Paul Isabelle

Thank you for your feedback Nigel, particularly when it involves safety. I have several F-Arc 1600s that I purchased from Gavin years back, hence my interest in repurposing exploration. Another is an AWES with dual line winch for power transmission, ground based flight control system, onboard fly-by-wire steering. Overflying is a definite issue with this kite when flying it for its intended purpose. It frequently does this in a gust, passing zenith, stalling and falling back into the wind window, sometimes quite dramatically;-) I do not have much experience with jumping with the F-Arc on water so I do not have a good feel for this aspect. In flight, would the suspended pilot not accelerate and catch up with the kite? On water, we land before this would happen which becomes a problem when we want to power up before we sink… Perhaps, like you suggest, maintaining AoA by having a paraglider type attachment (common flying and brake line point, limiting AoA lower range) with steering loops for control could work. Bowties are a real nuisance with ARCs with an AR over 4-6 due to their bridle-less attachment. My many attempts with bowed tip spars, inflated tip cells, a line between rear tips, bungees on the brakes and such have all failed. Active inflation (stripped down computer fans in the inlets works well, indicating that bowties may be due to loss of internal pressure in the lulls. Moreover, a bridle may open up the kite a bit, increasing AR and performance like a bow kite. Having spools of fine bridle spectra, I will definitely explore this. Thank you for the input! Food for thought, and prudence… Dear Nigel, I do not see a LE webbing strap in this image. Could it be that Peter’s bridle system replaced them? That must be an interesting kite. Paul.

I saw a Cabrinha Contra 2007 on Mktpl, new condition (used once) for sale cheap. So I did a bit of research in this kite and came across this fantastic video by Anthony @ St-Petersburg Kiteboarding. Thanks! I knew what I was dealing with. It is was 7 strut (heavy!) with a 2:1 bar system (heavy bar pressure). I was curious to see if this kite could be upgraded in design similar the latest offering, lighter, faster, more responsive. So I bought it to take up this new challenge. Step 1. I first started the process by flying the kite in light air. The weight of the kite makes it much harder to roll over and relaunch. The kite was powerful but slow to react and bar pressure was really annoying. The kite would stall and set back in the window, or fall out of the sky in lulls. A porker! Step 2. The second step was to fly with target struts deflated and with the bar 1:1. I tried various combinations but the best was to keep the center and tip struts. The kite would only turn if I would reach out to grab a rear line, the bar not being long enough to turn sharply. No surprise there. Step 3. So I proceeded to remove the 4 large struts. I plugged the valves and went for another test flight (unsewn, just taped). To my surprise, there was no flapping, so canopy adjustment (coning) would be required. So I sewed the panels back up. However, I noted that the valve stubs are hooks that can easily catch bridle lines. They will need to go. Step 4. I went back to try the first bridle mod. I simply removed the wingtip blocks that linked the rear lines to rest of the bridle. The kite flew well in light air, however, later, I noticed that the kite would deform when loaded up. The wingtip of the kite will need a better load distribution from the bridle that adjusts with AoA. Bridle re-design and balancing turned out to be the most challenging part of the modification that took a few passes. I now have it really sweet, the rear lines ties to a block on the last bridle cascade that the kite can roll around. While testing, I did not notice that the Boston valve let go, with hindsight, adhesive failure could be expected with such an old kite. Unfortunately the Boston valve twisted in the hole and caused an aneurism in the bladder causing a major blowout. I repaired it but ordered a replacement kit, not feeling confident. Besides, this would allow me to eliminate the 4 valves, eliminating the number of potential failure points going forward. Conclusion The major difference in this kite from 2007 to 2023 appear to be the number of struts, better bridles, bar and safety systems and material science improvements (fibres, weaves, coatings…). There is no doubt that there were also subtle canopy and shape adjustments, but the kite design appears to be relatively unchanged. Apart from market hype and trends (ex: more struts = better shape = faster, more power), kite designs were pretty well tuned in 2007. I really love this kite now, it is a true light air machine like it was intended to be. Three struts are enough for it to fill nose down, roll over and pop up. The only hick is water that may now pool on the unsupported canopy, but that is a minor issue. The canopy does not flap, just a little rustle once in a while like I have seen on many modern lightweight kites. I can post images if anyone is interested to know more about this.

Hi all, I have been thinking about developing a motorized F-Arc e-paraglider for quite some time now. The F-Arc peel up launches easily, generates tremendous lift, is low drag (great upwind performance) but with unfortunate bowtie susceptibility. Kite surfing in unstable winds with the F-Arc is almost useless due to the short relaunch window on water (not so bad on snow). My lower aspect clones (900, 1400) are much better regarding this but with less performance whereas higher ones (1900) can be most challenging with only modest performance increase and a tad of quirkiness. The vanilla 1600 would be a good start. Using such an efficient wing as the F-Arc for a paraglider seems most attractive to me. Bowties may be less an issue since we cruise in light winds, at a very constant speed, with gentle turns and pitch correction. Apart from doing something silly and stalling the F-Arc, bowties or inversions should be less an issue. Lower surface area and higher wing loading implies faster speeds. Not an issue. Proof of concept I will be trying the F-Arc 1600 on a small 9.9HP 14foot fishing boat on which I will install a cross bar shortly. The two tow points will be a good 5 feet apart. The front lines could go to the middle of the bar, however, they could also cross and attach to opposite ends. The idea here is to increase autozenith reactivity, keeping the kite parallel with the bar at all times. Questions: Has anyone ever heard of an autozenith setup like this? Does it work? Are there thing to know? Would steering the kite be better (kite turns, craft follows) than a rudder or direction of thrust (craft leads, kite follows)? Perhaps an active kite control system (Arduino, sensors, servos) would be better? The lines and kite could be spread apart with much shorter lines. Not a good idea ? 😞 Paul in Quebec City Canada.

I recently joined this fantastic forum and so I am catching up. IMHO, every kite is unique and exceptional in it's own way. I have flown sleds, inflatables, Peter Powels, Flexifoils, ARCs, Beans, single skins, bridled foils hang gliders.... It is a true passion that has never left me and a regular springtime illness. Pleasure Kite Category: For outright simplicity, my all time favorite is the Scott sled. It is impossible to make one that will not fly. I would do free clinics for kids for years. Thank you Frank Scott. Flexifoil stackers are the fastest commercial kites ever, great for pelican and seagull chasing (I know, we should never do that but...). Thank you Merry & Jones. But for outright speed, 2-line wire-cut foam wings based on the flexifoil are absolutely insane, but you must keep clocking them in the window because they overshoot, flying way upwind and blow back at you, coming down in a tangled mess. But with practice, like a yoyo, you can fly them all the way around the clock in the right conditions if you walk backwards a bit! High aspect stunt kites, I can play with all day, never a dull moment. I gave up hang gliding beacuse that was not going to end well... Thank you Francis Rogallo. Power Kite Category: For outright speed, the F-ARC never ceases to scare me to death on skis and blades, but the bowties drive me f* bonkers 😉 It is a true love-hate relationship I have with them. Peter Lynn and friends, what can I say, thank you! LEIs are the ideal solution for water, both hands down. Unless you blow a bladder, you can always get going again. Thank you too Bruno Legaignoux. But for precision and refinement, you can fly Flysurfer Sonics with your pinkies. I am sure that most of the modern high aspect bridled foils are like this. Spendid Armin Harich! It's all good? Well, not quite. There are some pretty bad copies out there 😞! I won't name names hehehe, just the great creators 😉 Paul.

FANTACTIC WORK ANDY !!! Your kite appears to fly very well in the video that you posted. Bravo! Have you ridden it at top speed yet (ie buggy or something)? How is it's power and depower? There is a lot to learn from your build. I had built a 12m from the P-ARC design ten years ago or so, but it had many issues. Seeing your video has encouraged me to take that one out again. I am unable to get it airborne, but I think I know why now. The inflation vent valves are wrinkled from storage and do not shut well. I am fixing that and hope to be out testing it shortly. But as I recall, at top speed, it would dive from the middle most violently. I had to always keep some brakeline pressure to avoid this. Has your kite done anything like that? If I can mine flying again, I will check that out proper. Thanks Andy!

Thank you @andy666, I also came across some other comments about this kite, the "p-arc". Some said to reverse the letters to know why and that spells cra-p to me ;-) Unless it was a tuning issue, I see no sense making one then. Has anyone got this thing to drive proper? I will start by looking at the Surfplan file carefully. Maybe I can modify the kite parameters until I can get something that matches the F-ARC more closely. By printing key patterns such as the center and intermediate profiles, key panels, and basic overall dimensions of the end result, perhaps I can try to get a better match. My F-ARC1200 has no problems at speed as my kiteskiing sesh the other day reminded me, scary fast when that sucker winds up. Has anyone ever sucessfully attempted to build one of the edgier arcs like the Hi-Arc? And what is it with those kites that make them so prime? It is more the overall layout that counts, or is it the airfoil profiles? This brings up a much bigger question. How do we reverse engineer a kite? Is there some way to scan it in 3D in flight under load? Naw, I did not actually ask that... we will have stretching and billow to contend with... Even inflated static, hung in the air free,... will not provide much The accuracy of the scan would hose precision... I guess there is little choice but... Take one that flies well apart, panel by panel by panel Trace or digitize each single panel, average left and right mirror panels for better accuracy Try to recreate it in a 3D model using software like SurfPlan of Foilmaker Bring all this into CAD via DXF and painstakingly compare... panels Maybe one has to start over from scratch with the basic rules (Cp, AoA,coneing,...) and go through builds, tests, countless revisions... Has anyone ever seen a Peter Lynn ARC design guide that lays out the rules? If ever we figure this all out some day we should!

Hi All, This is truly great work! Bravo!!! So what is the verdict of this build after 3 years? Are there any updates to the plans or possible tweak suggestions? How does the skin from the 16m2 host kite hold up in the 6m2 over time? That is almost a 3X wing loading increase (16m2 to 6m2)! Are there some extra reinforcements to perhaps consider in some areas? I had found a file many years agi called the “buggy p-arc” The .sle file I had found I had “Henry Kulk” (Holland?) as the author and it was also 6m2 (could it be of the same origin?). My first build did not even fly because of the material (ripstop seconds). I had modded the design to make it more “Guerilla-ish” (wavy LE like in the PL patent) and bigger, 12m2. It that was quite successful I think, because it flew well. Unlike the F-Arc, it would relaunch better from the taco position as I recall because of the LE wave. Long time ago... gotta blow some dust off it that one. If it flies well I could post it. I still have and old roll printer but I will try to laser cut this one. That way I can save on costly cartridges that keep drying out (Not again! 😞) Thanks Olof for the de-wrinkle tip !!! Paul