Click here to view the embedded video.

Nice job, Paul! 

As we head into September, we’re looking forward to a busy month with a full crew.  That is, until we start sending them the American Kitefliers Association’s national championships in Seaside and the iHobby Expo in Chicago, both in October.  Phew!

Derrick was, apparently, the designated kite rescuer.

Paul taught Hector the basics and he quickly surpassed all expectations.

Leland taught his friend, Katherine, how to fly. 

During the past year and a half, Goodwinds has been searching for a cost-effective solution to this problem.  While we are working with a braider in the US on production of bridle line to our specifications, the process is long and fraught with difficulties.  We suspect that the bridle line we had been stocking for years was so severely underpriced that the manufacturer could not sustain production.  Regardless of our willingness to pay a bit more, the original manufacturer could not be convinced to reenter production.  We hope to see the new braider producing bridle line sometime within the next year or two, but in the meantime, we have located a German source for bridle line.

That’s right.  Bridle line is back!

In addition to stocking 150ft rolls of 100# and 170# bridle line in a few colors, we now also sell bridle line by the yard.  Visit our website www.goodwinds.com or click here for the bridle line page.

Getting straight pultruded carbon tubes is no mean feat.  Sure, every 48-inch length of carbon fiber tube might look straight to the naked eye, but might in fact deviate more than five hundredths of an inch over those 4 feet.  That minute deviation can be critical do the structure of a design.

We have a couple of different ways of testing our carbon tubes for straightness.  First, we can roll them along a straight, flat surface, like a slab of granite, and check for roll variance.  Though this is low-tech, it is quite effective.

Another method is to use our lazer micrometer to measure the deviation of the tube from the center.  The machine slowly spins the tube as a lazer passes over the center.  A computer interface generates a graph and, with a lot of math, a precise measurement of the deviation.  In this manner, we sort our tubes for straightness, setting aside those that deviate less than two hundredths of an inch over 48 inches in length.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There are inherent difficulties in created straight pultruded tubes.  During the manufacturing process, the carbon fibers are oriented and drawn through a die with a binding agent (usually epoxy or vinyl ester resin).  They are then pulled to a second and a third die, each time getting closer to the goal diameter.  As this is done over several feet, gravity and other forces can pull the carbon fibers to one side or another of the tube, causing it to lose a small degree of straightness.

Check out that braid!:

Paul is originally from Holland, and he has lived in the United States for the past couple of years with his wife, Delita.  During that time, he formed his own boutique kite company, Focus Kite Designs, with a longtime friend and fellow kiteflyer, Hunter Brown.  The two design and build upscale, high-quality kites for shipment all over the world.

We at Goodwinds lured Paul and Delita away from North Carolina with the promise of hiking Washington’s beautiful mountains, kiteboarding in the fantastic Puget Sound, and participating in kite competitions, such as the Washington State International Kite Festival, in the Pacific Northwest.  Paul is quite the competitor, routinely placing in both indoor and outdoor kite competitions:

 We are so excited to have Paul with us at Goodwinds.com.  He’s young, he’s fun, and he’s extremely knowledgeable.  He will be working with a variety of industries, including hobby and RC stores, to meet their carbon and fiberglass needs.  Drop us a line and say hello to Paul today!

This is quite the experiment for Goodwinds.  As you know, we have always sold bulk spectra line.  This is our first foray into line sets, and we hope it turns out wonderfully.  We know that Blue Line has a great reputation as some of the world’s best flying line.  Let us know what you think!

This is John.  John comes to us twice a week while he works on his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at Western Washington University.  He mostly helps us cut carbon and move things around, but it’s sure nice knowing that there is a computer expert in the room.

This is Derrick.  Derrick technically has a full-time job across the parking lot at a screenprinting company, but he likes us better, so he comes over to help out when he can.  He’s been a great help cutting carbon and keeping us entertained with riddles.

We are fortunate at Goodwinds to have some of the best employees in the world.

Kurt Degener, owner of Avia Sport Composites, has decided to retire from business to pursue personal interests and world travel.  He asked Goodwinds to purchase Avia because of the high level of service Goodwinds can offer to former Avia customers.  We want to make sure that this transition is smooth, but we know it will be a bit of a bumpy ride.  We have already ordered far more carbon than we have ever kept in stock before – this means that within a few weeks, we will very likely always have lots of inventory of even the most obscure sizes of carbon!  Additionally, we now own several proprietary Avia connectors and fittings, as well as the G-Force wrapped carbon tubes.  We will begin new production on the connectors and tubes as soon as possible.

To accomodate all the new orders, we have added additional warehouse space and a dedicated cutting area across the parking lot from our current location. 

We at Goodwinds.com are excited about this new stage of business and we are confident that we can continue to offer excellent service.  Visit www.goodwinds.com for more information on Goodwinds as well as the fine carbon and fiberglass offered.