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Bad piloting and lucky recovery.


FranckPG
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Got caught in a stall while upright, where you never ever want to be caught... Part of the instruction that I give for urban, low wind and water flying is to "keep your logo moving" (forward) as long as the kite is the least bit upright... Once upside down or sideways, you have a chance to glide or hover more effectively. ;)

Bear in mind, this primarily applies to break-heavy fliers (correct tuning IMHO)... Old school Rev folks with short top leaders won't have this problem nearly as much.

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Watch yourself closely - you try "guiding" the kite up by moving your hands that way, not moving the handles into the forward drive position. The kite doesn't respond to your arm movements, as much as handle movements. The way you moved, created a "neutral" command to the kite - it didn't go because you didn't tell it to!! IMHO!

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Aye, that too. :)

Moving your hands up doesn't do a lot... Better to convert that into a clear "thumbs back" position on the handles, IN FRONT of your chest while stepping backward and drawing back straight away from the kite.

To say it differently, vertical, lateral and diagonal movement does nothing to give the kite power or drive - the only thing that can do that is forward control and movement directly away from the kite (to create pressure against the sail).

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I put this clip up knowing I could learn from the veteran flyers, the feedback is great. I see what you mean about my arms flapping around. Bad form. Although I know not to move arms/hands up down or sideways once in a while when I get in a panic spot the reflex is to try and bring the kite up with arms up.working on that.


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Panic mode. Exactly, I saw the break from your normal mode when the problem occurred, obviously not the norm - your control looks pretty solid overall.

Just keep building the "cool" response, put yourself in those positions repeatedly and work through it, build a convention of response. ;)


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Plus I'm nervous about the spins I just started doing. Seems I can only spin real fast. Not sure why but I can't figure out how to slow the spins down. Plus I can't keep them level, I spin but it spirals downward and eventually into the ground as shown in the end of the clip.
Btw,John,Wayne greatly appreciate the time your taking with this amateur.


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Use much brake? Long top leaders and short bottoms? Long top leaders give you back some of the control the kite CAN give. Too short and the kite is always locked into drive, feels fidgety, nervous. Longer tops will make it a bit harder to launch, but give you much more control once airborne.

Spins losing altitude? Try trading hands as you spin. Keep the hand controlling the high wing, pulled in a bit. As you spin, it's a constant switching of the pulled in hand. It also should allow you to control the speed better. The faster you trade, the faster the spin - try to match them up.

Another idea is to think about bringing the bottom up, rather than the top down. Gets rid of the "down thought" and instead replaces it with "up"! Try simple 180* turns in place - face left, then right, then back to the left, always doing a "down turn", but always thinking - bring the bottom up. And trying to keep them at the same altitude!!

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All of the above -- plus much, Much, MUCH smaller inputs. You can fly a Rev just by moving your finger tips. Too much input is what makes the kite move fast, in any direction. Practice flying sloooowwwwllllyyy in all directions: forward, reverse, sideways, angles, circles, figure-eights -- every direction. Make it crawl.

Add more brake each time you fly. You will get used to it and it does help with control. It will pretty much eliminate the kite wanting to go off somewhere without your permission. It will make the kite slower but gives you lots more control, and if you give the thumbs back it will move pretty quickly.

You will notice some improvement each time you fly. Have fun, smile and don't forget to breathe.

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4 hours ago, FranckPG said:
Plus I'm nervous about the spins I just started doing. Seems I can only spin real fast. Not sure why but I can't figure out how to slow the spins down. Plus I can't keep them level, I spin but it spirals downward and eventually into the ground as shown in the end of the clip.
Btw,John,Wayne greatly appreciate the time your taking with this amateur.


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You may want to study the bicycle rotation and clockwork tutorials... Both of these directly address topics that combat loss of altitude during a spin / rotation.

http://kitelife.com/forum/files/file/691-rev-tutorial-bicycle-rotation/

http://kitelife.com/forum/files/file/814-rev-tutorial-clockwork/

http://kitelife.com/forum/files/file/820-rev-tutorial-traveling-bicycle/

All those tutorials are accessible to you as a paid subscriber (thanks), you can also download them and copy to your mobile device if you like. ;)

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Thanks for the reminder about the tutorials. It's telling me that I am no longer a subscriber. I think I subscribed last sept. But I did load a few of those videos onto my phone last year. Just watched the one on the bicycle rotation. I have to admit when I first watched it last yr none of it made any sense but after more time on the lines this past yr it makes a lot more sense now.
Thanks again.


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  • 2 weeks later...

No sweat John. I did figure a way to make it work. I loaded them onto my mac. They were mkv files which I converted to MP4 then into iTunes then synced onto phone for easy viewing while on the go. I'm sure there's an easier way but that's how I made it work. Thanks brother.


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