50cm Cell Cody

A few months of research, and field study on a small Cody Pro resulted in this 50cm Cell Cody.  I kept trying to ask for more from the little Cody Pro from NTK, but results were not good.  I came to a conclusion that I needed a bigger Cody.  I'm not sure if it is an obsession with this design which is well over 100 years old, or just a preference.

The most difficult part making this kite was probably trying to find the plans in detail.  As I searched the web for any material I could get my hands on, I stumbled across a site with a Cody Gallery.  Geert, the owner of the site, and builder of several Cody Kites was kind enough to help me out.  His kind advice proved to be invaluable for me to complete this Cody 50.  Thank-you Geert!

Crashed!

This is my first Kite I ever built.  My mother, pictured above, played the most important role with her superb sewing ability.  Four carbon tubes of 10mm diameter were used for the main spars located on the corner of each cell.  A total of four 12mm diameter carbon tubes were used for the spreaders.  These form an X to hold the Cody apart to give it the box form.  The sail is made of thick nylon, and weighs about ten times as much as rip-stop nylon.  It was the only material I could find.  The total weight of the kite is 1.5kg (3.3lbs).  The Cody crashed on it's maiden flight for reasons unknown.  I fixed what little damage there was, and gave it another shot the next day.  SUCCESS!    

This Cody I built requires at least 5m/s (11mph) winds to fly.  The winds were blowing about 6-7 m/s (13.5-15.5mph) at the time these images were taken.  The Cody would pull on the 500lb line hard enough to make the line whistle.  The images above show the Cody pulling out about 500 feet of 500lb. line.  The Cody remained pasted to a part of the sky, and did not attempt to roam the sky at all!  The only movement I observed for about an hour of flight was the occasional climb when constant winds picked up a bit.  

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