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It's Here!


Nick Russell
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It's my granddaughter's birthday and we've been busy with family stuff. Hopefully I'll get out tomorrow, but here in the part of Arizona where they live much of the ground is covered with sharp vegetation that would shred the kite. Going to try to find a park or ball field to try it out on.

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I am so pumped up, my first Rev arrived in the mail today, a beautiful electric blue and black 1.5 SLE that was my birthday gift from my wife. Can't wait to get out and fly it!

Nick ~ Ya Did It! ....Welcome to the DARK-SIDE! :clap2:

...please keep me posted on your progress! .... :bye1: Can't wait to hear!!!!!

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By the way, I was pleased to find the the SLE comes with both the regular and the 3 wrap leading edge for different flying conditions.

Hey Nick............

One last thing............By all means, review the video tutorials,

"Line Management" http://kitelife.com/forum/videos/view-41-rev-tutorial-line-management/

and

"Assembly and Disassembly" http://kitelife.com/forum/videos/view-40-rev-tutorial-assembly-and-disassembly/

If you only have time for one - memorize "Line Management" - you won't be sorry !

Time VERY well spent, for a first day out........(seriously)......... :ani_victory:

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Don't know about others, but I don't use the SLE (big) tube at all! Yes it's beefy for crashes, but it is so stiff, there is no flex in it!! Unless the winds are way out of the range for it (and then you have the wrong kite for those conditions), the smaller 3 wrap frame is plenty strong enough for learning on!

One tip I can give - if the kite is gonna crash - LET IT! Give to the kite!! Step forward, throw your hands out, - DON'T PULL!! You're only driving the kite harder into the ground if you pull! Better to straighten out, than put away broken kites!!

Breathe!!!

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Don't know about others, but I don't use the SLE (big) tube at all! Yes it's beefy for crashes, but it is so stiff, there is no flex in it!! Unless the winds are way out of the range for it (and then you have the wrong kite for those conditions), the smaller 3 wrap frame is plenty strong enough for learning on!

One tip I can give - if the kite is gonna crash - LET IT! Give to the kite!! Step forward, throw your hands out, - DON'T PULL!! You're only driving the kite harder into the ground if you pull! Better to straighten out, than put away broken kites!!

Breathe!!!

No argument here, on the 1/4" regular 3-wrap making for a much better flying experience, BUT, I can promise that on my first day out, I would have broken the smaller leading edge (because I had 15 - 18 mph winds). It's not so much those "high speed, straight into the ground" dives, that will get you, it's the one's that are not perfectly straight down, but at somewhat of an angle. Those are the ones that tend to snap the LE, especially if you're in the process of making an uncontrolled, high speed turn, way too close to the ground. I even watched a "newbie" snap a 7/16" SLE, that way. :ani_wallbash:

As for the inevitable crash, great advice, but rather than just stepping forward, and throwing your hands forward, you might also want to RUN forward .....(then you won't have to think about breathing, it'll come naturally)....... :cat_lol: and good luck !

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I've only flown with the big leading edge in a 1.5 size Rev once. It was miserable.

Definitely depends on the wind, I would say..........

My old 1.5 SLE, is now a "beater" kite, and I still pull it out (with the 7/16" SLE in place), on occassion, but it's got to be really windy.........

At 6 - 7 mph, for sure, it's miserable, and I just hate to have to fight the kite, just to keep it in the air......... :ani_victory:

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I never broke leading edges from ground pounding...but the verticals will pop. Have no fear! Enjoy my friend....its just the beginning!
I've broken a 3 wrap leading edge crashing at an angle flying at Ft. Pickens in high winds..

Yep, it's usually those, "not quite perpendicular landings", that will do you in............ :ani_wallbash:

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Took the new Rev out today and flew for about 2 1/2 hours. The results were less than stellar. :ani_weightlift:

I was flying on a soccer field with no trees around and the wind was flakey, blowing really hard at times and then dying way down for a few minutes before coming up again.

I know there is no substitute for time on the lines, but I could use some advice here. The kite would launch fine and I could fly across the wind window in either direction. Going right was okay, but when I went left, or sometimes as soon as I launched, the kite would start spinning quickly to the left over and over again until it just seemed to lose life and would flatten out and fall out of the sky. Sometimes the lines would wrap around the kite and flip it around.

I tried working on just going up and down, as demonstrated in the Rev DVD and got it right a few times, but more often I'd go into that same death spin to the left.

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I've received some good tips, including checking my line length to be sure they are the same. I'll do that tomorrow. Winds here in northern Arizona are going to be 35-40 MPH the next two days with gusts to 50 so I won't get another practice session until things calm down.

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