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My first cup of dogstake fly


tbressure
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I tried it for the first time yesterday. I flew with the club members of IKE (Illinois Kite Enthusiasts) which includes the members of Team 180GO!, which includes Mikey Devereaux, the inventor and manufacturer of the dogstake set-up that JB uses. He was using his for a bit of fun and practice and I gave it a try. He recommended switching the handles and regarding the kite as "normal", even though we were looking at the back of the kite. He mentioned that most people fly dogstake this way, because it's easier to get the hang of. I didn't try it the other way because it was hard enough to figure out what was happening the easy way. He said that not switching handles is much harder to figure out. It made me feel almost as newbie as the first time I ever tried a quad -- a whole new learning experience. It's exactly like starting over, with all the knowledge you have from years of experience, but almost no moves other than launching to go with that knowledge. I played with it for about 5 minutes and gave up. I think I'll just stick to flying my Revs normally so I don't look like a total novice on the field, and practice in secret somewhere no one is watching. Definitely not as easy as JB makes it look.

I would say try it both ways and use the one that makes more sense to you. If you have very much Radio Control flying experience, then not switching may be easier.  

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10 hours ago, tbressure said:

Hi thanks for replying emoji4.png
Does anybody know where can I purchase such a dogstake the previous post is talking about ? Where can I get in touch with Mikey Devereau ?

Thierry Bressure
 

Join IKE (Illinois Kite Enthusiasts) at ikeclub.org -- it is free, and we have members from other countries, you don't have to live in Illinois. You can send him a PM there. He is on Facebook too. Try searching for him, Mikey Devereaux. Sorry, forgot the x at the end of his name in previous post. I edited it to correct the error. If nothing else works, PM me on this forum and I will contact him for you. I see him a few times each year at festivals and club flys. I must warn you, the mechanism he machines is of superb quality and is rather expensive. It is his creation that John Barresi and the KiteLife team are using, and if you Google kite dogstaking videos by John you will see close-ups of this machine.

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9 hours ago, kwmf said:

If I recall someones comment on JB's team dogstake broadcast I think we're talking about $450-ish expensive. It was made for high quality and performance, not low cost ... and it delivers.

Yes, I have tried it once -- very smooth. I have seen it and handled it a few times during its development. The quality and durability of the materials and the machining go well beyond what one would expect. This is a serious piece of equipment and will last a lifetime, unless you are John Barresi, who will probably wear out the bearings in about 30 years.

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On August 22, 2016 at 0:04 PM, Edmond Dragut said:

i understand you must to invert the handles ,left to right and right to left

Depends on perspective and the system you're using.

1 - If you are flying normally and hook your lines around a pole into dogstake position, it is far easier to then switch your handles and fly the kite (seen from the back) as if everything were normal - right goes to your right, etc.

2 - If you're using the Dark Spark rig made by Mikey, you don't "hook in" the same way... Everything is grounded, pilot stands between the lines (facing away from the kite) and flips the handles inward so AS WE SEE IT in this position, the lines go from the handles, into the center of the dogstake, go around the pulleys and exit toward the kite on the outside perimeter of the dogstake unit.

Here is a partial perspective with a dual line...

Pilot lines into the center, kite lines exiting the outside of the unit.

Another perspective with quad line, bear in mind the kite side has twists in and is parked upside down (handles are always upright)...

 

Again, flying the way we fly - we look at the back of the kite and pretend everything is normal, as if we were looking at the front of the kite - in a way, the hardest part is trusting the controls and NOT trying to compensate for anything.

@Flight Risk, @mystainedskin and @windpoacher (very experienced pilots) all had a go during the Team KiteLife 4-pwerson dogstake exercises, we used three Dark Spark stakes (the 3rd on loan from @cyclic) and one homebuilt unit brought along by @Amexpmh.

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And for what its worth, I've found that almost everyone I've given a dogstake lesson to has been able to find moderate control within a short period of time - it actually is pretty easy, with the right convention to get you through it.


Upon watching your video's JB everything seems pretty easy to you

Sent from my SM-G903F using KiteLife mobile app

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26 years, I've made almost every mistake more times than most folks have had a chance to try. :)

I take great pride in using that experience to try and help shorten the learning curve, there were no such resources for me coming up through the ranks and I remember the struggle, challenge very well - close to my heart.

The essence of it is, I have a lot of information - I see many, many details at once and each second of flight is longer (more elongated) for me - info used well is the most powerful force, after human spirit. ;)

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