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Blog Knowledge Dump and Slow Motion Landings at the Beach


Happyspoon

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In the short time since I started this blog I've gotten tonnes of informative feedback on my flying! My key takeaways were:

  1. Learn figure flying/develop a bit of a warm-up routine. With this I can learn to fly the same way in different winds, monitor my progress more easily, and 'tune in' to the session. 
  2. Learn how to slide, stall, and control the kite holding on to the straps as well as with my fingers on the line leaders. I'd like to feel out all the different ways people hold their lines and see which ways work best for me in different winds. 
  3. Learn some of the gentler ground recoveries. This will of course mean less time doing the 'walk of shame'. Reminder to myself here to go check out the kite if my landing was at all rough so as to not damage things. 
  4. Give more slack when trying tricks. In the same vein learn how to comfortably walk forward and backwards to moderate the kite's speed.
  5. Spend time both "provoking" the kite with various inputs and feeling how it responds/how to recover from it. This should help me get a feel for the feedback the kite can give through the lines (and visually) so I can modulate my inputs. 
  6. Conversely, spend a little time just practicing the inputs kite-less while watching some tutorial videos. This should help me remember the "order of operations" for different tricks. I'm thinking I should do this standing up and move a little forward when the kite is supposed to have slack, and backward when I'm supposed to be coming out of the trick. 
  7. Be patient. I can do this :)
  8. Have fun. Not a problem at all for me with a kite in the air!

I got out briefly in high winds over the weekend but packed it up pretty quickly then got to fly a micron with a big tail owned by a fellow kilter (Thanks Martin, it was amazing)! I brought my kite when our house was going to got to the Fair on Sunday and it paid off as we bailed and went to the beach instead. The wind was pretty good but there wasn't much safe ground space so I practiced landings. Here is a cut of some landing attempts in slow-motion. 

 

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Well organised and efficient list of yours! 

I kind of got distracted from your flying when I saw how well resolved the video was, how the sail deformed in slow mo and the reflection of the sun from the LSs. Therefore I had to re-watch it.

Are there even things to add to your list? Possibly, in the spirit of "Kite Flying with Intent", a detailed (short term?) flight plan. On the other hand the list of yours should keep you occupied for a long time.

Another thing that might come to use later (even a long time later) when you have learned something reasonably well, look for imperfections (you are already doing this), but then also vary the trick/turn/landing/take-off and then look for anything that can be improved.

Examples:

  • Your successful snap stalls (in the video at least) are done so that the nose of the kite for a moment points to your right. When the landings work well enough for you - try the other direction.
  • Last Saturday when flying squares I made a variation from the usual square. Usually, not to twist the lines, I make the top right corner turn an outwards 3/4 turn, while the three remaining turns are 90 deg turns inward. When I instead made the top right inwards it wasn't very good compared to the other turns.
  • During the same Saturday I also realised the my basic landings with time started to have unnecessarily large margin and when landing with my Tramontana the final landing site was not directly under the vertical dive.

> I'm thinking I should do this standing up and move a little forward when the kite is supposed to have slack, and backward when I'm supposed to be coming out of the trick. 

Funny, when out in the garden trying to add the good parts from the previous tennis session to the "repertoire" I've quite recently added a just a few steps of running (before hitting the non.existent ball) to better simulate the real situation (I only play once a week and typically only 5-10 minutes of simulation at home in the garden while trying to hide from the neighbor's view). 

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Thanks Exult! I'm so glad these videos have a bit of value beyond just for my learning process! I'm starting to remember what the cameras are seeing which adds an interesting layer to kiting sessions. 

I like the flight plan idea and it would go well with my figure flying. Plus I can look at it after the session and see how much of the plan I was able to follow through on. 

Yeah it would be great to be able to dive straight down and snap stall/land right where I want to. I guess more practice ;) 

I'm glad I'm not the only one to do a little simulation :) I couldn't fly for the past two days so I've been brushing up on tutorials and practicing inputs. 

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