Trick Tail Sport Kites from Active People

(l. to r.) Vented - 7 to 30+ mph;  Ultra Light - 0 to 7mph;  Standard - 4 to 12 mph (my personal specifications) To order one of these state of the art kites call Shawn Donahoo at
Forever Flying High Performance Sportkites

Trick Tail Standard (plum)
My Christmas present from Linda.

U.S. Space and Rocket Center    Huntsville, Alabama

The Trick Tail is neat in that it has so many features designed into it.  
The stand-offs are made of a .08" rod that rest inside of a .20" carbon rod.  This acts like a shock absorber when the wind picks up and allows 
the kite to resist speeding up thus making flight smoother.

The lower bridle is attached at the center "T" and the lower spreader 
on the leading edge, with a metal ring secured in the middle.  
The upper bridle is attached at the upper spreader on the 
leading edge and at the mid-way point between the 
top and bottom spreader on the leading edge, and passes 
through the metal ring of the lower bridle.   
This gives the kite a lot of strange angles to the flyer.  Cool huh?   

The most noticeable and possibly the most unique feature of the 
Trick Tail is it's curved tail.  This tail holds the kite on course 
better than other designs and also acts like a ship's bow 
when you go "nose away" and then pull out to do whatever 
catches your fancy; such as going into a rising fade.

When you add these features up you get a kite that is still way 
ahead of all the others in performance, grace and beauty.

An addition that I have made on my Trick Tails is to reinforce the 
trailing edge with a few strips of Dacron held down with 3-M 
double sided tape.  This keeps the red Alabama clay 
from eating the sail up.(yep, I learned the hard way!)  
 In the photo above you can see the stand-offs on the U.L.  
They are cut off short to lighten the kite, but the other 
two version's stand-offs go the entire distance form 
sail to spreader, housing the smaller rod. 

Keith with his new Standard (Teal)

     Get all of your parts, the Dacron, plastic screen and 1/2 inch thick Velcro.     
     Cut the screen to the above dimensions.  About 30 inches tapering to 14 inches.
     Line the left, right and bottom of the sail with Dacron cut to 1 inch thickness. 
     Make a loop out of Dacron to line the top of the sail so that the upper spreader can be inserted easily.  
     Take the Velcro and cut into 6 inch strips.  Separate and sew on Velcro strips so that one side of the Velcro is on each side of the Dacron.
     You can trim the Velcro later if you want.