Speedwing Bridle

The plans for the speedwing kite are published on the web, but I couldn't follow the very breif description of the bridle.  I ended up sending lots of emails and doing some guesswork.  Here's my results...

The hardest thing in adjusting the speedwing bridle is getting the nose far enough back.  When my kite is hanging from the flying lines, with the nose touching the ground, the rear spreader is about 30 cms (1 foot) off the ground.  Thats how far back the nose needs to be.  It can be difficult to take off like this, but if the nose is any further forward, the kite will take off easily, rise into the air, the kite will level out, and then plummet to the ground.

Here is a diagram of how I built my bridle...

(When I'm completely happy with my bridle, I'll add dimensions to this diagram.)

The blue line is one long line, tied securely to the frame at both sides, and at the nose.  I tied a loop in the blue string, fed it through a hole in the nose and tied it off to allow easy adjustment of the nose angle.  The nose can be pulled in by pulling the loop further through before tying off, or let out just as easily.   Without this, the nose angle can be adjusted by adjusting the green and red lines, but this is not ideal, because adjusting these lines also adjusts the from the two line attachment points to each other and to the kite, and this will adjust the performance of the kite.  Also, the red and green lines need to both be adjusted equally, whereas adjusting the blue line is a single adjustment.

The red and green lines are tied securely to the kite frame at the sides, and larks headed onto the blue line.  The red and green lines are not tied to each other where they cross.  I thought this was rather odd, because when the kite is turned one way, the red and green lines bend over each other, effectively shortening the lines, and when the kite is turned the other way, the red and green lines separated, so they are not shortened.  But, I haven't noticed this affecting the performance of the kite, so it mustn't be a big problem.

The grey cirle is a ring tied onto the blue lines and adjustable up or down to adjust the point where the blue lines diverge.  This should ideally be about 40 cm from the nose.  Some people have it much closer to the nose, to let the nose out, but with my nose loop adjustment in the blue line, the ring can be optimally placed without having to consider the nose angle.