Jump to content
KiteLife Forum

websherpa

Members
  • Posts

    35
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Favorite Kite(s)
    2 line sport
  • Flying Since
    2012
  • Country
    United States
  • Gender
    Male

Recent Profile Visitors

1,592 profile views

websherpa's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/7)

15

Reputation

  1. websherpa

    E-cigs ? Vaping ?

    I was hoping this was a post about using e-sigs to create vapor trails while flying kites... Anyone do anything like this? To address the issue at hand thanks for sharing the information. As a non-smoker I hadn't put much thought into the issue. Sounds like the e-cigs can play a really positive role in folks lives. Congrats on the health improvements all...
  2. Has anyone flown commercially with a kite in a carry on piece of luggage? I don't know if I will have a chance to fly it so it's not worth the check baggage fee. Kite will be broken down along the leading edge to fit in rolling luggage. Carbon frame with dynema line on plastic winders.
  3. Any hilltop meadows? Even in bad areas there can be a few sweet spots.
  4. Is this your first dual line? I feel like it took me 40+ hours to really get a feel for flying at the bottom of the wind range and I still struggle as my stalls aren't as stable as they could be. If you feel like you can fly other kites near the bottom of their wind range but not this one I would suggest the bridal needs some adjustment or something else isn't configured correctly on the kite.
  5. Were you pushing both lines while flying down to regain ground or to maintain consistent speed? Also what kind of sunglasses do you wear flying straight into the sun?
  6. Always love your vids, these two were no exception. Thanks and nice work.
  7. Not specific to kite lines but for rescue lines using the same materials (dynema/spectra) suggestions are always to use a very mild dish soap, hand wash and air dry. I would say you can start with that but since failure of a kite line is not life or death you could potentially be a little more aggressive in the cleaning.
  8. Kites seem to resonate with some people and not as much with others. My girlfriend can fly dual lines just fine, but after 10 minutes or so of flying she is usually done and ready to move on with her day. On the other hand I spend hours in a field flying kites. When I was 13 I made a delta-conye single line kite in algebra class with dowels and tyvek. I flew that kite whenever I could for years until one fateful day I the line broke in super heavy wind and the kite floated off into obvlivion. Well actually it was a farmers field. He was nice enough to let me look around for the rest of the evening but I never did find it. If you're son has the bug he's going to love anythign that gets in the air and the better it flys the more fun he will have. In my experience the foils fly great. If there is enough wind for them to inflate they are stable, predictable flying machines. The inputs are the same as flying a rigid kite so the skills will transfer. At $35 my foil was so cheap I didn't care if it wasn't fun, it was worth trying. I keep it with me every time I go fly in case the wind gets really big and I don't want to break the good kites. I also use it if random kids/adults want to try flying a dual line. I'm happy to let a stranger repeatedly crash my $35 kite. Not so with the more fragile ones.
  9. I'm not sure you would even know what the stretching feels like unless you had good lines and budget lines to fly. For me it's most noticeable when trying to make square turns but it shows up all over. It's like using a slinky to control the kite vs rods. One lets you pull without doing much for a while then over exagerates your input a second or two after you made the input. The other is instaneous and precise. I own a beetle and have mixed feelings about it. It will take an absolutely massive amount of abuse and it's cheap. That said I spent too much time on it trying to learn to fly better when the kite was a major limiting factor. With that said I think small foils offer the ability to drive a kite around and develop basic skills in a package that can be cheap, user friendly and lacks rigid parts to break. They need a little more wind to really be fun though, so as Wayne mentioned it may create a disparity between your desired wind speed and that of your son's kite. I own an HQ syphony 1.3 which sold for $35 and flys (no tricks) around on budget lines far better than the beetle ever did on perfomance lines. There are a number of other kites from nearly all the manufacturers making foils around the same size that I'm guessing would work just as well.
  10. Best wind range is usually at the bottom of the kites wind range where it is EASY to stall it. The easier the stalls the less work doing slack lined tricks. Some tricks like a little more or a little less, but in generally on the verge of not flying seems to work the best for me. I'm not sure what lines you are on, so can't say for sure. Even as a novice I can tell a huge difference between budget line and the perfomance synthetics (dyneema/etc). The stretch is the biggest issue. You're stock line should be appropriate weight for your kite though. For very light wind applications you may find lighter line helpful but tackle that issue when you get there.
  11. First trick I learned was the axle and it's by and far the easiest to learn because the inputs are simple and you can be extremely ham fisted and still get good results. I'm far from an expert but I feel the snap stall while difficult to get right is more of a building block and worth working on early. From my experience the wind will let you know what your bridle settings should be and what kind of tricks are available. I started a thread not too long ago asking about yo-yo stoppers and roll-ups and the general consensus was if there aren't yo-yo stoppers you can do the tricks but the sail probably isn't re-enforced and may suffer from line chaffing on the back side.
  12. Not sure what wind speeds you are dealing with but the HQ symphony 1.3 foil is awesome as a beginner two line kite. It doesn't trick but it does track and turn much better than the beetle. With that said it needs a little more wind than the beetle so it could be a nice compliment rather than replacement.
  13. The Nocks I have are better described as slip in.
×
×
  • Create New...