kite lights

any plans anywhere for lights for night flying?

thanks,

try 'www.ddkites.com' go to kite plans and then accessory plans, couple diff. ones there

David

I made my own. Cut out the front edge of a couple of leading edge connectors, glue a transistor socket into the cut out, running wires down through a lower drilled hole. Get a couple of Maglite bulbs to fit into the sockets. Buy a small battery holder and put a spar grabber on the back with a self tapping screw. Fit the battery box to the back of the spine, just above the centre tee. Thread the wires through the centre tee cutout in the sail.

Slide the leading edge connectors onto the bottom spreaders and angle the lights up towards the sail. Painting the back of the recess on the leading edge with Tippex will reflect the light up into the sail.

Night flying is great fun - doing a 540 when you can't even see the ground is great!

Hope this helps.

Paul

what about your resistors? cmon, if your gonna do it, do it right

Hi; I haven't been flying long but this is a quick way to make a lasting impression: I took a joggers battery powered safety strobe (about 1.5' dia),put velcro on the back and attached it to the wear patch behind the upper spreader on my Flashback. I then took 2 'Lunker lures' and taped them close to the leading edges on the lower spreaders. Lunker Lures are little chemical light sticks used for night fishing. I surf fish and had them in my tackle box. (Didn't have much luck with them fishing but they look bitchin' on the kite) I guess any kind of small light stick will work but these are small diameter and pretty bright. (green seems to be the brightest) Anyway, I started flying on the beach and within ten minuites the Park Ranger comes cruising down the beach, he didn't stop and say anything so I kept flying. The beach where I fly, oops...I mean fish, is not crowded but there was another vehicle about a mile away that would flash his lights anytime I did anything particularly crazy with the kite. Also there was a boat that came in pretty close that enjoyed a UFO experience. I started flying at dusk and I finally packed up about midnight when the Lunker Lures started dying. I know it's cheaper to hard wire a system in the long run but this way will get you flying faster.

Total cost:

Sorry for the long post, all this hot air has kicked up quite a wind...

Think I'll go flying!

illuminate the inside of a flexi. WOW cool idea