New Flight PB over 400 yards

 The mk2 flight bow, now draws a little over 50# and with 20" arrows I just broke the 400yard mark!
The two arrows that got past 400yards were quadrant bamboo 180 and 185 grain.
The bow probably doesn't fit neatly into any of the official classes set out by any of the archery organisations (I believe the only class for wooden bows is English Longbow), but I consider that to be their fault rather than mine.
I am simply competing against myself for my own enjoyment.

Update:- next week, it didn't shoot so far. I put it back up on the tiller and the draw weight had dropped to 45# from the 53# that it was the previous week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcErLa_wpi0

Flight bow & Arrows Test Shots

 I only took about 5 shots, the string was coming off, probably due to oscillations after the string had hit home, as there was no limb damage.
Furthest shot was 301 yards, that was the penultimate shot. I was getting used to the flipper and could watch the arrow onto the brush rest and loose without having to consciously think about how to do it.
I was a tad disappointed, but realised I didn't actually know the draw weight at that length of draw.
When I got home I tested it and it was only 32 pounds! So 300 yards is very respectable.
None of the arrows broke and the furthest was 170 grain. The quadrant bamboo arrows flew well and the neon yellow paint showed up well. The superglued thin card fletchings seemed to work well, although one had a chunk taken out of the vane that pointed down.
I think those limbs could have drawn much further, but the string issue needs sorting.
I've cut a couple of inches off each limb and I'll mount them with less deflex. That's made the tips wider, so I have room to improve the string alignment and maybe incorporate some tip stiffness and string catchers.
All in all a good learning session.

Wooden Flight Bow & Arrows

 I've been beavering away with the flight bow test bed, mounting boo/Yew limbs in a plywood shoot through riser (several videos on my Youtube channel ( @delcat8168) ).

I've had a test shot which was promising, but now the problem is making arrows! I'm experimenting with 4 section cane arrows made from heavy warbow cane arrows, sawing them along their length sanding the sawn faces and gluing back together, then repeating the process having rotated the shaft 90 degrees.

I'm also experimenting with compressing wood using heat and pressure like was used to produce "forgewood" shafts back in the 70's 80's.
Making arrows isn't my fave, but a flight bow isn't much good without them!
I changed the set up to use 2 5ton jacks, draped an insulated blanket over the rectangular tube sections to hold the heat in. I clipped the moveable rectangular tube up underneath the top one while I blasted hot air through them from a hot air gun while the wood was steaming. The wood was about 20mm square and 20 " long. When it was compressed it was sawn along the length to give two shafts.
i think I squeezed a bit hard as a load of resin came out despite it being very old timber.
I need to experiment with other wood.
It certainly proves it can work as a DIY process.
If anyone wants to do full length arrow shaft, I'd guess you'd want 3 jacks or two heavier duty ones.
The rectangular tube was 60x30x3mm wall thickness. The other metal was odd stuff I had lying around. 

Harry Drake and Flight Archery

 I bought the book, Harry Drake and Flight Archery by Kay Koppeldrayer on E-bay, it had to be shipped over from the US.
If it is your area of interest, I thoroughly recommend it.
Flight is maybe a bit niche, and my particular interest within that niche is wooden bow, wooden arrow.
The book pulls together a wealth of biography and information not easily accessible elsewhere. 
It's re-kindled my interest in flight and given areas for further work and experimentation.
The point of this post is to lay out those topics before I forget them.
I think I have a good candidate for a bow (my Osage flight bow) I also have ideas for further bow developments, some based on my previous bows. The main area that needs development is the arrows.
1. Short arrows for use with short draw bows or bows with overdraws. I need to make many more arrows.
2. Compressed wood for arrow shafts? Surface finish? velum vanes?
3. Release aid, flipper or mechanical.
5. Brush rest.
6. Yew bow heat treated belly, with very solid substantial riser approx equal length to the limbs. Shoot through design.
Maybe with takedown style limbs (Yew limb reinforced with thread binding at root to allow fixing to (adjustable?) riser. Forward mounted grip High poundage to brace.
Aim for 60-70# @ 23" using 20-21" arrows?
Refer to H bow (~ 36" long) for comparison.

Flight Bow Experiments

 I haven't posted for ages, but the experiments with my Osage flight bow needed documenting for my own sanity.
The bow was originally somewhere between 70-80# shooting a 27" flight arrow (measured to the BELLY of the bow). Having overdrawn and stuck the point of an arrow into the belly a tip overlay sheared off. I repaired it, but didn't have the bottle to shoot it again.
So... I reworked it down to about 60# @26" ( I didn't want to draw it further on the tiller).
My PB had been 341 yards, and now the re-worked bow shoots 320yards (using the same arrows).
I've eased off the arrow pass and done a slight sideways correction at the arrow pass with heat (The bow was curved to the archers right away from the arrow pass).
High speed video at 1000 frames per second shows good arrow flight, and I thought adding an extended shelf to give 3" of over draw and therefore a shorter lighter more aerodynamic arrow might get it shooting further. Video shows the arrows rotating and tipping over at about 45 degrees after a few yards of flight, so there is a lot of tuning work to do. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAIq9j6HsfE
Shooting with the shooting machine has it's own problems, clamping the bow too hard can cause misalignment of the string. The papier mache extended shelf shows some promise.

The other problem is arrow mass and spine, the best performing arrows seem to be about 280-300 grain, lighter was giving more speed but less distance in live trials on the field. I haven't got good speed figures using the overdraw shelf and chrono yet. Maybe the arrow isn't flying true through the chrono, I'm also not utilising the full overdraw as I'm short drawing with the machine, for fear of over stressing the wood.

Another question, is the lower limb a tad weak?

Hickory Warbow

The bow is from a 3x2" length of Hickory lumber. I was aiming for 120#, but due to my second rough out being a bit over enthusiastic I ended up with a weak point meaning it would only be 100#.

The belly is heavily heat treated, which helps it get to 100# (at 31") it performs smoothly and better than expected according to JT, who actually wants me to make him one at 120#.
One of the other chaps from the club, Innis, wants an 80# elb, and is happy for me to re-work the 100# as it is still fresh (only had 4 arrows shot from it), so all in all, that's a win-win situation.
The real point of this post is to make note of some dimensions as a reference:-

Overall length (nock to nock) 75.5"
Centre line width             34.6mm    thick 26.1mm
12" along (lower limb)    32.9                    19.3
24"                                   29.2                    18.9
36"                                   16.5                    13.4

Those figure probably don't meet the 5/8 thickness/width rule for an ELb, but once re-worked it will be fine.
To reduce it from 100# to 80# could theoretically be achieved by reducing the width to 80% but that would probably make the tips too narrow, however I can reduce the width a bit and then round the belly to make it more ELB and less AFB.
The build and test shot videos are all on my Youtube channel, here's the link to the test shooting:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZrILwkx3sg

I've since re-worked it as an 80# elb mostly by reducing the width and slightly rounding the belly without removing th heat treating from the middle of the belly at all.

Hickory Kid's Longbow (aide memoire)

 I recently got some nice rough sawn Hickory from an old mate of mine (he'd bought up a load from someone who was shutting up shop many years ago), I hadn't done anything with it yet, then my mate JT asked if I had a light weight bow to suit an 11yr old lad (about 20-25# and 25"draw).
It seemed like a good opportunity to saw out a slat of Hickory and give it a try.
Unfortunately I didn't take any pics as I was in a rush to hand it over to JT who was going to finish sanding it and fit a leather grip.
I took it to the club and actually roved with it! I had to treat most marks as a par 2! But I was happy to be shooting something light as my left elbow has been giving me gyp (tennis elbow), I even tried it shooting one of JT's warbow arrows which flew surprisingly far!
Anyhow I got JT to take some measurements for future reference as I'm thinking of maybe trying a 35# Hickory flight bow.

Length 55" nock to nock, 25# @ 24" 
Bow width and thickness at; Nock: width: 10.5mm, depth 9.0mm Mid: width 20.3mm, depth11.2mm Ctr-width: 22.3mm, depth 17.3mm