The record for the highest single kite flown is 12,471 feet. When I was 18 years old I was messing around at college with a buddy. We tied two spools of fishing line together. Each one was 3100 yards. We let the wind take it and just let the spool go and go. We reached the end. By that time we had a crowd of people watching, looking up and saying, "I can't see it." Someone went and got some binoculars, and even then it only appeared as a tiny dot in the binoculars. After flying it at that height for several hours, it got dark. I was not about to reel in 6200 yards of fishing line, so we cut it. We later found out that we unofficially shattered the world record.
Edited: JNinjaCash on 24th Jul, 2006 - 10:36am
I once let out a thousand feet of string on a kite. That seemed pretty far to me, but that wasn't even close to yours or the record. I can't even comprehend what 12,000 + feet would look like, or how much string you would have to tie together. You should have called the record books for that one, you could be famous! Well, kinda...
Name: Pete
Comments: When I was about 8 yrs old my neighbor flew a homemade kite with over 2 miles of string right out to the end , then wound it back down after about an hour, oh boy I remember he was still winding in the dark.
Name: Ricky
Comments: The line you used with the kite what poundage line was used?
hmm Now this gives me something to try with the boys only problem is we are n a flight pattern with two airports will need to get further away. Best I ever did was 8 lbs fishing line would have been ball park 200 yards. we had it on a crank reel and had to pull the line in buy hand while the other reeled it in worked well. The kite was no in good shape after though many fibers cracked n the dowels.
I would think string/cord though fishing line is getting much lighter then it used to be. Just can't figure out how they got it to start unless it was a very customized job. Lots of force on those wings up that high. Also have to consider making the angle of climb changeable perhaps a second string that could be shorten or lengthened to reduce the stress on the kite.
Just watch out for low flying planes they be a dilly to real in!