Power Kite Forum

How to tie two lines together?

mikey1 - 9-5-2013 at 06:26 AM

i have a single line 9 foot delta kite, i have been flying for about one year and enjoying it very much,

my reel has 1000 feet of line, which lately i have been getting the kite all the way up and running out of line,

is it possible to buy another 500 or 1000 feet of line and tie the two together for more length?

if so, what kind of knot would i use?

or does the line need to be all one piece? i would hate to have it break and see my kite go sailing away :(

BeamerBob - 9-5-2013 at 06:32 AM

I know fishermen use a double grapevine knot but I'm not sure thats still best for your application.

abkayak - 9-5-2013 at 09:28 AM

i vote uniknot....you will find it on youtube....practice up make sure it snugs up tight

BeamerBob - 9-5-2013 at 10:33 AM

Quote: Originally posted by abkayak  
i vote uniknot....you will find it on youtube....practice up make sure it snugs up tight


that has a pinpoint of pressure between the lines. The double grapevine knot spreads the pressure out.

B-Roc - 9-5-2013 at 10:57 AM

I would vote "nothing at all". A kite that's 1000 feet away from you is cool and all But I believe, trite as it may be, that the FAA has restrictions on things such as this depending upon where you fly and at 1,000 feet the kite must seem pretty small so adding another 500 feet is really kind of pointless. There is so much line sag and the hassle of reeling it in.

Why not just get a smaller kite and put it out on the 1000 foot roll and then put your current kite on the 500 foot role so it seems bigger and your small kite seems tiny and tell everyone your small kite is 1 mile away. There was a flier who used to launch a small kite on 500 feet of line early in the morning before the crowds came and then he’d launch a medium sized kite on something like 250 or 500 and then later with more crowds he’d launch a larger kite and make a huge production of it but only put it out something like 100-200 feet and as the crowds watched him with his big production and big kite they’d marvel at how far away the other “big kites” where when they were much smaller and not that much further away but he created a great illusion all with kites that were in safe flying zones in terms of altitude.

A kite that drops from the sky 1500 feet away from you is going to be a disaster. Not too many years ago a Cessna buzzing a beach in ME actually clipped a kite with its wing and that caused quite a problem for the beach goers, kite owner and pilot.

mikey1 - 9-5-2013 at 11:08 AM

i agree with what you are saying, however i am very responsible, and take into consideration the dangers beforehand, i fly my kite in a very secluded area without any people, houses, streets, or air crafts around, if my kite ever "came down" it would hit nothing but trees,

i don't fly my kite to try to impress people, i fly it because i enjoy doing so,

i see what your saying about the illusion though, i have been toying with the idea of getting a bigger kite to fly lower, so maybe i will go that route, i just dont know if my line can handle a bigger kite

awindofchange - 9-5-2013 at 12:38 PM

Any tethered object flown over 500 ft must have FAA clearance,depending on the area you are in. The fines for doing so could be in the thousands of dollars if you get the right officer to hand out the citations. Just be careful of doing so. :)

mikey1 - 9-5-2013 at 04:33 PM

people, i dont care about laws or fines, or the FAA, i live out in the middle of nowhere, and nobody could ever prove how high my kite was anyway,

i appreciate your concerns, and i am saying this with all due respect, the height of my kite has nothing to do with the question i am asking,

my question is, how to tie two kite lines together, that is it, what knot to use?

so let me rephrase, so we do not get side tracked again, just for talk sake, lets say im flying a kite at 25 meters, and i want to add another 25 meters of line, how would i attach the two lines together? what knot would i use?

erratic winds - 9-5-2013 at 04:43 PM

Well, if that's the only information you require, that question has already been answered. Grapevine on a line.

Best of luck to you.

ChrisH - 9-5-2013 at 04:48 PM

And they are saying either the uniknot or the double grapevine knot....if I were you I would go with the double grapevine. Seems simple enough to me. It's quite easy to tie......I've done it with my fly fishing line before and it worked really well. It goes through the rod guides well and went on the spool well so it should work great for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZuqOkTumSQ

awindofchange - 10-5-2013 at 10:28 AM

Sheetbend will work if you are using two different types of rope. Actually, there are quite a few different knots that will accomplish what you are trying to do.

You could also just tie a overhand loop in your line, then attach the second with a bowline. If you don't care about getting them back apart afterwards, just tie a simple square knot with keepers.

cheezycheese - 10-5-2013 at 10:44 AM

Don't know how high I had it, but I put up a 9' Delta Coyne so high that it took over two hours and the help of a few passerby to reel it in. The kite was soaking wet when I got it down. That was when I really got curious in the 'power' of kites. It felt like we were pulling a Tuna out of the sky. The kite line sliced right through the fingers of my leather gloves when under load.

shaggs2riches - 10-5-2013 at 04:55 PM

Could you not (see what I did there :P) tie the one string with a figure eight knot and then attach the other string with a larks head knot? I'm definitely inexperienced in knot tying, but think that is essentially the knots used to attach our lines to a bridle of a kite no?

mikey1 - 11-5-2013 at 02:12 PM

Quote: Originally posted by cheezycheese  
Don't know how high I had it, but I put up a 9' Delta Coyne so high that it took over two hours and the help of a few passerby to reel it in. The kite was soaking wet when I got it down. That was when I really got curious in the 'power' of kites. It felt like we were pulling a Tuna out of the sky. The kite line sliced right through the fingers of my leather gloves when under load.


Lol, thats hilarious,

it must have been up alot higher than my 1000 feet cause it normally only takes me about 15 mins to reel it back in depending on the wind,

i got a bit nervous last night, without realizing it i hit the end of my spool (normally i stop with about 50 feet on the reel),

luckily it was tied to the reel, but it was tied very loose around the reel, which means i could not get it started to reel it back in, it would just spin freely without winding the line in, and of course i was alone,

after about 15 mins of struggling i was able to pull some line slack with one hand and reel the slack with my other hand, not an easy thing to do but managed to get it back in,

sorry for the sidetracking here, thank for all the suggestions about the knots, i will youtube them all and decide whats best

BeamerBob - 11-5-2013 at 03:57 PM

I thought the tactic to bring down a big single line was to pull it down and don't start reeling till the kite is securely on the ground. That has you pulling with your arms instead of your hands and the windup goes much faster that way.

BeamerBob - 11-5-2013 at 03:58 PM

I thought the tactic to bring down a big single line was to pull it down and don't start reeling till the kite is securely on the ground. That has you pulling with your arms instead of your hands and the windup goes much faster that way.

mikey1 - 11-5-2013 at 04:27 PM

Quote: Originally posted by BeamerBob  
I thought the tactic to bring down a big single line was to pull it down and don't start reeling till the kite is securely on the ground. That has you pulling with your arms instead of your hands and the windup goes much faster that way.


im not sure what other people do,

but i have always reeled mine in,

i could not imagine having 1000 feet of line on the ground, it would be a mess and probably in many knots