Advice for Gierl/Steiff Roloplan construction

Hi Simon, welcome to the World of Roloplan!

I myself built Roloplans in a lot of different sizes and of different fabrics. Originally the Roloplan is a kite made of cotton. But I also made ones of ripstop and flag fabric. All of them are good flyers if you have the patience to work out a good bridle. The Gierl Roloplan is also a good flyer (I built these kites only in Ripstop so far). Which one is more stable? I would say, the Roloplan is.
If you want to build a Roloplan out of cotton my advice is to use the "Werner Ahlgrimm" plans. The 200/2 is not an original Steiff size.
The original sizes are 80/2, 90/2, 120/2, 150/2, 180/2, 210/2, 240/2, 270/2, 300/2, 330/2 and 360/2. And of course some of them were available as 180/3 and so on.
I think, the 180/2 is a good one to start with.
Try to find a kind of cotton about 100 to 130gr/squaremeter. And take rods of Ramin or bamboo.

If you are in need of plans let me know. I have some of them on my computer.

I hope you can understand my englisch - I'm a bit out of use. School is over since a long time

Hi Simon,
so you've found the right and best Roloplan-plans. That ist fine. I wish you success findig the right materials.
My advice when building a ripstop-Gierl is: have a look here in the Drachenforum. Using the "Suche"-function you will find a lot of pictures of Florian's " Bauplan-Gierl-Roloplan".
If you want to reduce the sound and fluttering you should make a curve on the edges of th lower sail. My latest Gierl is a bit noisy so I will give him an other time under the sewing machine and Chance the edges. I would say a 3 to 5 cm curve would be okay. I will decide this under construction.
To make the kite stabel you have to experiment a bit with the prestress (?) of the two horizontal spines. You have to prestress them with a line, not with a curve connector like the Roloplan. Usually IT helps if the lower sail has a bigger prestress than the upper sail.
I hope my advices help - we are looking forward for some pictures...
Best wishes - Karsten

The above mentioned thread:

Gierl Roloplan "Bauplan"

Best regards, Jens

Danke, Jens

Hi Simon,
I just made a picture for you about the curve on the lower sail's edges. Right now the ripstop is in a straight line but in a few moments it will be curved
It is a 3cm curve, the Gierl's wingspan is 160cm.

Good luck!

Hi Simon,
nice to read from you again.

Here you can see a picture of the Gierl-Roloplan. I flew the kite at Fanö this June before I handed it to lovely friends. It was my part of a kite-deal. The colours have been fixed by my friends, the design was my idea.
If you take a close look you can see the bowline on the lower sail.

Genki and Gierl-Roloplan (made by Fliegwerk - Karsten Wolf)

The Roloplan 180/2 is a good one to start with. If you need any advice I would be glad to help. The one on the picture below is one of mine. It is a replic of one sold on ebay two or three years ago - I couldn't afford to buy it - so I built it.

Roloplan 180,2 made by Fliegwerk - Karsten Wolf

I also could send you pictures of some details if needed. But the Ahlgrim-plans are very, very good and detailed. What you in fact not really need is the so called "Knopflochleiste". I think in one of the plans there is a photo of it. Only during short period Steiff made this thing. And if you got some experience with the bridle you don't need the Knopflochleiste at all.

And if all goes wrong (what I really don't think and hope) feel free to ask for a Roloplan made by myself. From time to time I build these marvelous kites for selling them.

So - good luck and success
Best wishes
Karsten

@SimonA

Hi Simon,
great to have you with the German Drachenforum. Of course it is a little late for a warm welcome from my side, but be assured - your presence here is definitely appreciated. All the more as the well known 'ancient' anglophone kite forums seem to vanish more and more.

Back to business!
Since you are from GB you should check the WWW for Alexander 'Alick' Pearson of London, who became kind of famous for his so-called 'Pearson Roller'. Here is a very interesting piece on Alick presented by Dan Leigh of Pontypool, Wales: Click! To my believes very few people know about this page.

For a plan in your mother tongue for another Roller kite see Karen George's plan, hosted by the Northern Kite Group (UK): Click! (pdf-file).

A thoroughly authored construction plan of the Pearson Roller comes from Thomas-Michael Rudolph, who even presents it in English language, too - CLICK!

Cheers,
Karsten

Don't be puzzled - 'the_beowulf' and I have the same first name.

Hi again!