Hi all
I did post in the for sale and wanted section, trying to source another Eolo Genesis.
I know it`s not a high end kite but after I bought a new (second hand) one off a "popular auction site" and flew it a couple of times I was kind of taken with the thing.
After a few bridle tweeks sourced through Bilboquet`s forum I found it a great little kite, flew it in next to no wind.
A few days later the wind was up (9 gusting to 15mph) and despite the 4mm carbon pultrude frame it survived some numpty attempts at a jacobs and subsequent hard landings (honestly they weren`t crashes per se, just un-authorised landings
Having looked around I`ve come to the conclusion I won`t be able to buy another one so have decided to build a version as my very first attempt at kite building.
I have a kite to base it on so.......
I deframed the Genesis and traced the panel layout with the kite as flat as possible making note of the grid orientation and the overlap layout.
The panels were then traced onto 200gsm printer paper (laying around under my printer and a bit heavy stock for everyday printing) and cut out.
These patterns were then layed out onto Bockingboard (think thats the name! It`s from my old art stock and is basically a heavy duty board for watercolour painting).
When doing the final cutting out I discovered (in my opinion) that panel layout looked better for a small kite without the smaller "dart-like" panel in the top the Genesis has, plus less cutting and sewing for me.
This now "missing" panel has been incorperated into the lower panel so the layout remains the same with no change in dimensions.
This is a project so I`m not investing a huge amount of money in it (heck the original kite only cost 40 Euro`s!) but it will give me an idea of the time and effort taken by builders of kites.
The original is in 42gsm polyester but I have found some 35gsm rip-stop nylon (parachute material) for this project.
I have never hot-cut anuthing before so have experimented with some 4oz! nylon I have laying arouns and the sharpened soldering iron worked a treat despite being only 20w (just cut slower!) however it should be even faster a smoother through the lighter rip-stop.
So..wish me luck and I leave you with an image of the panel lay-out