Plans for ultra-lightweight, collapsible, multi-cell tetrahedral kites

Tips and Techniques

How to keep from breaking sticks during landings.
One trick (if you can call it a "trick") that I use when landing is to just set my reel down and haul in the line fast enough to bring the kite up to my hands and not let it touch the ground. When the kite is landed (here's another trick that maybe you know), I always "turn the line over" that piled up on the ground. By this I mean, starting at the kite, I take the line and start running it through my hands and re-piling it on the ground (not on top of the line that's already on the ground!), such that the line can then be spooled back on the reel from the top of this new pile, rather than from the bottom. This keeps the line from getting tangled, because the line is coming off the top of the pile instead of the bottom, which would make the line bunch up together and thereby make it tangle. I've found that knowing this makes it easier to deal with hauling kites in rapidly since you don't have to worry about tangling the line.

Stickier tape makes Mylar hold together better.
Some people have had a problem with regular Scotch Tape not sticking to the printed side of some printed Mylar. The solution was to use Scotch "Extra Strong" tape, if you can find it..

(More to come -- under construction!)

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