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And the pair is done!

I flew my Rev B mid-vent today on my new Magic Sticks which I put on last evening. As I mentioned on another thread, I decided to get the Magic Sticks and give them a try for a few basic reasons. Number one, I was tired of walking back and forth from the handles to the kite, every time the kite would fall over due to wind shifts, which are the norm rather than the exception where I live. If the wind is coming from the west, and suddenly shifts to the East, the Rev will fall flat on it's face. I have used the methods of relaunching, when it is flat on the ground, but sometimes, walking to the kite is a quicker solution, especially if the wind has died down totally. The second reason, is the ability to use a lighter frame, since the Magic Sticks distribute the wind load more evenly over the frame. I have read many posts, where using the Magic Sticks enables fliers to use a lighter frame set in certain wind condition, than they would normally be able to use without the Magic Sticks. I have a 3 wrap in my B and Race Rods in my SLE Std, so this feature appealed to me too. The third thing that peeked my interest, was reverse flying and inverted hovering which is supposed to be easier with the Magic Sticks. Keep in mind that my total time flying a Rev, is probably around 20-25 hours at most, due to days and days of poor wind conditions since I got my first Rev the beginning of last month. I ordered the Magic Sticks Kit from Flying Smiles Kites a couple of days ago. http://www.flyingsmileskites.com/wordpress/2013/06/22/magic-stick-for-revs/ Eliot Shook very patiently explained on the phone how the Magic Sticks worked, how easy they were to install, and how it affected the setup and breakdown of the Rev. I originally ordered the 12" kit, but after reading that the 16" is probably a better option because it allows you to do a rolling launch ( I have no idea what that is or how to do it at this point) , so I switched the order, and got the 16" kit instead. I received it a couple of days later. The kit consists of 2 16" rods, a bag with some APA fittings which slide onto the vertical tubes of the Rev, and some color coded lines, two spiders which are fittings that have 4 leader lines coming off each one with two knots on each line, and some patches to place on the sail behind the place where the rods ends ( APA fittings) would contact the sail, for protection of the sail,. An instruction sheet clearly explains how to attach the lines to the vertical rod end fittings, top and bottom, the leading edge fittings, and a line that goes from one spider to the other. The spider sits on top of the rods, and the bottom of the rods slides into the APA fitting which is mounted on the verticals. When setting up or breaking down the Rev, all that is necessary is to place the two Magic Stick Rods, between the spiders and the APA fittings, which takes about 2 seconds for each rod. That's it, nothing else to do once everything is attached to the Rev, which is only done once. It says in the instruction sheet that " The lines should be tight, without introducing and bending to the kite frame". I found that many of the lines, I attached to the inside knot on the spider to get the proper tension. Once adjusted, the tension is spread between the tops of the verticals, the bottoms of the verticals, the ends of the leading edge, and the line that couples the left Magic Stick Rod to the Right Magic Stick rod, so in effect, every end point of the frame is connected to every other end point. As I could see, any force applied to one of the edges, would transfer in part to the rest of the kite frame , since they are now all connected. It looks like the line ( I am not a line expert) is probably about 50# , so if one line were to become damaged, it would be very easy to make a replacement. Now to the field today. Winds were about 12-15 mph with gusts to about 20-22 mph. I have a B series Mid Vent. I set the kite up, inserted the magic sticks, and stood the kite up on it's leading edge. I then unwound my kite lines, and connected them to the bridle. The handles, 80 feet away, were laying on the ground. I walked to the handles, checked for proper hookup and launched the kite. While I was doing this the wind was around 15 mph. Kite launched, and I flew it around a bit. I immediately noticed, when doing some figure 8's, that the even if I input a hard down to initiate a turn, there was no tendency for the sail to bow tie. It just tracked right around. Flew back and forth for about 10 minutes, and even though the wind was very gusty, I also noticed that the 3 wrap frame seemed stiffer than normal. Leading edge seemed to be stiffer. Now I tried some landings and relaunches, LE down, LE up, each time no problem landing and relaunching. After landing, I could put the handles down, and the kite just sat there. A couple of times, a really big gust came along, and I was getting some direction switches in the wind, and the kite would fall over on it's face. When this happened, I would have to walk to the kite to set it up, but it never fell over backwards. If it was on the LE, and fell over on it's face, a simple relaunch was doable, as shown on JB's video. So my normal, back and forth walks to the kite, were probably cut down today by 95%. I flew my Rev today almost 4 hours. Now the hard stuff, inverted hover and reverse flight. I took off , went to the top of the window, did a 180, and slowly lowered the kite to the ground. It was a piece of cake. Even though the wind was erratic, I had no trouble with the inverted hover and control. Then I launched inverted , and climbed to the top of the window, easy again. Much easier than without the Magic Sticks. OK, now the thing that I have not even tried yet on the Rev, reverse flight. I launched, flew from right to the left in the window using forward flight, and then used reverse Flight to fly back back to the left side. Zero problems, I couldn't believe it, and this was the first time I tried it. Now I have read about people that have flown for months and were still working on reverse flight, and it was easy. Now I guess some would say, " Well yeah, but could you do that without the Magic Sticks? " My reply is, maybe not, but who cares. I can do it now, and that's what counts. OK, now the cons to the Magic Sticks and I have only one. When you put the handles down on the ground, without a stake with a big colored knob on the top, and walk to the kite, when you turn around, you can't see where the handles are if the grass is tall. Couple of times, I had to look around a bit before I finally figured out where I had placed the handles which were lying in the 3 inch tall grass. I did one more test today , I went to my car a hundred or so feet away, and left the kite on the field standing up on it's trailing edge, turned 90 degrees to the wind direction to see what would happen. Eventually, it fell over on it's face, and just stayed there, until I walked back, and set it up again for the next launch. I am ordering another kit for my SLE Std kite tomorrow. Ready to launch, sitting on the Magic Sticks. Notice the lines just laying on the ground, and the sail under pressure from the wind. Side view of magic Sticks attached to Rev B.