Leaderboard

You're ready for a mesh kite progressive stack!, leave half of the fabric strips out a couple Vickis or 135%s, followed by two 100% and finally a couple of 75s and two 40%ers to bring up the rear

hi Riff, As a future improvement to consider,.... The Down Spar end-caps on top should be flush along the leading edge, sticking up is sure tangle point some day when you are all slack lined and spankin' it. and maybe a little more curvature built into the leading edge (seems pretty laser straight in the video compared to other kites shown) so it "cups air" better. Try a couple of inches (2) down from the center (on each wing-tip) so the curve is built into the leading edge sleeve without a set of sticks inserted, your kites look good in the sunlight, editing could take out JH in the foreground, Ha!

Indeed. A very cool kite, especially because it breaks down so small. I would love to see it assembled. I would think that individual sets of four cells would assemble before putting them all together. It looks like there are particular cells that go in certain places I would think if there was common structure between the sets of four cells, it would run down along the edges of the top set of cells, as it basically sits on top of the other three sets. It's hard to tell from those three pics how it would go together. You gotta post pics when you figure it out. I would think that the connector on the top of the sail in the first pic would point downward toward one of the corners of that cell. At least you did't get Bell's big kite, it had over 3,000 cells. He even made a Circular Tetrahedral kite. Be careful launching and landing it. He almost breaks the bottom cell. I would launch it like he is holding the kite in the thumbnail pic. It looks like a super cool kite. No idea what it is worth.

Thanks for all the input guy it's much appreciated <leaders are ordered!! I was able to get out and fly yesterday ,about 2 hrs in total .The first hour and a half was nice somewhat steady wind ,a lot of going over takeoffs to get them smooth and straight also setting the kite back down softly .Then up to the corners and back to the middle (in a straight line ) harder than it looks in videos. Then tried some figure 8 s ,not sure they were really 8s but close ,still having the problem of loosing forward motion because my hands want to relax the thumbs back position especially when I use the bottom lines to turn .working on spins at the top of window and timing to get the kite to stop pointed in the right direction .Have lightened up my inputs on brake lines, has seemed to correct that flipping of the wing tip problem I was having .Did some ground level passes side to side got down to about a ft off the ground ,the hardest part of that is turning at the end of the pass ,180 degrees not 150 or 210 but I'll get just need some more time, a year or two . The last thing I noticed when packing up is I have to stop biting my nails or at least one, getting the larks head knot undone is a pain with no nails

Get the leaders now. They are critical to controlling the beast. The longer you wait the more you will need to unlearn.

Yup -- like Breezin said -- just fly. Time on the lines is key to developing your ability. You will make mistakes. We all did. How much risk you take depends on the depth of your pockets. If you have the funds to replace parts and kites and don't mind spending it then go for it. However, making mistakes and repeating them is not the type of muscle memory you want to build, so a bit of prudence will improve the rate at which you improve. Time spent making repairs or searching for THE PERFECT KITE (does not exist) won't teach you anything except that you should have flying.

Yes, those are the leaders you want. No, 50# line won't help at all until you have enough experience in low wind -- it may actually hinder your learning. The 50ft lines decrease the size of the window you fly in and things happen faster -- not helpful when learning. The 3 wrap frame is good to 20 mph wind, and more than that in a vented kite. Don't fly your full sail in 20 mph wind. You'll prematurely stretch the sail material, or worse yet, wreck the kite when you lose control. High and/or low wind flying can be difficult without enough experience. I'm not saying don't fly -- just saying know what to expect. Quad line foils are flown using pretty much the same inputs as a Rev, but with different intensity and timing. Not radically different, but different enough that you'll notice immediately. You won't be able to fly like the videos you've seen for a while, but you'll get closer to that point each time you fly, so get out there and fly as much as you can. Just remember why you fly. Have fun, smile and don't forget to breathe.

When I was starting out Cath at Flying Smiles kites recommended that I stick to 90# or 100# lines until I could control landings and launches and keep it off the ground really reliably. She said 50# is much more likely to pop when it snags on ground crud (sticks rocks and such). Yes 50# should help you in lower wind, but JB would tell you that experience will trump equipment every time. While you might be thinking the 50# line will help you rack up experience faster, many would say you will learn faster by being pickier with your wind at this stage. I would say that following the ok or better wind and waiting until I had solid self rescue from the ground techniques has served me well and as a result the 50# lines will hopefully last longer. Also to your question, the leaders on kitelife store are built by TK, JBs wife to the specs he recommends. Glad you are having fun. Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using KiteLife mobile app

@jeepinjeepin walking by at the 50 second mark. @Bill Clay Displaying his Phantom at the 4:20 mark.. All in all I was very pleased with the way each of these sails performed from the beginning. Everything was well balanced and had very good low wind performance..

are the leaders that r for sale on the site the longer version that you are describing ? tomorrow look like a good day for flying, wind r forecasted to be 10 mph gusting 13 <this bring me to my question is it better to use just 3 wrap frame so the kite can flex a little or double up for a stiffer leading edge ? Other questions that keep popping into my head if I was to use 50ft/ 50lb line with a regular sail how much lighter winds can I fly in ? I want to fly every day ,I don't want the speed of the wind to stopping me from flying ,that's why I asked about the 50/50 lines .Was also looking at a vented b series on the kiteshoppe site but then I saw a post about Djinn I'll see if I have the patience to wait for the vented version (pls hurry) I was looking at a pl hornet 3m (2015) was a great deal new, for just some different 4 line fun but was wondering if that would slower my progression learning on the rev think they must control a little different

Monochrome, nice! Sent from my SM-G950F using KiteLife mobile app

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to KiteLife...

Automated or not, Thanks for having me! Exciting!

Like it John, thanks very much for putting it all together under one roof.