How To Make Dos Pyros
Few
kites are as visually appealing in the sky as the pyro. It's elegant simplicity
and commanding presence makes it a "got to have" in most fliers kitebags. I
experienced my first pyro at the Washington State International Kite Festival
and knew that I needed to try to make one. Unfortunately, my current housing
layout made the project more than I felt I could deal with...so the "need" was
placed on the back burner.
As with so much of my life these days, there evolved a wonderful set of circumstances that moved the pyro project to the front burner. Early in the summer of 2002, I noticed that "The Kite Studio" was offering white, markable, 3/4 oz. ripstop nylon for $4 a yard. I was headed to California and Oregon for part of the summer and knew that one of the places I would be visiting had space enough for the pyro project. So I made contact with Brian Champie and asked if he was interested in a ghost delta. He already owned a yellow and black pyro and said he would very interested adding a white one to his kite stable. I said great...let's make a couple.
An order was placed for enough material for two pyros. The markable ripstop was ordered for the tails and regular 3/4 oz. was ordered for the sail. 3250 and 3750 spars and associate connectors were requested along with webbing and end caps. All items finally arrived at San Ramon so it was time to get started.
An
eight foot by four foot piece of plywood makes a nice table for a project this
size. The sail of the pyro is six feet tall by twelve feet wide and we did the
sail it two pieces with the middle seam becoming the pocket for the center
spine. Since the sail is fairly straight forward, this part of the project
progressed rapidly. Heavy duty webbing was used for the cross-spar pocket Soon
it was time to decide how to cut the tails. Tails on a
pryo are cut on a diagonal with right and left requirements. The 24 yds. of
material was cut into two 36 foot pieces. Then it was to figure out the best way
to make the diagonal cuts on the two pieces. Use of a snap line was rejected
because there wasn't an indoor surface big enough to lay the fabric out flat and
doing the snap line option outside didn't seem like a good idea either. Brian is
an amazing problem solver and his solution to making the cuts was pure genius.
Thank goodness that Brian's house has a hallway of sufficient length that made
his idea possible.
So, have you figured it out yet? It is so simple I wish I would have thought
of it. Stretch a rope about chest high from one end of the hall to the other. In
this case, that meant a 2 x 4 braced against the bathroom door frame and another
2 x 4 braced against the patio door frame with the rope stretched between the
two. The fabric was then place along the rope from corner to opposite corner of
the fabric. Brian took a razor blade and walked along the length of fabric
cutting
along the top of the rope as he walked. A perfect cut resulting in two diagonal
cut tails. The second piece of fabric was placed on the rope and a second cut
was done. Whether it was necessary or not, we did decide to try to match fabric
finishes and the left piece of one cut was matched with the right piece of the
second cut. The tails were ready for hemming and to be sewed onto the sail. In
the sewing process, two
different machines were purchased. Brian bought a new Bernina (hence forth
referred to affectionately as "Nina") and I purchased a used Pfaff ("Pfaffy").
The different sewing machines helped decrease the blood pressure for both of us
since rat's nests and broken threads were all to common occurrences early in the
project. And I don't know who taught who the unique forms of some words in the
English language in moments of frustration.
The tails were hemmed and attached to the sail. Velcro was used on the trailing edge spar pockets so that the spars could be accessed for easy tear down. These pyros will break down to the 48 inch spar length so that the stored kite will fit easily into any kite bag...and makes it more convenient for packing it for airplane travel. A pigtail was sewn onto the keel. Eight inches of ribboned ripstop was sewn at the end of the kite tails to allow those pieces to fray in the wind rather than the tail material itself. All that was left was a pleasant drive to Berkeley, attach a line, and voila, Dos Pyros.
