Adjustable
Bridle Systems for the NPW
Faster and easier Bridles!!
Make 4 bridle lines at
once with no knots as such -
This section is for BOTH the Standard Classic and
Cascade, 2 and 4 line bridling
If you're interested in the Cascade bridle, click
here after reading below.
Many of us have spent hours making bridles and tying shroud lines to NPW
kites. One has to cut lines to length
individually, tie on loops, measure, mark and tie onto the correct point on the
kite… 36 times for the NPW5 and 48 for
the NPW9’s.... HOURS!! Unfortunately,
slipknots hang up a lot in the bridle shrouds, and sometimes won't untangle in
flight. I got miffed!! There HAD to be a
better, simpler way!!
I
felt I needed strong seams for the type knots I wanted to use, and straight
sewn seams didn’t seem to have the strength I needed. This meant a new approach to the attachment
of the shrouds to the sail. I thought a
continuous heavy line INSIDE the sail would give the strength I wanted and be
far simpler than the individually sewn type attachments. It did the trick. The attached internal and
perimeter cord is an anchor for the connecting loops I use. It also helps
strengthen the sail seams, and "wing" perimeters. I [probably wrongly] call them “Leech” lines.
My idea worked, but it involves a considerable difference in the
approach of sewing the NPW kites. If you
tend to follow the conventional type assembly of kites, you may not agree with
my type of construction. My methods are considerably faster, easier and gets you in the
air DAYS ahead of what it might have taken otherwise. None-the-less, choose your poison and let’s
make a kite!
To start, peruse all the drawings and pix
below FIRST, and then see
the text. Pictures are worth a thousand
words…. So, without further ado, and with these pix, have at it.
Below is the board I use. As you can see it’s quite simple and straight
forward. The most complex part about
bridling is the different lengths of loops made…. The bridle board, no matter
WHOSE you use, will save a TON of time. My board is a little over 6 feet long… approx 1” x 1” sq.
stock is used. Size isn’t critical and I
used what I had on hand.
The
above is the slider block. No need to be
this elaborate, but it works! A ¼ x 20 nut or blind nut is set permanently inside one of the side
layers the slider-block. I used a
wing-nut for ease of turning and I locked it to the shaft of the bolt using a
pal-nut. [Epoxy would work also.] The threaded end of the bolt must be ground
to a rounded point to match a small hole or divot in the ¼” aluminum plate to
keep the slider block from moving when tightened or from falling out when
loose. The bolt shaft must turn
freely. The whole assembly is sandwiched
together with a couple thin pieces of plywood and 2 pieces of the shaft
stock. Use another short piece of stock
for the handle. To make sure the block
slides easily, glue a thick piece of paper to the bottom of the side pieces of
stock first. Check fit and “slideability” before committing glue to the parts!!! A quarter turn or so of the wing nut locks
the sliding block into place and you’re ready to cut bridles... rapidly!
The
bent coat hanger wires separate the lines for marking the tie points (Qp and Qb
in the plans,) of the Standard Bridle and multiple Cascade primary lines. The width of separation is properly set out
from the block to allow marking the proper bridle points between the upright
wire hooks. What you set the left edge
of the block to is the actual length of the pair of lines, or exactly 720mm or
28” above. Mark the lines at the red arrow
and that’s it.
One leg of NEARLY ALL the Cascade
secondary lines has a short and long side which will be marked at a point to
the left of the hook. It will be the
lower line marked. (The separation of
the lines, above, makes it a lot easier to mark that lower line as you will
see.) See Tom White’s plans for the usage
of the bridle board as it’s clear and concise.
You might even prefer his board as it’s a good one, too. His addy and link
is further down the page.
I
used a table saw to make a slot for the tape measure and glued it with
The
slots above at the cutting end of the board are the scissor guides to
ultimately cut the lines after marking.
I’ve put 4 slots here to allow making different length tag loops to
attach to the sail for experimentation and adjustments… BIG adjustments if
necessary. I can make 4”, 6”, 8”, and
10” loops with this board depending on the size kite I’m making. Huge loops can be handy on experimental kites
when large adjustments are needed……
When
stringing out the shrouds you can either use a clove hitch on the left nail,
or…. you can stick the end of the line into the nail hole and wedge the nail
back into the hole to hold the line in place.
That’s a copy of Tom White’s printout for a 135Cm NPW9b Vulture Cascade
Bridle above. The printed instructions
on his site are absolutely great, so I won’t go into them here.
The “Zero” point is to the left, and the
color coded marks are for marking the IN and OUT points of the “Looped Tie
System.” Again, see Tom White’s info for
an in depth course in how to do this.
You’ll need a “Fid,” or very small wire [think “G” guitar string, here]
to make one if you’re going to use this method of connection. If you’re going to use standard knots move
the nail closer to the “0” point affording sufficient line to tie your knots,
and this board still works just fine.
When
making the lineset pairs, [you’re making both sides
of the bridle at once here] DON'T LOOSE TRACK OF WHICH IS WHICH. You're a lot
better off if you make one pair or set at a time. Make a rack with brads
(number them, A-1, A2, B-1, B-2, etc.) to hold each of the lineset
pairs as you make them. There is a diagram later in this article showing the
shroud hookup points on the sail. The
diagram below [the original for standard bridling] might help understanding of
the bridle board setup. It was just a
board with a brad nailed in the left side and a push pin for the right
side. The next shroud pair was measured
and the push-pin moved for each lineset pair. Simple, but effective, and it ultimately led
to the board above.
One thing to watch when you mark yourlines. Be very
careful in noting which of the lines are the shorter of the two. In the drawing above I suggest ALWAYS marking
the tag ends of the short lines in RED FOR RERENCE! Ok... it's time to make up the
bridles.
When making the shrouds as above, be sure
to leave PLENTY of tag line for adjustments at the sail. I have 9”
shown in the above drawings. In the 5th
picture down I can accommodate 4” to 10” loops in 2” increments. Until you are confident with the programs and
your building ability, leave extra line… and I mean at LEAST a good 6” extra. After the bridles are tied to the sail leave
the tags hanging for the time being.
You may well have to make some adjustments. Hopefully we might come out with an even more
superior bridle to what we already have now, so you might be able to accommodate
whatever better bridle that Fredrick or Larry might come up with.
At this point I’m going to point you,
again, to the internet. There are
several really good bridle/sail programs out there, with both Classic and
Cascade type bridles. The following are
links to two of them that I was personally involved in and really appreciate
the work done by BOTH men. [Actually
there were some dozen plus people involved in one way or another but these ARE
the two authors who made the NPW9b a public reality. Peruse them and choose which is best for
you. They are EXCELLENT PROGRAMS for NPW’s… < Tom
White> and < JP
Gleyzes >] Also check this website: [ http://muk.home.att.net/inShop/inShop.html
] from Mervin
Updyke. He
gives several of the better links to other websites about bridling and the NPW
family of kites. My web pages, Tom White’s and JP’s are the ones that
I mostly refer to. Mervin’s site makes
it easy to cut and paste the link you want to use, and that’s why I have his
page listed above. I won’t forget here
to again mention Francis Rogallo, Buck Childers,
Peter deJong, Jacques Bayman,
Tom White, Larry Green, and Fredrik Lejonklou for all
their hard work and efforts in the NPW kiting circles, either…. thanks again,
guys!
Starting with the first lineset
hanging on your board, tie the A1 end to the designated point on the sail
first, as shown, left. The A-1 line is the ONLY short line that is above the
other, longer line. ALL of the rest of
the short lines go below the longer ones.
Tom’s program shows this with little red bars on each of the shorter
lines. The following pix show how the puncturing, connection and feeding of the
lines back into their tunnels back out again, are done… There is an EXCELLENT drawing on Tom’s site
showing this, but a pic is worth a thousand words… I’ve also left the pix on this site in
reference for those illustrations. It
doesn’t leave much to the imagination…..
Thread the 200# line onto a large eyed
(carpet) needle and run it through and behind the seam, as shown. Make sure the shroud either penetrates or
encircles the heavier line sewn into the sail for strength. Try not to penetrate the back of the
sail. (Much easier said than done!! This
one is all the way.)
Next insert the wire loop ("Fid") into
the mark furthest from the “tag” end of the shroud, with the fid point towards
the tag end of the line. Run the wire loop down through the tunnel of the
shroud and out at the next mark. Fray
the end of the tag for about 3/8" *. Thread
the "tag" end of the line through the eye the fid, and bend half the
frayed end of the line over the tip of the fid.
Guide the tag end into the tunnel and back out the second hole.
* [Fraying the tag
ends makes the material compress and pass through the tube much more easily
where it’s doubled back thru the eye of the needle. The pic shows the wire loop and needle all in
one picture. It's a bit easier to pull the tag through the sail first, and then
get the fid in place to pull the line back through itself.]
Just as you start
pulling the frayed tag into the tunnel, it should look something like on the
left. Note the frayed end! [A
small wire brush makes this task a lot easier.] Twist the fid, and roll the point of entry
between your fingers to help the doubled back, frayed tag penetrate the outside
wall of the line. Pull slowly and deliberately so you don’t
loose the tag end inside the walls of the tube or you’ll have to start all over
again. It’s really not as hard as it
sounds! “Scrunch” up the line and pull
more line thru, then expand the weave with your thumbnail and forefinger. You may want to fray the line a half-inch for
the first few tries, but you’ll get better at it w/practice.
In the
next 2 pix, tighten the loop directly against the sail by pulling the tag and
line at the same time. Now pinch the
sail at the bend in the line, and use your thumbnail to pull the tunnel tight
over the inside line. Do this several
times. (I made these pix knowing the shroud line tags were not going
to stick out of the tunnel. The bridles
were already properly tuned, thus no tags showing.
You
should now have several inches of tag line sticking out of the shroud line for
adjustment [even tho’ I don’t show it here.]
There should also be a fairly large loop at the sail for
adjustments. Please note again, the pix
above don't show the long tag.
This
is the
Don’t use the super glue unless you are very
satisfied with the final tuning of your kite, and realize that it’s a PERMANENT
knot thereafter. I can’t emphasize this
enough!!
Finishing up the bridle-
Use the chart to the left for
a sequence of shroud lines for a Cascade NPW5. Any combination can be used; the
more commonly used 4 line setup is seen to the left. The A-9 thru 12 can be
used for brakes, also. Be sure to tie
off the RED marked ends of the shrouds to the
sail of the NPW first. Be very aware of which line goes where, especially with
the brake lines. I tie off all the secondaries to the sail first [shown below], and add the
primaries later because they are ALL the same length.
Remember
again: the RED marked ends are almost ALWAYS the
shortest of the shroud line ends. The 4 brake lines, however, can differ; but
the RED ends are STILL the shorter of the two...
The
shroud to sail looping system might seem to be a bit more tedious to some, but I
have found once learned, the loops are much quicker, a lot cleaner and easier,
especially using 50+ pound test Dacron line. This system leaves NO KNOTS to
catch or hang up with the exception of tying on the flying lines to the shroud
harness knots.
The
pic immediately above left shows the first step in tying the secondaries off to the sail. This works for both the NPW5 and NPW9 series
kites as a first step when tying on the Cascade type bridle.
The next step is gathering all of the
primaries in the middle (or tie points of the Classic Bridle System) and tying
on the harness cord onto the bundle. Do
this BEFORE tying the primaries to the secondaries! The outcome will be a lot more accurate! The bridling sequence is the NPW9b… no true
knots at the “Q” points.
See
below how to gather the primary lines.
Before you tie on
the primary lines, Gather up
all the middle dots on the primary lines (or Classic lines) from one side, or
half of the kite as shown, left. If you have a pair of large hemostats, they
will hold everything in place. Tie the whole thing off with a double looped
knot parachute cord. Most any length cord will work as long as they’re all the
same length, and tied properly. Larry
Green’s illustrations in Tom’s 9b plans show this nicely.
After you make the
primary "linesets" with the parachute cord,
the knot can be pulled tight and THEN laid out and properly marked. [Note that
they’re ALL the same length and you don’t have to worry about the knot using up
unknown quantities of line!] It’s lots
easier to tie the primary bundle off first and mark all the shrouds
afterwards. Now tie the primaries off to
the secondaries on the kite
Look closely at the knot to the left. THIS KNOT WILL
SLIP!! Note the double
wrapped parachute cord on the lower part of the knot, and the single wrap on
the top… It's what I call a sloppy
1-1/2 Lark's head or even figure “8”. If
the loops in the parachute cord were to be forcefully straightened out, this
knot could then be corrected, but do it right the first time.) The knots below
in the next pic WON'T slip..... Once
again ~ Check Tom’s plans for the special knot here.
Note the relationship of the parachute cord and the shroud lines wrapping around them. The intertwining strength of this "knot" is in the shrouds' circling around the parachute cord, not parachute cord wrapping around the shrouds - this keeps the shrouds in their proper place once the "knot" is tied and tightened. Tom’s site shows how to put a half twist in the cord as you tie this knot. A reminder: mark the primaries or classic line lengths after you tie this knot.
You will be
pleased how fast and easy this process is once you get the hang of it. Doing
the first set of shrouds might go a little slowly, but familiarity will soon
make it much faster. It took me about 20 minutes to cut and mark the whole
bridle system for a 2.5 meter NPW. The tying and looping of lines takes a bit
longer, but not a lot… an hour and a half or, perhaps, two. The Dacron tunnel can be fidgety. Only after
you make all the secondary "sets" and tie them off to the kite in
their proper places, should you make, mark and tie off the primaries to the
kite. Keep things in order and you won’t
get screwed up! Even so, I still do
once in a while… ~8OP
POINTS
TO PONDER:
Always tie bridles up for 4 line flying! They can still be used for 2 line
flying by tying the Larks Head knot OVER BOTH KNOTS. And it still offers the versatility of
"going either way", if you will, in the future... I also caution you to never fly an NPW of any
persuasion on 2 lines if it’s over 2.0M^2.
You’re just begging for trouble if you do! Even “little NPW’s”
in higher winds pull like a truck! They
can drag you on your butt or your belly down the field before you can let
go. Remember!!! YOU are responsible for any personal damage
to yourself, or anything else, for that matter, so just fly responsibly.
Good Luck... I hope this saves you lots of
building time and speeds up your getting on the field. If you want better
pix/files of the drawings, feel free to contact me. I can usually help... just ask… I'll really
try to give a hand online or whatever.
Send me some pix when you’re done for one of the NPW galleries.
Good
Luck and Have fun!!! ~8O)
Bill Painter- Phoenix,
Az. NPWBill@cox.net May the wind always BE at your back!!