Delta wood dowel kite - 3/4 scale

by John Green
(Cape Town, South Africa)

I purchased the E-book on building the MBK Delta (Light) wood dowel kite.

Highly recommended and I am an experienced kite builder.

Here where I live hard wood dowels are 6mm and only 910mm in length.

Also green garden bags are 900 X 750 so I decided to build a 3/4 scale version.

I got my wife to help with the cutting out of the plastic bags as its tricky to keep it
still.

I made sure to check the weight and stiffness of the two side spars. Also chose a
stiff spar for the center support.

When it came to the cross-bar spar I added two twisted rubber bands on the insides
of the tying notches on the spar. So you lace up the spar and roll the bands outwards
to tension the cross-bar spar.

The test day was perfect with a light steady breeze, the kite left my hand and climbed
strongly with only a few tugs on the line. My winder looks like a party ratchet, only
larger and in wood and has handles on the top and bottom.

On the day the photo was taken there was hardly any wind and in the photo the kite was
on its way down as the wind had dropped to nil.
I also have a smaller fringe Delta which I also scaled and is a good flyer in a steady light breeze.

Kiting is a good hobby for the whole family!