Christophe Gronier - Kite Album

[ Album ]
[ Previous Booklet | Next Booklet ]
[ Plans ]

Kite Gallery
Booklet n°8 - Pic Pic - NEW -

This kite has been named "Pic Pic" by my son and has been build following the instructions of Phil Womack for his "Spike" kite, himself inspired by the famous Fugu of Peter Lynn.

I was interesred in the fact that :

It's a kite you can build in a quite large size since it's modular - my version has a diameter of more than 2 meters.
I have never before build this kind of kite : a "line junk" self-inflatable structure.
It's a perfect beach game for youngsters if left "unatended" on the sand...
It's a nice lesson of geometry.

This last point can lead you in investigating the regular polyhedrons - AKA the solids of Platon - and it's derivatives.
The "football", or truncated icosahedron, is a modified version of the icosahedron (20 triangular surfaces). It has 32 surfaces (12 pentagons and 20 hexagons.

Models
Pic Pic is based upon the truncated Icosahedron. For my kite, all pentagons are black and the hexagons come in five different colors. I made sure that all hexagons situated around a pentagon would be of a different color. It was quite difficult to figure out and I had to build several paper models out of Illustrator drawings before I got it right !

Another differnce between Pic Pic and a truncated Icosahedron is that each pentagon has a spike (looks like a witch's hat), therefore it's "spikey" name.
I should also add that one pentagon has no spike and has instead a skirt, that helps to channel the wind into the kite, and a valve, that prevents the air of going back out.
In my version, the valve works a little too well ! I will add a small piece of line so to keep the valve open during the inflation process.

Pic Pic Kite
Pic Pic has been build during Spring and Summer 2003 and first flew in August 2003. We took the pictures of this page in September 2003.

Pic Pic Kite
Tristan (8 years) helps me getting the kite up in the air while I take the pictures.

A click on any picture will open a 384 x 256 pixel JPEG version (approx. 50 Kb)

[ Previous Booklet | Next Booklet | Album | Plans ]

Christophe Gronier © 2003

Last update : 16/11/03

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

[ Album ] [ Previous Booklet \| Next Booklet ] [ Plans ]	Kite Gallery Booklet n°8 - Pic Pic - NEW - This kite has been named "Pic Pic" by my son and has been build following the instructions of Phil Womack for his "Spike" kite, himself inspired by the famous Fugu of Peter Lynn. I was interesred in the fact that : It's a kite you can build in a quite large size since it's modular - my version has a diameter of more than 2 meters. I have never before build this kind of kite : a "line junk" self-inflatable structure. It's a perfect beach game for youngsters if left "unatended" on the sand... It's a nice lesson of geometry. This last point can lead you in investigating the regular polyhedrons - AKA the solids of Platon - and it's derivatives. The "football", or truncated icosahedron, is a modified version of the icosahedron (20 triangular surfaces). It has 32 surfaces (12 pentagons and 20 hexagons.

	Models Pic Pic is based upon the truncated Icosahedron. For my kite, all pentagons are black and the hexagons come in five different colors. I made sure that all hexagons situated around a pentagon would be of a different color. It was quite difficult to figure out and I had to build several paper models out of Illustrator drawings before I got it right !	Another differnce between Pic Pic and a truncated Icosahedron is that each pentagon has a spike (looks like a witch's hat), therefore it's "spikey" name. I should also add that one pentagon has no spike and has instead a skirt, that helps to channel the wind into the kite, and a valve, that prevents the air of going back out. In my version, the valve works a little too well ! I will add a small piece of line so to keep the valve open during the inflation process.

	Pic Pic Kite Pic Pic has been build during Spring and Summer 2003 and first flew in August 2003. We took the pictures of this page in September 2003.

	Pic Pic Kite Tristan (8 years) helps me getting the kite up in the air while I take the pictures.
	A click on any picture will open a 384 x 256 pixel JPEG version (approx. 50 Kb) [ Previous Booklet \| Next Booklet \| Album \| Plans ]

	Christophe Gronier © 2003
	Last update : 16/11/03
	This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page