I made a stupid mistake with the elevons, and made them a lot too small...so Ive just been out to get some more rod to redo them ....where my head was when I was making them, who knows...I did a lovely job on both, then went to fit them and saw my mistake
I have now only got 2.5mm rod so the remake will be all in that size, it might be a good thing as the 2.5 will be stiffer and less liable to flex under control forces..
I have also decided to fit a vertical body/fin and put a rudder on, so that will take a bit more time..
I should be getting it all done by next week with a bit of luck