Exult's Gentle Breeze

Flight logs from 20th of August to 3rd of September
Conclusions can be found last in this comment/log dump

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Sat Aug 20 12:58:56 CEST 2016
GB forecasted 2 (5)

Tramontana on 25m 38 kg lines
Try to further improve the two point landing. I didn't like the sideways movement the kite did when turning the kite from nose down to nose up. I want to be able to land at the spot where the nose is initially pointing when the kite is approaching the ground.

Reduce snags by taping/gluing the Dacron (?) corners close to the wing tips. What glue to use here on the sail? Also, perhaps a line between the outer stand-off sail connection to end of batten to get rid of some more snags.

Two different kinds of Tramontana line snags.

Shadow on 20m 40 kg lines

I should really get me a pair of 25kg lines for light winds to use with this kite. Difficult to get out of the turtle after a lazy suzan in low wind - in more wind and with a sloppy exit it will snappily exit the turtle after the lazy.

Tramontana and Shadow
Fade launches OK for both kites, but was helped by enough wind (must be clearer when making the initial log notes in the future - what did really I mean by this sentence?). I'd like to get closer to the pendulum feeling again, i.e. to have some tension in the lines the instant the kite flips from a flare to a fade. Experiment with various degrees of preparing the flip by pulling and then make the wrist movement for the central part of the transition.

Shadow
When doing almost complete (depth was limiting) jaws, I needed to be quite careful when taking off, since it showed a tendency to flip forward towards me during take off, because the low wind did not press the kite's nose back much when taking off from water. The wet kite gave me the opportunity to try a bit heavier Shadow for a few minutes before it dried.

Jaws in light wind requires light pull at take off. In the other image you can see some sand remaining on the wet Shadow - just fly for a while and it will fall off.

For some reason one of the pigtails slides several cm from the factory setting after a while (even with a dry kite). I guess I should try cleaning with some detergent or propanol or in worst case apply something sticky?

Todays disappointment: I've rehearsed the rhythm of a half axle a few times (in my head mostly), but I didn't even attempt any one for real. I found it a bit less inviting in the light wind - making mistakes in light wind and you lose height if not immediately and properly dealt with. I just made the one without the pop on the top wing in the latter part of the trick, that if repeated rixels (a half axle like movement that ends in a a turtle) after a few cycles.

A bit odd was the tent that was raised in a corner of the field (I'd never seen a tent here before), almost hidden along with a canoe. After a while a paddling German guy (woke up?/)appeared. He was paddling from Uppsala to Stockholm (impressing!) and had been all the way out to Finnhamn (in the archipelago). He paddled alone and have had no problems anywhere - everyone had been much kind. He told me that he had a dual line that required much more wind than that was available today, but declined the offer to use mine (even though I told him that I was flying a German kite). I was after a while asked if I could look after his stuff when he went shopping for an hour or so.

Tramontana

When the wind picked up I put a tail on the Tramontana. Can't say I learned anything from that (well apart from general handling and as always flying with intent) but had a good time (and as usual spectators interest increased). One of the few things I really practiced with the tail on was making as tight figure eights as possible or flying in a straight line and then do a as small as possible loop and then continue straight forward in the original direction.

Tramontana with (a non-connected) tail and Shadow at end of the session.

Later, a non-kiting activity, a traditional crayfish party - should take place during August to September. Key ingredients: Crayfish (cooked with dill), various herb seasoned spirit (non-sweet mostly), funny(?) hats and bad singing.

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Fri 26 Aug 20:30:00 CEST 2016 (in fact retro logged 31st of August)
Maestro 3 on 20m 40 kg lines
GB, Quite windy

Short after work in a quite windy evening. Doing the turtles today required quite much "snap" in the hand movement. Should try more to run downstreams the next time. Doing the unturtle part of a Lazy Suzan was easy today. They rotated quickly and I took it out of the Lazy Susan quite early. Should this be considered sloppy or quick and efficient? How slowly could I have done them?

I was a bit disappointed with myself that I hardly didn't try any half axels (again!). Just did one totally failed and then no more because the movement felt so distant and unavailable. Before the next time I should at home try repeat the movement I have done on a few isolated times when I've done something resembling a proper half axle. I should try to practice a simulated start movement as discussed in a Guru4tru post (I tried to locate it again by looking at promising named posts among all his posts for over 42 pages - but failed (as also more targeted searches did)) in reality so my hands actually moves, so I have it available when I need it.
On the other hand you learn when you fly - rehearsing something you did a long time ago to avoid to forget whatever you learnt might also be a way forward (by transferring the trick to the current kite and having a larger set of tricks simultaneously available) even though it wasn't the thing you intended to learn/rehearse.

For some reason the Sleeping Beauties just worked today - they usually do, but I was a bit concerned after the failures on Gotland. What was the crucial difference?

After an hour my family showed up to join me for a short while. I'm not spoilt by this kind of surprises at all. They had been on a short trip in the archipelago on a small ferry boat during the latter part of the afternoon/evening, but as soon that they got off they drove here without my knowing it. First I only saw a girl and a dog running towards me. The girl was my youngest daughter and the dog my mother in law's German Shepherd. The beach was very close to being empty, and the dogs main focus in these situations is playing in the water (that is really an understatement - I've not seen any dog (including other German Shepherds) more obsessed by water). She (the daughter) wanted the lines for a while. She was doing quite OK in the wind, but had a minor lawn dart in the end. Doesn't matter, I was so proud anyhow.

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Thu Sep  1 17:30 2016 (retro logged 2nd Sept.)
GF Forcasted 4-5m/s 
Infinity on 25m 38kg lines
Salsa 3 (?? ?? lines)

After work flying with a "student". This was his second time. Wind was a bit low - on this field the forecast should typically be 5m/s for most kites for relaxed trick flying. Half of the time I spent giving advice and being a "kite caddy". The lawn-darts were frequent and the average flight time about 5s. The piece of advice that seemed to have best effect on his flying was to only go up one metre the first time, then 1.5m the second time, 2m the third time... Each time attempting to return to ground in a stall. After this he actually broke the 5s barrier several times. In a KL chat I got the suggestion that he should learn the cart wheel to minimise the walking (this may seem so obvious, but I just didn't think about it), so I gave him a "homework" the following day.

This session was a bit short so I didn't have so much time for my flying. Noticed that the fade launches were quite OK, while I had difficulties with Lazy Susans. Is it so that the fade is a more of a light wind trick (at least with some kites the fade can be maintained in higher wind as well though) while the Lazy Susan is more easily done in higher wind?

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Sat Sep  3 13:30:34 CEST 2016
GB forecased 2-3m/s
Illusion on 20m 40kg lines
Tramontana on 25m 38kg lines

Should have made a proper kite bag inventory first (was too eager to get going so I just grabbed the kite bag) - wind was initially so low so that the HQ Shadow would have been good to bring, but increased during the morning. Practiced figure flying (squares) with both kites. The low wind and both kites made figure flying a natural choice. My weakest turn turned out to be a downwards right 90 deg turn from horisontal flight - practice!

Did aggressive 180 deg push turns upwards at the end of the window to turn the kite rapidly into the window. The turns had an element of horisontal flight to snappily initiated turtle, but was more of a turn really. The video in the blog entry http://kitelife.com/forum/blogs/entry/194-lunchtime-slides-stalls-and-a-bunch-of-half-axle-practice/ brought this to my attention.

I find doing the fractured axel to fade more difficult with my Illusion compared to my Infinity and Maestro. This comparison is not so straight forward since the Illusion is used when the wind is lower. However I think the Illusion is difficult in one sense, but it also displays what happens (kind of rising axle) when the timing is not perfect. If I learn to distinguish between the FA to to fade transition and the "rising axle", I hope to learn a clean fade initiation as well as a new ("rising axle") trick. This will probably take a long time. If it sounds strange how a fractured axle flare to fade can accidentally result in a continued axle, the background is that I do the flare to fade transition by pulling only on one side of the kite seen from the ground (kind of same side, but after a half rotation ) mostly. i.e one hand for stating the axle and the other hand for making the flare to fade transition.

My wife showed up with the dog this time as well - two times in little more than a week! The dog ran like a projectile into the water. I got somewhat distracted. Suddenly the strangest thing - I felt much in control, became aware of that I used small wrist movements (felt goood) and the fractured axles to fades just worked with the Illusion. And this first when distracting factors entered the scene. I'll make both a mental and written (here) note about this wrist-centered feeling.

Happy wet dog of liquid horror - don't be ANYWHERE near when this one shakes the water out of the fur!

I realised that it was a long time ago that I really have been thinking about my basic landings. I've become "chicken" during this time. It was possible to turn the kite from nose down to nose up later than I've become used to. Also began to investigate if I could reduce the margin further using more of a push turn. Can one do an almost completed belly landing that then somehow turns in a 2-point landing?

The rain came - moved the kite bag under a tree and continued. Flying in rain is not so bad, you move constantly and is therefore warm and the water kind of evaporates continuously if the rain is not heavy. When it was time to go home I just disconnected the lower spreaders from the spine and the top spreader on one side of the wet kites to allow them to dry at home.

Holding the lines was the way to get both the Tramontana and the Illusion on the same photo. A bit surprised that the Tramontana isn't much larger than the Illusion, considering it's presence in the sky.

 

Conclusions from the period 20th of August to 3rd of September
Kites/gear used during the period
I used the Maestro 3, Tramontana, Shadow, Infinity, Illusion (and Salsa 3) on 20m and 25m lines.

Lazy Susans/turtles
Lazy Susans/turtles seem to like slightly higher wind than fades. Getting out of a turtle after a Lazy is not always easy. Returning to normal flight was easier in a bit higher wind and when exiting the Lazy a bit earlier than after a fully completed turn.

Fades
When using the Illusion, think of the difference in timing/"snappiness in pull"/release between a FA to fade and the "rising axle". Try to get to the wrist centered control feeling again. When thinking back of the period in retro perspective, I haven't been doing much in air flare to fade transitions without the FA for any kite. On the other hand the similar fade launches have been more frequent. They have however gone from "the pendulum feeling" (explained in a comment to http://kitelife.com/forum/blogs/entry/171-a-letter-to-invento-hq-and-some-other-oldrecent-stuff/ )  to the I'd say efficient drum hit as JB expressed it in http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/3976-fade-help/?do=findComment&comment=25782 . However I want to get back to the feeling of knowing how far the kite is from you, so that you can follow it through the transition.

Half axle
I've not been doing much except for complaining that it is my "nemisis move", but that might be OK - it is hardly so that I'm out of ideas of things to practice or "moves" that I need to develop more feeling for. Why not make the aggressive 180 deg turn as a half axle substitute for now being and make them look as good as possible?

Figure flying
Make the top right downwards 90 deg turn as good as the others. Do the mini-eight and the mini-circle as good as possible. Perhaps adding the upside down triangle figure? Do some general sky writing - practice on any weakness found.

Landings
Try to land on the spot that the nose is initially pointing to during the approach. Is it possible to make the kite flare to get really close to the ground before doing the turn before the landing? Thinking of landings, it was a long time ago I did the horisontal flight to snappy turtle to landing move. Would it work well with the kites I use today?

Sleeping beauty
Do it with maximum possible degree of relaxation or minimum of input. It looks kind of funny when I fail to give slack in the other hand than the hand initiating the initial (inwards) half rotation. Figure out what happens when missing out the slack. Can this be used to make a trick that is new (for me at least)?

The above things would actually be enough for me to practice/get used to for the rest of the year, but I'll most likely find new things to observe/practice. Learning has not been a straight path for me - detours are frequent. Perhaps writing a note to keep in the pocket when going to the field with key words from the periods conclusions would help me in sticking to practice the things that I've begun?

The automated time stamps of the individual flight events were sometimes edited afterwards and some times just remaining from the day after or so when the text was first entered. Should I use the time stamp feature as a way to force me to enter the logs during the same day or just enter the date afterwards manually? I think I'll not edit the date/time to match the actual flying event - there will be a few days uncertainty in time/date from now on I think.

About the sliding bridle line thing: 

Try moving the loop formed by the knot, to the bottom. The knot when pulled tight "locks" closed. You have it in the "open" position now. It takes a bit of practice to keep the loop down at the bottom of the knot, but it will prevent the moving issue. That is the red line in your pic. The loop is underneath in your pic. It should lock the white line in place.

Also a bit of candle rubbed over the white line will give it some more purchase, if the locking loop doesn't hold. But I'm guessing that if you get the loop in the right place to form the knot correctly, you won't need it.

So try to get that loop down to the bottom!

Great post! I like the flight log format and the hierarchical style! 

I think it is good to have lots of things to work on so you can pick and choose depending on the conditions and your mood! I know some days I am totally fine doing the walk of shame repeatedly and some days I just want to feel airborne and vaguely competent. 

It is great reading your entries and seeing how different we all are in the aspects of kiting that interest us. It is great to be able to follow your exploration of all these ground-contact, fade, and turtle based tricks! I managed to get into and out of a turtle a couple times today but getting out is tricky (I have to remember to walk back quickly I think...)

Great photos too. That Tramontana is a stunning kite! Also that crayfish looks delicious.

16 hours ago, Wayne Dowler said:

About the sliding bridle line thing:

Thank you for your suggestions. Well spotted about the open prusik knot in the photo. The fact that the prusik is not locked is more of a timing issue - I believe I just opened it before I got the "brilliant" idea that I should get a photo of it. However the position of the pigtail relative top the factory setting is true. I do lock this prusik by pulling so that it looks the same as the other non-sliding prusik on the other side. These knots have worked for me before, so I've never studied them in detail - suppose I should do so. 

I think that I'll go for the cleaning (in case it got greasy from landing in some litter) and if that doesn't work out, I'll try your candle suggestion... Wait isn't the candle trick used also when sewing buttons (to prevent them from falling off)? My other thought when applying stuff to increase the friction has been some not too sticky resin, possibly from a piece of fatwood, but this might be overdoing it and risking that the lines no longer would slide well over each other (if the resin would escape from it's intended position). When looking up/verifying the name of this knot (useful in a discussion like this) a saw multi turn prusik http://gamma.nic.fi/~sos/raaseri/prusik.gif - this one should give some more friction. This description of the "four basic/main" knots from the same site was also good http://gamma.nic.fi/~sos/knots.htm (although I'm sure you are well familiar with them).

Pretty sure the candle will be enough. Resins may degrade the line over time. The wax just makes the line a bit "grippier" ! 

17 hours ago, Happyspoon said:

Great post! I like the flight log format and the hierarchical style!

Thank you, much glad that you liked it. I considered to make it a second blog with the dumps as separate blog entries, but if I would end up not maintaining that, I would have a petrified never changing blog remaining. If anyone would find any part of the structure (or as a whole) worth using I'd only see it as a positive thing.

17 hours ago, Happyspoon said:

I think it is good to have lots of things to work on so you can pick and choose depending on the conditions

For ideal situation I think it is better to limit the current main things you practice to a few, but conditions vary and it is good to be prepared. On the other hand, one day, when the sun is shining or something, I'll try to figure out a longer sequence of many "moves".

17 hours ago, Happyspoon said:

how different we all are in the aspects of kiting that interest us

You really seem to be focused on technique and active learning, but perhaps you were speaking in a broader way about the many aspects of kiting in general?

Whoops yeah I could have been clearer there (shouldn't do so much posting from my phone!) I was mostly refering to your interest in ground contact tricks! I feel like you must have taken the fear I feel of hitting the ground and turned it into some sort of exhilaration

 

On 9/20/2016 at 4:07 PM, Happyspoon said:

I was mostly refering to your interest in ground contact tricks

I guess that the things I mostly happen to start practicing more on are those things that kind of worked out to some extent (or at least some part thereof) initially. It can also start out as something you wanted to be able to do or as an observation from some other trick that failed. The ground is constantly there as an invitation for "moves" and variations and is therefore a part of flying.

I don't intentionally aim for the ground tricks as the main thing when going to the field (wait, that could be an idea for a themed training session - and would possibly work well with very short lines causing the places you could practice in to increase as well). I don't think of ground work as something dominating over in air only tricks though.

Most of the time I fly on lawns and other not so abrasive ground. It is also so that it is common that it is enough humidity in the ground so that I need to remove some clay-like soil from the wing tip nocks - i.e. the ground is and ("historically") have been somewhat soft - i.e. an invitation for ground work. The ground also offers a source for variations of tricks e.g.: a spin stall in the air or a spin stall from a low ground passage to a landing. Also consider a coin toss, landing some times on the other wing tip on the ground (as it should) or sometimes ending in the air to immediately take off/go forward (when I learn to half axles properly I plan to repeat them for many cycles starting from ground).  You can also do a snappy turtle several metres from the ground or do the snappy turtle (+exit) as a part of a landing. 

Another reason for that I started out early with ground contact tricks, apart from the good-natured ground conditions, is that I early got a demonstration of ground work that impressed me much. At that time (end of nineties), you could then here by accident meet other dual liners. An unknown benefactor that I saw about two times, demonstrated something like a cart wheel and then quickly two following coin tosses. At this time I have had my first serious dual line (Jam Session) out just a few times (could just have been the second time) - needless to say I was much impressed. Dealing with interested beginners should not be taken lightly!

On 9/20/2016 at 4:07 PM, Happyspoon said:

I feel like you must have taken the fear I feel of hitting the ground and turned it into some sort of exhilaration

I wouldn't say that the ground is such a big fearsome thing to become exhilarated of as when starting out with kiting. Today I'd say I accept it is there, it limits the wind window and it can be a part of trick/moves. Throw slack in the lines and you have the falling (harmless) leave instead of a powered kite. Eventually you learn timing so that the ground can be a part of moves. Once giving slack to kill speed sits in your spine (e.g. by instantly flinging your arms forward if necessary), there is no need to break a kite by crashing/crushing unless e.g., you don't fly on rocks with heavy kites (for kites without protective nock covers/caps), you don't tip-stab hard with sensitive/heavy kites in harder wind or try out what happens if you do the Lazy Suzan rotation in hard wind aggressively just above the ground... I.e. you chose the risk level. 
Well there is one situation that defeats low risk level flying and that is a misconception of this situation: you think that you are in in a turtle one spanwidth up from the hard ground, but for some (experimental?) reason you somehow entered a fade without realising it. You now pull (hard?) to exit the "turtle" (after all this "should" be safe) and instead the powered kite bangs into the ground (which happened to be frozen and locally without snow a winter day by the end of the previous millennium when the suddenly sliding centre-T fitting caused a hole in the sail large enough for me to crawl through). However with time those misapprehensions don't happen. Actually there is one more destructive misunderstanding and that I can't recommend: Misjudging of distance in fields with obstacles - Tearing large holes in the sail is not fun when hitting a corner of a sign with the upper/outer side of your sail.

I sense that you feel a bit foreign to ground contact (I might be wrong) and I make the assumption that you would like to change that. Perhaps it is time for some (Peter Sellers/Stanley Kubrik style) "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Ground" intensive "crash course" (sorry couldn't resist). You already seem to know how to stall, so already there you can stop the speed of the kite in one way. Other ways of familiarizing yourself with the ground and lower the speed could be could be:

• Belly landing (flare the kite just above the ground and land) and then to a cart wheel and then take off. Alternatively you could belly launch (if not too windy), i.e. start from an angled belly position (nose away,) make it jump up in the air and turn upwards) - repeat time after time after time and make it into a good looking cycle. Start practicing in lighter winds and/or edges of wind window.
• Wing tip stands and later also coin tosses
• Do spin stalls close to ground (turn upwards initially) and then land. Observe it is not the end of the world of if you happen to drag a wing tip along the ground.

Did I say that you should practice this? - I think that I'm going to improve on the first two items as well.

Finally I found that inspirational/educational trick video I intended to include from the start ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY_bEVRKqLQ ). Not until I gave up looking for that video it appeared again. The video contains descriptions of four ground tricks (out of total seven tricks). Some day I'll try that ground roll (at 08:43 in the video). Is it a trick or a quick mini sequence? It doesn't matter - the ground roll looks fun IMO. Also it is not the most common meaning of "turtle" that is used in this video.

Edited September 23, 2016 by Exult

This is great! I just got some 50' (ish) lines from a kilter who broke and re-sleeved a set that I'm hoping will help me develop my Strangelove of ground work . I like flying near the ground as it is easier to see the kite (both for me and for the cameras), so it would be nice to feel better about taking advantage of it! Some of my favorite of Rob's videos have lots of ground contact in them and it looks like lots of fun. 

 I'm going to have to watch that video about 10 more times  The tip drag in it gives me confidence for sure. That ground roll is so dramatic, it is definitely something I'd like to work towards slowly. Tip stands are probably the scariest thing for me. I tried those cartwheels once or twice but the best I can manage is spinning the kite with the nose on the ground (looks dumb but at least I can fly out after it). 

I'm really hoping to try some turtles and flares next time I'm out as I don't think I understand what they are supposed to feel like yet. Maybe I'll make those belly landings a goal. I think I've seen Dodd Gross do them in his videos and they look graceful. Gotta look into coin tosses too as I have no idea how to set them up yet, not even in theory!

Great point about obstacles, there is both a lamp post and a sign that could be pretty destructive if I walked too far forward my mistake. 

 

On 9/24/2016 at 3:58 PM, Happyspoon said:

I'm really hoping to try some turtles and flares next time I'm out as I don't think I understand what they are supposed to feel like yet.

You have managed to turtle the kite (at least in one video). Flaring the kite is (does not need to be) not much different. 

My attempt at a flare (/pancake) description:

1. The set up: When the kite heads downwards, walk forward at the same time as you pull your arms backwards. Your speed forwards (typically slow jogging pace) should be enough so that the kite doesn't speed up (too much). Continue until your arms are slightly behind your back.

2. The flip: With your arms behind the back while you still are in forward motion, make a quick pull with your arms/wrists and immediately fling your arms forward.

You can be calm in your movements (unless you have the kite in the centre of the wind window in hard wind of course). To get the timing/rhythm of the flip-movement think that you are going to throw your arms forward, but you only start the single move (consider it to be a single movement) by the slight pull. There should be zero pause between the pull and the forwards arm fling. Think that your hands bounces on an (invisible and very bouncy) surface behind your back into the forwards arm fling. Maintain at least walking speed forward during the trick (for "normal" wind speeds at least). To make it into a belly landing - you guessed it is a matter of timing.

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Try to further improve the two point landing. I didn't like the sideways movement the kite did when turning the kite from nose down to nose up. I want to be able to land at the spot where the nose is initially pointing when the kite is approaching the ground.

Try a punch turn to quickly change direction 180*. I think I may do a combo turn, but it's more punch heavy. Punch, step forward (lunge), and use the other hand for steering input into the landing. It's all very fast and difficult to dissect. But I think that's how I do that one.

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 Difficult to get out of the turtle after a lazy suzan in low wind - in more wind and with a sloppy exit it will snappily exit the turtle after the lazy.

When a light kite is stuck on it's back, try pushing forward on both lines, then pull it back out of the turtle. I remember that bugging me about the Shadow, too.

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Noticed that the fade launches were quite OK, while I had difficulties with Lazy Susans. Is it so that the fade is a more of a light wind trick (at least with some kites the fade can be maintained in higher wind as well though) while the Lazy Susan is more easily done in higher wind?

The Fade is easier in lighter wind, and more dangerous to the kite in higher winds. If you lose the Fade in higher winds with the nose pointed down, it's only a split second before it turns into a high speed land dart. Lazies can be done without much risk in any wind, but look better in lower wind. I like them to go around slow & graceful, it just looks better to me. Fast yank & spank flying kinda looks like the kite is out of control...

Hopefully some of this may be helpful, I enjoyed reading your blog. I would be lucky to fly with someone who has the same enthusiasm as you do, it's nice to talk with someone who speaks the same language... at least I can read about it.

19 hours ago, Exult said:

You have managed to turtle the kite (at least in one video). Flaring the kite is (does not need to be) not much different. 

My attempt at a flare (/pancake) description:

1. The set up: When the kite heads downwards, walk forward at the same time as you pull your arms backwards. Your speed forwards (typically slow jogging pace) should be enough so that the kite doesn't speed up (too much). Continue until your arms are slightly behind your back.

2. The flip: With your arms behind the back while you still are in forward motion, make a quick pull with your arms/wrists and immediately fling your arms forward.

You can be calm in your movements (unless you have the kite in the centre of the wind window in hard wind of course). To get the timing/rhythm of the flip-movement think that you are going to throw your arms forward, but you only start the single move (consider it to be a single movement) by the slight pull. There should be zero pause between the pull and the forwards arm fling. Think that your hands bounces on an (invisible and very bouncy) surface behind your back into the forwards arm fling. Maintain at least walking speed forward during the trick (for "normal" wind speeds at least). To make it into a belly landing - you guessed it is a matter of timing.

Thanks Exult! Yeah I've managed to get the kite to flip into a turtle but only right at the top of the window and then I'm immediately running backward to try and take up slack on the lines. Watching some videos suggests it might be easier to both turtle and fade elsewhere in the window?

I really like your instructions for these flips, I think they make a lot of sense. Especially the walking, I'm starting to feel like most of my difficulties still come from getting my hands and feet to collaborate. The "bounce" descriptions make a lot of sense too. 

Can't wait to try all this out! I got out once this week and found no wind at all on arrival  and now I'm traveling for work but brought the quantum and will hopefully find a new spot to fly (thanks for your 'learning to fly in unfamiliar locations post

 

On 9/28/2016 at 3:27 AM, RobB said:

Try a punch turn to quickly change direction 180*. I think I may do a combo turn, but it's more punch heavy. Punch, step forward (lunge), and use the other hand for steering input into the landing. It's all very fast and difficult to dissect. But I think that's how I do that one.

I have(/had) two ways in which I will (or will continue to) attempt to address this:

1. Almost do a belly landing. Let the kite spin horisontally 180 deg and then pull slightly to get the nose pointing upwards and then let the kite settle. The silly thing is that I can do a 540 deg horisontal spin(rotation?) quite close to the ground in a reasonably reliable way, but not a predictable 180 deg one (the 180 deg is instead a failure mode of the 540 deg).

2. Attempt a snappy partial turtle and then pull to drive the kite into the ground backwards. Try from horisontal flight, 45 deg from the ground and when going in vertical to the ground. Can the sideways movement relative to the ground of the partial snappy turtle be minimised?

I suppose the alternative #1 is closest to your punch/lunge/"steering landing"? Anyhow now I'll try it starting from all three ways.

On 9/28/2016 at 3:27 AM, RobB said:

When a light kite is stuck on it's back, try pushing forward on both lines, then pull it back out of the turtle. I remember that bugging me about the Shadow, too.

I know that general trick to get out of a turtle, but that would like break the flow of the Lazy (or require accepting the the lazy + nose dip as a trick/"trick combo" in it's own). I'm going to try out two ways:

1. Make the early "sloppy" exit - Try to make it look as Lazy Susan like as possible or accept it as a separate trick.

2. Try starting and maintaining a deep turtle during the revolution on it's back to have it set up for the "unturtle" exit. The nose should already be deep down so that pulling the lines should be all that is required to get out of it. Might be impossible if the pull causing the kite to Lazy Susan rotate, makes the turtle less deep.

With the above it sounds like I would be some Lazy Susan expert, always doing them well controlled. This is not the case. The above is what I would like to try out and I'm very far from knowing that the above is a way forward.

Regarding the Shadow, I remember that I needed to figure out how to make it fade launch. I'll be observant if there are any more tricks involving pitch changes that requires extra attention for the Shadow. Is the Shadow a good kite to continue to learn those "flipping aspects" after you have learnt a such a trick on another kite to fully master that trick ("If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere" as sung by Liza Minnelli). Should one be able to do a trick on a group of kites before you can claim the trick? Or am I just too happy to draw conclusions here?

Unfortunately I can't try the above things out this weekend because of obligations colliding with the only good forecasted kiting weather for the local field. However I seek comfort in what now FINALLY have been sent and is on it's way (in transit as writing) to me: My new Kymera and Hydra kites! Let the good courier company succeed in their mission so that my weekend will not be one of agony, misery and pain. To a degree it was this Hydra video that got me back into kiting about 1.5 years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvUJ9bxB0Gc

 It is full of speed and the tricks are clear (if you watch it several times at least). This is something of a long term goal and I know that I will not get there just because I get the same kite model. But yes, I want the same kite model - not ever trying that kite has never really been an option. One thing to see is if there are any flight characteristics from the kite/video that I can recognise and now feel. Trying in my case means buying, because of the lack of OPKs here.

On 9/28/2016 at 3:27 AM, RobB said:

Fast yank & spank flying kinda looks like the kite is out of control...

I think you roughly know my opinion here (as I know your's), but that is honestly and totally perfectly well and accepted. Well anyhow, for me it is a mood thing - With the right kite in harder wind it can feel right (and for a bystander, however, perhaps even more incomprehensible than normal tricking if that is possible). Another example, imagine flying calmly with no more input than required and then during 10s do yank and spank quick moves of turning/tricking/landing and then return to more normal flying. Once again I sound like I just could do this (transition of styles) at will in any wind (which is not the case).

On 9/28/2016 at 3:27 AM, RobB said:

Hopefully some of this may be helpful

I'd say a combination of viewing from a different angle or getting a new landing description and also a kind of verification that I wasn't completely off the track (fade/lazy/wind). However even if not every word can be converted to new and improved tricks it is always nice to hear about how other see things, their experiences and relate to it. Kiting becomes more live when shared, even in this distant way. A conversation can also lead you into coming up with new ideas that you wouldn't have thought of yourself. Maybe some other part of a message can only be applied (or makes sense) at a later date when one have gotten new/more experience as well.

On 9/28/2016 at 3:27 AM, RobB said:

I enjoyed reading your blog. I would be lucky to fly with someone who has the same enthusiasm as you do, it's nice to talk with someone who speaks the same language... at least I can read about it.

I'm honored/flattered/glad/"think it is a much positive comment", you name it. Thank you!

On 9/28/2016 at 5:29 PM, Happyspoon said:

Yeah I've managed to get the kite to flip into a turtle but only right at the top of the window and then I'm immediately running backward to try and take up slack on the lines. Watching some videos suggests it might be easier to both turtle and fade elsewhere in the window?

I started there (top of window) as well for the turtle. It is a good place because the turtle is easy to initiate - it might be sufficient with a small quick pull on one of the lines. It is not required to do a gigantic forward throw of the arms. The turtle can of course still be started (in the more standard way, but with respect to the high angle of your kite relative to the ground) by flinging your arms upwards/forwards with your hands almost starting from the ground. My suggestion is to wait with the fade since it is more difficult and instead start with flares (which can be turned into e.g. a belly landing)

The part where you immediately ran backwards to recover from the turtle is not absolutely necessary. Try letting the kite just fall in a turtle all the way to the ground (leaving it in an easy start position if all went well). It will not harm the kite (there is not much tension in the lines during a turtle) and perhaps make you "stop worrying" (about the ground if that is still an issue). Also when you start practicing recoveries from the turtle you have several attempts to exit the turtle before the kite reaches the ground if you start from the top.

On 9/28/2016 at 5:29 PM, Happyspoon said:

I really like your instructions for these flips, I think they make a lot of sense. Especially the walking, I'm starting to feel like most of my difficulties still come from getting my hands and feet to collaborate. The "bounce" descriptions make a lot of sense too.

I understand what you mean with hand and feet collaboration. When, I do a the "flip containing" trick, a flare after a vertical dive into a 540 deg horisontal spin I sometimes need to fight that urge to stop my feet when my arms are moving. It is not the part that starts the flare that wants to stop my feet, but the light quick pull on one line that initiates the rotation (or perhaps it is more that one arm suddenly stops it's forward movement (while the other continues) rather than arm do a quick pull).

Would this idea of a kite-less step by step exercise be of any use to learn the flare?:
1. Learn the arm movement of a flare (pulling your arms back and then bounce into a forward arm throw) when standing still.
2. Then decide to do (and do) walking in a direction, forget about kiting initially.
3. While still being "out on a walk" start doing the arm movements. Hopefully your walking will not stop during this, even after throwing out your arms forward. (Was this your initial hand/feet problem b.t.w.?).
4. When this is working, start from standing still, start walking and at the same time do one cycle of the arm movements (slowly back, bounce and forward throw).
5. You could be finished here, but you could also prepare for a more windy day by increasing the speed primarily of your forward movement of yourself. You could even make your forward movement of yourself into a lunge coinciding with the movement of your arms going behind your back.

Now you can practice kiting without wind, kite or field. If you have any unwelcome spectators while doing this, seek comfort in this quote: "Remember:  Silly is a state of Mind, Stupid is a way of Life.  -- Dave Butler".

On 9/28/2016 at 5:29 PM, Happyspoon said:

now I'm traveling for work but brought the quantum and will hopefully find a new spot to fly (thanks for your 'learning to fly in unfamiliar locations post

I'm glad if I manged to be inspirational. However your comment might make me become a megalomaniac . I hope that it is/was not too hard to find some time-off during your work related travelling (and that you are lucky with the wind). Some careful planning with a map before to find a suitable field/place in the limited time available?

Great points thanks Exult! I managed to get a little bit of kiting in while travelling but I kept things simple due to crowds  

I did spend a good chunk of my spare time doing the flare/fade/turtle dance  

I got out yesterday for a great couple hours with my ozone in low wind. I decided to save flip attempts for more constant wind, it was work to keep the kite up yesterday. I'm going to try and let a turtle or two float down to the ground today, no matter what the wind does. 

The second log dump

Session list:

1. Breakthroughs of destruction
2. Low/zero wind session with the 4D in a new park
3. Doing basics and ground work with the Shadow
4. The day of the good looking axles - a surprising light wind success
5. First time with the Hydra and (experimental) flying without intention

Conclusions can be found last in this comment/log dump

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Breakthroughs of destruction

Mon Sep 12 12:54:25 CEST 2016
GB forecasted 3-2
Maestro 3, Elixir, Tramontana - all on 20m 40 kg lines

Wind was a bit on the harder side first, but then really quickly died out in the evening. It was slightly frustrating, when finished assembling a suitable kite (Elixir) for the new lower wind, it was time to assemble the next kite for yet lower wind.

Maestro 3
Initially a bit hard wind with a hint of frame deformation in the gusts. Rock and roll and fun flying. Not much gentle touch here. The maestro 3 had no problem in staying in a turtle, however it didn't lay still in a turtle, but wobbled back and fourth and also changed the pitch of the kite. Doing the Lazy was just a question of waiting to the right moment when the backside of the kite was visible and the kite was (left-right) horisontal and then pull on one line. The beach/lawn is quite smooth and the wind came from the sea - yet the turbulence was there. For the moment I didn't mind the tumbling - it kind of suited the scene - felt wild. However for other moods, is there a way to dampen the random oscillations of the turtles in higher wind? The wind speed went down so I could practice holding fades for a while - were by no means fantastically performed, but it felt good. But everything has an end - a brief glimmer, a reflection of the last direct light from the sun for today, was seen in front of the kite nose. It was the spine that now had made it through the worn out nose and the end-cap had fallen off.

Elixir
I assembled the next kite for the now lower wind. It was hardly worth it - wind dropped again - next kite!

Tramontana
Wind continued to drop - too comfortable/too little time left, so I didn't bother with longer line set - stuck to 20m. Time to ponder over the preserved momentum from the turn - can't say I got it. More like managed to make it look not ugly, but the old way of making a 3/4 turn downwards still looked nice (but on the other hand almost all stalls and slides looks good with this kite). I still would like to learn the "speedy slide way" by flinging the kite in the downwards turn (as discussed in the topic http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/7443-trying-to-do-the-side-slide-with-a-two-line-kite/ ) in several places in the wind window. When disassembling the kites I noticed that there were two smaller holes in the Tramontana nose. The end caps of the upper leading edges had fallen off and the edges of the end of the carbon tube had worn two symmetrical holes on either side  of the spine. These end-caps were quite short - should they have been longer or just better glued?

Two holes in the Tramontana nose. The end caps of the two LEs had fallen off exposing the fabric of the nose to the sharp edges of the carbon tube.

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Low/zero wind session with the 4D in a new park

Sat Sep 17 11:15:00 CEST 2016
KG forecasted 1
4D 18' 50# lines

The 4D session
Me being close to this untested small field/park by the sea was caused by driving my oldest daughter to catch a small ferry to go to town. The lawn of the park was 20m max physical 15m max practical line length. There were a lot of families with children in the park, but the lawn was practically empty (many seemed occupied with building some obstacle path in the steep slope around the lawn).  Wind was really a disappointment. The forecast spoke of 1m/s mean and 5m/s in the gusts - ha! The dew was still here and there in the lawn. Releasing relatively dry seeds of an dandelion gave a wind speed of about 0.3m/s (and at one measurement they just fell straight down). Remembering my previous attempts with the 4D in zero wind about a year ago, I actually considered just going home. Here in a park it could turn out to be a humiliating experience. Well it wasn't as bad as I feared and was for certain some good physical exercise. By end of the short (40min?) session keeping it in the air was a bit more fluent. Did a couple of axles and a few 360deg. The 360deg was not reliable enough to be used as the main way of gaining ground. Most often I needed to grab the kite itself to gain ground, but with 18' lines and a small field the walk of shame (or gain?) is short.

Thoughts about low wind kiting
Really, why should this much running around of the behalf of the pilot be required? When 14 years old, I built a balsa tissue model rogallo wing "hang glider" of my own design. The spanwidth was about 30cm (a foot for you over there). The spars were about 1.5mm square balsa sticks. The sail was made from thin (esaki?) tissue used otherwise for coating model aircrafts. It had no stand-offs but had balsa bows/arcs that had been steamed, then bent and allowed to dry so that they preserved the bow shape. The balsa arcs held the sail roughly in place. The rogallo wing was constantly assembled glued together with balsa cement. I never used this as a kite - just put a small weight under it where the miniature pilot would have been  - and then watched it when it slowly flew like a glider across a large room. At this time I had never seen a stunt kite so this was all I did with it. How would this have worked as a kite during a no wind day? So today instead of doing the healthy physical exercise I'd much like to have had a slightly larger kite and a metre or two longer lines made of just a few strands from a kite line. The spars should not be solid as for the 4D but really really thin tubes and only the lightest fittings. Everything contained in a hardcase during transport. I guess it would be more practical to settle for any of the suggestions I got from @Wayne Dowler in http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/7468-karma-prism-red-4d-10-3-16/?do=findComment&comment=60646

Tissue for balsa models

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Doing basics and ground work with the Shadow

Sat Sep 24 17:58:43 CEST 2016
GB forecasted 2m/s
HQ shadow 20m 40 kg lines

The field should have worked for the wind direction in the forecast, but in reality it was very varying and somewhat dirty wind. Not a really good start, had difficulties in especially in doing fades but much else as well. Trying the sideways fling of of the initial turn of the side slide - well a shadow haven't got much mass to fling, but ok I was more aware of this part of the trick.

A Shadow on the beach.

No there is no tide that you can notice in the Baltic sea/archipelago. However the low water level made a few extra meters of the beach available.

Lazy Susans are a nice and comforting for the trick self confidence with the right kite. I hadn't done any multi lazies before (and did not really today either) but when the kite was sinking down when being in a turtle I did three. How close in time should the lazies be to be considered to be a multi lazy? Sometimes it took a long time for the turtled kite to land - how can this be utilized and controlled? I think (but need to study this again) that the nose it quite low when/"in spite of" there is some tension in the lines (but how could the turtle be deep then?).

It turned out that I could do the sliding prone pigtail slightly better by locking it more (thanks again @Wayne Dowler), so it was only needed to correct it two times during the session, but there is some kind of slippery stuff there I believe. Now I have cleaned the troublesome bridle part twice with concentrated manual dish washing detergent - lets see what the effect will be.

When doing bridle adjustments to correct for the sliding pigtail, I could just as well try some settings out. Usually I don't adjust the bridle except for very light or very hard wind. It is like I'm impatient to have the normal flying going and therefore don't start with bridle tweaking unless I have a good reason to. This have meant when adjusting it I've always moved the nose towards me (or returning to factory settings). So this time I decided to do the opposite - adjust the nose way back (even though the wind was quite light). Flying felt much strange initially with very much over-steer, but this was something that could be largely handled. Returned to normal setting after a while.

I then focused on something I've not been doing for a long while - the stall and nothing but the stall. Just let the kite freeze in it's position in a point in the sky. Stalls have for a long time only been a part of a trick with a short duration (well for the exception side slides then and landing by slowly lowering the kite). Maintaining the fixed stall was not very good - practice much needed.

Another exercise that came to my mind was because of something I suggested in a "getting acquainted with the ground set of exercises" ( http://kitelife.com/forum/blogs/entry/200-exults-chunky-log-autumnwinter-2016/#comment-321 ). Same thing here, I have not been focused on doing this - more or less only focusing on on fade launches when starting from a "ground flare". I had actually forgot to do the proper set up angling the kite on the ground (which I actually did during late nineties but kind of forgot during my second "kite wave"). This exercise was quickly rewarding (as opposed to the stalls) and resulted in good looking belly launches.

Another ground work shortcoming is to go directly into a wing tip stand - I never managed to go from an ordinary launch position quickly and without hesitation into a wing tip stand. And also the tip-stabs needed (and will need) some working on as well.

There was much working on basics today, but I found that it was a good thing to do - no matter if it left much to desire to look good or if the exercise was quickly rewarding. Too much focus on "fancy" tricks makes you forget the basics which well performed can add to your over all appearance IMO.

An early sign of the autumn - the birch tree is preparing for winter. And yes the Shadow is in the foreground.

Lilacs during non-flowering off season - still looks beautiful.

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The day of the good looking axles - a surprising light wind success

Sun Sep 25 18:46:09 CEST 2016
GB forecasted 3m/s
Prism Alien on 20m 40kg lines
Prism 4D on 17m? ??kg (the original lines)

The Alien part of the session
I very much hesitated before going out on the second kite session for the weekend. Earlier this day I had sawn down a small maple tree in a steep slope by hand and chopped it into logs, so I longed for some rest. Besides my wife had made an apple pie and there was a kind of spontaneous family just being together time. No, I thought I can't give after for being a little exhausted and I can always limit the total time to 1.5h or so (perhaps)...

Everything from the tree, except for every branch more narrow than a finger, eventually ends up in the tiled fireplaces or the wooden stove heating the house. Besides the residues from the tree gets very manageable, no bulky branches remain, just twigs and leaves.

Testing a tiled fireplace before the winter.

The whether forecast did it again, much less wind then in the forecast. I had just removed my Shadow from the kiting bag (due to the forecast) and now assembled the Alien more or less out of principle . It was a long time since flying the Alien so I felt a bit rusty on this kite and the low wind made me need to work to keep it airborne. Adjusting the stand offs to an more outward position helped a bit. After a while a kind of felt in control doing the basic flying. Did also FA to fade transition when I became more comfortable to see if I could transfer my more recent tricking abilities to this kite. Later flaring the Alien required quite much input - was it the kite or the kite in combination with the low wind? Should experiment more with the pull/release of the flare to also be able to handle the few kites/conditions that requires more input. Perhaps a spin-off would be a better flare technique for any kite?

Axels are nice to do with the Alien. It got an tendency to do them flat and sometimes they even come out double. It is prone to lower the nose and effortlessly carry on with the axle rotation. Two things to practice another time with the Alien pops into my mind. Learn to do the double axle with a decent success ratio. The other is to transfer the good axels of the Alien to other kites by doing axels first with the Alien for a minute, then the other kite, then the Alien...

The 4D part of the session
Eventually the light wind flying with the Alien became too difficult as the wind dropped further. Guess which small kite I didn't notice when cleaning out the light wind kites in the bottom of my kite bag? - Yes, my 4D! I'd say that the tricking with this kite has been much limited. One reason is the light frame which require inputs much different from the kites I've "historically" have used. Another reason is that I haven't used it more or less unless I've been forced to do so by the conditions/circumstances. It could be an extremely limited space, in a hurry during travelling when my family wants to go to the restaurant or something or in no or close to no wind.

After working to have the Alien remaining in the air it felt like a luxury to use the 4D - you did not need to work for the action. In the middle of the wind window you could even take a step forward to reduce the pressure on the sail.
Inspired by the successful flat axels with the Alien I carried on to see if I could do similar axels with the 4D. It happened almost by accident when turning downwards at the edge of the wind window as if initiating a side slide, but instead only go to a "deep stall" (nose down and and outer wing a bit back) and then do a light pull the outer wing to do the axel.

Further inspired by the success of the good looking axles I had a go at the fade launches. After getting used to the small movements required for that one, the fade launch worked as well.

This session everything seemed to work with the 4D, so why not trying out Lazies? I didn't exit the Lazies, but I allowed them to sink all the way to the ground. It was possible to do several rotations before the 4D reached the ground. This day I felt that the 4D started to behave like a "real kite".

The two light wind heroes of the day (though not within the usual wind range for the Alien).

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First time with the Hydra and (experimental) flying without intention
Sat Oct  1 19:05:04 CEST 2016
GB forecasted 5m/s (+quite hard gusts)
ITW Hydra on 20m 40kg lines

After 6.5 week of waiting I had finally received my Kymera and Hydra. "Unfortunately" this was a weekend of (mostly relatives) parties and meals here. The time for kiting I had, or actually took, was some kind of compromise that lead to flying in turbulent, hard and gusty wind. Sometimes the wind direction was so, so that it was favorable to fly over water and part of the time me and/or the kite needed to deal with obstacles on the ground. The Kymera was lighter and seemed to be designed for a lower wind range, so the Kymera had to rest today.

Friday evening - Two frequent visitors that wouldn't have been bothered if I had gone directly for the long package instead of joining the dinner.

My two new darlings - Two homeless kites have now found a good home where they will get a lot of attention.

The figure flying had dramatic sound effects added in this wind with the Hydra. Sometimes even the frame was shuddering/vibrating, but I'd say that the pull was there but not so high as I had expected. I only managed to make a FA to fade transition once, while the fade launches were OK (look forward to try fades in less wind). Lazy Susans were there, but required a bit of a nose dip before the pull (that starts the rotation), but well it might have been the hard wind.

When provoking the kite, e.g. with failed FA or an axle without proper set up and too little following slack (flatter/better ones after a better set up were also available however), and dealing with the in air recovery, much felt within reach. It felt like many kite movements were within reach also when using only small inputs. Many kite moves that can be turned into trick for those who know howto. I should perhaps see some trick tutorials to get a language to describe the parts of this more random kite movements or as a help to identify parts of tricks if possible. This could really be a themed training session in its own - Flying without intention, just provoke the kite (and a site administrator who advocates flying with intention?) and learn how to deal with it. Constantly toss around the kite and let it tumble before recovering. Repeat until you find something new that can be repeated - i.e. a trick. Let the circumstances and your current abilities decide what to learn - don't attempt something that is so distant that you will not be rewarded within a year or have tried again and again without any success. Do you already have seeds of tricks within you that can be repeated, developed and made reliable?

To the extent that was possible to investigate during the current wind conditions it seems that this kite belongs to the category that falls over with a small turning radius (which I like more than the other option that the kite has a large turning radius at the edge of the wind window so that it hits the ground (which I don't like)). This was not a very good occasion to investigate the sideways flinging of the kite during the initial downwards turn, since the speed from the side slide in itself was so high that the sideways speed that you could get from the downwards turn was small in comparison.

Another "turning-on-dime" trick that worked well was the snappy type of 2-point landing - not much sideways movement during the landing. I don't know if this was the kite or if the harder wind makes this landing easier. Actually I don't know if a low wind 2-point landing is any more difficult to make look good than when performed in higher wind.

Belly landings were no problem but a bit to my surprise the (few) belly launches I tried were not successful. I need to figure this out and not only blame the conditions.

I'm not into yo-yo tricks and getting into and out of wrapped mode flying. Today I wrapped the lines around the LEs by accident more than one time. This kite seems to ask for yo-yo tricks and I should learn howto get out of the LE wrapped line flying.

The end of session disassembly turned out to be more profound than intended. The connector pin sitting in one of the DT-15 spreaders had glue residues on it. This caused the centre-T to hold it tight. When removing that LS the centre pin remained in centre-T and then detached from the LS. "OK I'll glue it back ageing then" was my initial thought, but then I realised that the area around the centre-T could be made stronger by instead gluing the connector pin to the other LS than it was originally glued to. The reason why I thought that I could make it stronger was that the LS that didn't have the pin was not very symmetric. Gluing the pin to it should make it stronger.

The LS connector pin that came lose and the cross section of the two LS. One of the LS had a non constant wall thickness.

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Conclusions from the period September 17th to October 1st

I've had a good low wind experiences and also had too much wind, but there is no point in denying it any longer, with the right kite in somewhat hard wind kite spanking is fun.

More no wind flying after the at least somewhat successful flying with  the 4D or get another kite (which will  certainly be applauded by my wife and family) even more adopted for indoor and no wind flying. Or try what @John Barresi wrote in http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/6520-4d/?do=findComment&comment=51676 "continuing a backwards stroll from the kite" (meaning always in the direction of the lines?).

Lazy Susans - continue to look for the right moment to exit the turtle. Try to do the rotations with no time in between so I get a true multi lazy. Look for an opportunity to practice the un-turtling with the 4D, so that I can add lazies to the 4D tricks.

Practice basics and make it shine and work an many kites and conditions:

• Flat axels -let them sink down with the nose and back with the wing to be pulled. 
• Go on doing the ground work - make the belly landing and take off efficient and effortless in any condition - can this be turned into something that looks like a bouncing kite? Yes, do the rest of the accessible ground work really controlled - cart wheels, coin tosses, wing tip stands...
• Do side slides and be aware of the sideways fling of the downwards turn. Can I fling the kite against the wind as well? Can the side slide be started from different incoming angles of the kite and not only when going parallel to the ground to the end of the wind window. 

Finally and obviously - get to know the two new kites, the Kymera and the Hydra.

All work and no play... 

Well ahh... disregard that last statement of the previous image text. (Local wind direction wasn't any good anyhow.)

Fighting the biological diversity in this hedge (the intended mono culture is some kind of Laburnum/"golden chain" and the invading species is some kind of wild rose with dense thorns that managed to escape from it's restricted area). As Christopher Lambert said in the (preferably) first Highlander movie: "There can only be one!".

It sounds like you've been getting some great sessions in!

You have been so patient waiting for your new kites! It sounds like they have a great home with you and will be used often.

On 10/11/2016 at 1:20 PM, Exult said:

I've had a good low wind experiences and also had too much wind, but there is no point in denying it any longer, with the right kite in somewhat hard wind kite spanking is fun.

This is something I'd like to realize too! I noticed myself just not bothering to fly in winds that a couple months ago would be just fine! Minimally I guess I should be OK with focusing on figure flying in stronger winds. I'd love to develop the strength and snappiness to 'spank' a kite in slightly higher winds. 

On 10/11/2016 at 1:20 PM, Exult said:

To the extent that was possible to investigate during the current wind conditions it seems that this kite belongs to the category that falls over with a small turning radius (which I like more than the other option that the kite has a large turning radius at the edge of the wind window so that it hits the ground (which I don't like)). This was not a very good occasion to investigate the sideways flinging of the kite during the initial downwards turn, since the speed from the side slide in itself was so high that the sideways speed that you could get from the downwards turn was small in comparison.

This is fascinating! I'm going to pay careful attention to what my kite 'wants' to do after being provoked. It is taking lots of tumbles while I"m learning these half axles and I love the idea of each being a little opportunity to get to know the kite better. 

On 10/11/2016 at 1:20 PM, Exult said:

Fighting the biological diversity in this hedge (the intended mono culture is some kind of Laburnum/"golden chain" and the invading species is some kind of wild rose with dense thorns that managed to escape from it's restricted area). As Christopher Lambert said in the (preferably) first Highlander movie: "There can only be one!".

Lol! I'm in the invasive species/herbicide biz and have used that quote many times when talking about weeds! First time I've heard it from someone else!

I love this blog format (though I personally think you could make a new post for each log dump)! Thanks for sharing your experiences!

On 10/13/2016 at 11:45 PM, Happyspoon said:

Minimally I guess I should be OK with focusing on figure flying in stronger winds. I'd love to develop the strength and snappiness to 'spank' a kite in slightly higher winds.

It might be so that your hands already know a snappy turtle initiated from horisontal flight which could be used in harder wind. Consider your early attempt of a half axel http://kitelife.com/forum/blogs/entry/194-lunchtime-slides-stalls-and-a-bunch-of-half-axle-practice/ - you instead briefly went into a turtle. Perhaps continue to work on this snappy turtle work that you accidentally started?

Another more obvious exercise would be to do a snap stall with conviction and, yes, snappiness while running downwind.

I assume you would use the Quantum for this harder wind session? I've never tried one - but from the discussions it sounds like it would have a bit heavy frame which would help tricking in these winds.

Finally, you don't need to develop strength. It is not strength as in power kiting. The inertia of your arms from a snappy movement can be enough to snap stall and turtle in higher wind.

On 10/13/2016 at 11:45 PM, Happyspoon said:

It is taking lots of tumbles while I"m learning these half axles

I'm not sure we are discussing the same thing - by the "fall over" I meant the 3/4 downwards turn of the start of the side slide which the Hydra does almost by itself (though I'd like to verify that during better conditions). (This is a behavior that is shared by all my kites designed during the nineties (with the possible exception of City Session). On the other hand the Infinity, Maestro 3 and 4D instead want to make a very wide turn when turned downwards at the edge of the wind window. Yes they can make sharp turns elsewhere and I should figure out if I can make (force) them to do the turn at the edge as well.)

On 10/13/2016 at 11:45 PM, Happyspoon said:

I love this blog format (though I personally think you could make a new post for each log dump)!

That thought (about separating the log dumps) has struck my mind recently. Originally I intended to make very short flight log entries - just a couple of lines, possibly not even full sentences everywhere. Well it didn't go that way. You need to test before you find "a working concept"/"your form"/"something that works well". Initially I chose between having a separate blog for the flight logs or doing it as now have implemented it (by including it all in a blog entry + comments). 

Perhaps this suggested third way of having a blog entry per log dump makes it easier to find the new log dumps and also makes the size of the blog entry manageable (though you miss out some organisation when the log dumps are not any longer bundled in to a blog entry). I think that I'll go that way (with a blog entry per dump) after "Autumn/Winter 2016" blog entry period is finished. To on the other hand change the existing (large) blog entry blog entry would be difficult. Splitting up the current blog entry into new blog entries corresponding the different log dumps and then include the comments without affecting the time stamps is not something an ordinary KL member can do.    

On 10/13/2016 at 11:45 PM, Happyspoon said:

and have used that quote many times when talking about weeds! First time I've heard it from someone else!

This was something that I came up with during the work with the hedge. A case of hands working and mind wandering. And I thought that I was original...

On 10/15/2016 at 1:31 AM, Exult said:

It might be so that your hands already know a snappy turtle initiated from horisontal flight which could be used in harder wind. Consider your early attempt of a half axel http://kitelife.com/forum/blogs/entry/194-lunchtime-slides-stalls-and-a-bunch-of-half-axle-practice/ - you instead briefly went into a turtle. Perhaps continue to work on this snappy turtle work that you accidentally started?

This works!! Thanks Exult, I can reliably turtle from horizontal flight now! Great feeling. It is much harder to maintain altitude in a turtle than in a fade hey? And I still can't get the kite to backspin or anything. But progress! 

On 10/15/2016 at 1:31 AM, Exult said:

I'm not sure we are discussing the same thing - by the "fall over" I meant the 3/4 downwards turn of the start of the side slide which the Hydra does almost by itself (though I'd like to verify that during better conditions). (This is a behavior that is shared by all my kites designed during the nineties (with the possible exception of City Session). On the other hand the Infinity, Maestro 3 and 4D instead want to make a very wide turn when turned downwards at the edge of the wind window. Yes they can make sharp turns elsewhere and I should figure out if I can make (force) them to do the turn at the edge as well.)

Yeah, I think I was talking about the 'provoking the kite' stuff, not the slides. During "air recoveries" I am starting to get the feeling that each position the kite takes on has some combo of inputs that would turn it into a trick. Sorta like how those cruddy half axles have now turned into decent snap turtles! When talking about slides though I noticed I can point the kite straight downward at the edge of the window for quite awhile and still usually have enough momentum to slide. Hopefully this means the turn radius of your newer kites won't hinder your slides too too much!