2 replies to this topic

[Stephen Hoath]

OK, so whilst we were at Berck this year there was a particularly windy day when all those fair weather fliers with 2 strings struggled a bit with the wind. Now, those die hard rev addicts amongst you will not be surprised that although very strong (30mph ish) the wind did not present the same problem to the Rev Teams

On the field at one time were the Mega Vent kites based on the Barresi Pro, the Rev Polo vent and The Flying Squad's T-Bag kites built from a standard Barresi full vent then attacked with a soldering iron. All three designs were clearly effective at the job but all three had a very different feel in the hand. This lead me to wonder how much vent (or indeed sail) were in each kite?

So, my question to you all is, has anyone done the maths? If so, what are the figures?

My second question is, does the position of the vent matter more or less than the volume of vent?

[Watty]

OK, so whilst we were at Berck this year there was a particularly windy day when all those fair weather fliers with 2 strings struggled a bit with the wind. Now, those die hard rev addicts amongst you will not be surprised that although very strong (30mph ish) the wind did not present the same problem to the Rev Teams

On the field at one time were the Mega Vent kites based on the Barresi Pro, the Rev Polo vent and The Flying Squad's T-Bag kites built from a standard Barresi full vent then attacked with a soldering iron. All three designs were clearly effective at the job but all three had a very different feel in the hand. This lead me to wonder how much vent (or indeed sail) were in each kite?

So, my question to you all is, has anyone done the maths? If so, what are the figures?

My second question is, does the position of the vent matter more or less than the volume of vent?

I'm not sure about the numbers, comparing the sail area of venting between the kites, but I'm positive positioning has a large effect. One basic concept that comes to mind is that the kite loads up in the center. That's where its power comes from. If you add venting or holes to the center of the kite, you will loose that pressure in the sail. In addition to that, as with any kite, vented or not, the panel positioning makes a difference in how the kite flies. A kite with vertical stripe panels will fly differently from one with horizontal stripe panels. This difference comes from the way the sail flexes with the stiff lines of stitching.

Granted this is all just theory in my mind, and I've never had the opportunity to test these thoughts.

[SkyPuppet]

Rev forum member katrina did the math on a computer, and found the Rev Polo VTD had more venting compared to the XTra Vent: http://www.revkites....-pro-xtra-vent/

She didn't publish the numbers, but, from what I understand, these 2 kites handle differently because of the positioning of the vents, and not so much because of the volume of air they vent.