KiteJan

The second home made kite, based on Didier Ferments's Papillon 4 design, with my own sail design and some additional things in the structure that seemed reasonable to me.

The shape is very striking - very much like a butterfly (or 'papillon' in French) - and looks very graceful both on the ground and in the sky. There isn't a leading edge as such - it flies equally well up or down.

At the time of constructing the Papillon I always intended to return to it and build an improved version using what I learnt in this version. I have seen some beautiful single line Papillons modeled to look like real buterflys. Maybe one day I will manage to build one of these.....

Made: March 2003

Details

Good Things

• Beautiful shape.
• Flies equally well forward and backwards.
• Very responsive & quick.
• Does the dive stop very well.
• Spins very tightly.
• Surprisingly robust for it's construction.

Bad Things

• Lot's of spars to not very much sail - therefore needs a good breeze to fly.
• Because it's an asymmetrical design it can be hard working out the 'up' from the 'down'.
• Flying on a soft field can cause the wing tips to dig in when landing hard.
• Can't sideways slide.
• Doesn't handle gusty conditions very well.
• Can be very twitchy in flight - usually when the wind is too light

Final Thoughts

It's good - the Papillon is more of a strong wind kite (which is surprising given it's frail looking construction) and is extremely fun to fly in the right conditions. Fast spins, leading to a dive-stop, then spinning the other way and flying up are fun and impressive to do. It's not a Revolution in how it feels when flying - more like a Synergy Deca than anything else. 

Well worth making one in my opinion!

Packs down to: 106cm x 7cm