Kites

Gather notes and questions about our lifters here -- types, tuning, pros and cons

diameter sticks rokkkaku

I am new here and my first KAP project is building a rokkaku 2.4 m, I have already found many drawings with the sizes or proportions but usually the diameters of the carbon poles are missing, this seems important to me not to make it unnecessarily heavy or just too light with the risk of breakage
it will also depend on the wind force, but is there a calculation or is it all experience?
I would have liked some tips.

greets mcnail

Comments

  • As far as we can tell, the spine is less important (i.e. less force acts on it) than the ribs - so say 6mm spine, 8 mm ribs, or (since it's a 2,4 m rok) both 8 mm

  • Welcome Mcnail,
    I live close to Antwerp in Zeeland. Like you, I have built kites since the nineties. I picked up KAP last year with a Canon S100 using CDHK. It's a very user friendly, no hassle approach. As to your Rokkaku, I have a 240 x 200 cm Rokkaku. It's very powerfull. In fact I think it's overpowered for lifting a camera. I switched to a 190 x 150 cm Rok recently. It is much more manageable. Do you intend to build a 2,4 square meter Rokkaku? In that case, 8 mm carbon for the spine, 6 mm. carbon for the spreaders could work. But I would prefer 10 mm (spine) and 8 mm (spreaders) glasfiber, specifically for the spreaders. Spreaders on a Rok should be flexible.
    voor de duidelijkheid nog even in het Nederlands: voor een 2,4 m2 Rokkaku zou ik kiezen voor 10 mm glasvezel voor de staander en 8 mm glasvezel voor de liggers. Succes met de bouw.
    groeten,
    Cor

  • hello cor
    the rokkaku of 2.4m is just an idea of mine to have sufficient lift, I have no experience with lift and kite surface all ideas are welcome. I'm worried about not having enough lift with little wind, nothing has been decided yet so all possibilities are still open.
    marc

  • edited May 2021

    I wouldn't recommend building such a big kite for your first attempt. A 2 meter Rokkaku can handle pretty light winds if it's made with light materials, and it will be much less cumbersome than the 2.4 meter version you have in mind. Bigger kites can easily become too heavy or flexible and not fly well, so they are tricky to design and build. For a 2 meter Rokkaku, I recommend Icarex PC31 sailcloth (or similar) and SkyShark P4X spars (wrapped carbon tubes) all around, if you can get them where you are. That will do very well for light winds and still pack up into a manageable size just by taking out the center spine.

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