I was flying on Friday, good mostly steady light winds and had 2 break throughs- one accidental and one just a click.
First I was playing at the outer wind window edges when I pushed too far as the wind died a tad - and suddenly my kite stalled directly overhead and started falling at me from 80' up. I had a string of thoughts "I should catch it, I know it can be done, I hope it doesn't hurt- that is silly it is a light kite, dang it is falling fast, oh sh*t it is now or never....." And suddenly it was in my hand. A feeling of silly disbelief settled in as I watched the lines settle to the grass. My first catch, had not even achieved that on 30' lines.
Later, when the wind calmed more I was trying the inverted glide forward for field recovery. My inverted glide forward has been inefficient and wobbly at best. Well this time a line from JBs light wind article came to my head like a whisper from Obi Wan to Luke:
JB: "However, when executed properly, I can gain even more field than with a dual line kite, as much as 100-300 feet of field in a single jog!"
I don't know why but the word jog struck me hard and so I tried jogging forward. The inverted kite glided forward as smooth as could be, without a wobble or bobble. I would have thought that the less controlled inputs from my jogging hands would have been a problem, but I think that the speed let the kite drift in front on slack lines. I made up 2-3x the ground that I have ever made before more smoothly than ever.
Hope it works next time and was not just a fluke....
Life is good because there is always something left to amaze you if you just find time to be amazed.
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