Postby foilholio » Fri Oct 25, 2019 10:18 pm
Ok well me personally I would fix the 5mm, but it is not a lot for a front line. If you thought you needed the pulley for A and B that is not what I said, it was just for the front lines. Because front lines are so long, small changes in tension equal large changes in length. For A and B you can just use even tension felt at the hands, which should be good enough.
Given you have checked the front lines, A and B mains and are happy with them, you now move to the canopy and check all the A then B bridles left to right against each other. I usually stand in the middle and work 2 bridles being 1 from each side together then outwards towards the tips.
As to the canopy, you could have something broken internally. You may be able to see it if you look carefully when flying otherwise you can pull on the fabric between cells and see if they move differently. You should be able to feel the straps inside. The only thing that will really be obvious that I think will cause the kite to fly to one side is broken cell walls. You pull the top and bottom skin at the seams and they should come apart. In flight though this should be obvious as part of the kite will be more puffy. It might not be obvious if you are new to foils though.
If all that fails to turn up a problem, you have only left to alter the canopy by putting pleats in one side. You want to be extra sure it is not the lines or bridles before altering the canopy, because you can alter the canopy and actually counter for a bridle or line problem. I would check all the bridles and lines first before sewing any changes.
I would not be surprised if the canopy is the problem as it is surprisingly common and would be highly likely why the kite was sold. Foils are complicated and as such errors result in their making. A common one is that the sewing machines when grabbing two pieces of fabric cause those pieces to diverge slowly in alignment. The result is quite a difference when the sewer arrives at the end of a long run like when attaching cells together. A slight twist in the kite results, the angle from cell to cell has been changed or maybe the shape or camber is changed. The result is mainly a kite that flies to one side depowered, powered the bridles can correct the kite. The hallmark of a deformed canopy is that as the wind gets stronger so too does the bias flight, it can become impossible to make the kite fly straight at some point.
Don't fret though because all can be fixed. Even kites which have flown perfectly straight can experience damage, repairs or maybe just ageing that causes the canopy to bias. To make them perfect again so too must their canopy be altered. I have become quite sensitive to kites that don't fly neutral maybe because of surfing or tricks but I just don't like any bias. I will tune a kite out down to 0.5mm from lines to bridles and then alter the canopy. The result is perfectly centered flight, the kites hang a zenith. You can actually fine turn the bias of the canopy by comparing the descent of the kite from zenith left to right. When the speed is the same the bias is perfect.
