Leaderboard

As far as the tangles in the lines... I just roll my lines out, hook them to the kite & fly a little. If there seem to be any wraps, I just try to fly them out, or as close as possible. Sometimes the handles have individual twists... I just land and spin the affected handle. To me, it's not worth the time on the ground trying to figure how to get the lines perfectly straight & untangled. I follow the Line Management tutorial pretty closely, with the exception of the straight wrap vs. the Figure 8 wrap.

The trick is to keep tension in the lines as you check for twists. Most of what looks like twists are merely wraps that will unwrap under tension. You should have no more than 1 or 2 actual twists in the line, which are quite simple to undo. Sometimes when you set up brand new lines you may have 3 or 4, or you may find that one pair somehow managed to slip in between the other pair, but again, these are fairly easy to get rid of. If you let the lines go slack and try to get rid of what appears to be twists and tangles you will end up with spaghetti every time. Watch the line management video several times and use this method religiously. It has been proven over time and that's because it works. Just be careful not to twist and cross the pairs through each other when you are handling the lines and you'll be fine. Watch closely in the video and you will see that John keeps the lines in pretty much the same orientation to each other as they are when connected to the kite as he winds/unwinds them. As long as each pair (left, right) is connected to itself at the ends and the ends are not slipped through each other, what appears to be a bunch of twists is not really there. Again, and I can't stress this point enough, watch the "Line Management" video several times and do it that way. The part where he "waggles" the handle is so you can figure out which handle is connected to which side of the kite. Wrong side? Put that handle in the other hand. And, by the way, welcome to the forum if I haven't already said hi to you. Believe me, we all went through the same learning process. I spent over an hour one time untangling lines that probably weren't tangled in the first place, but it sure LOOKED like they were. Edit: There are lots of Rev flyers in Washington, probably more than any other state. Get together with one or more of them at their home field or at a festival, and you will learn more in one day than you would in a year on your own. PM someone near you and fly with them. Kiteflyers are a friendly bunch and always eager to help someone who's just starting out.

Okay, I've got it now. I have done this before, but without the "lock" wraps. I understand how that is better than just wrapping back and forth. I did it for a while, but didn't like the semi-permanent impressions the strands of line put into the foam on the handles. I found them annoying as I was flying. I am back to using the winder, wrapping all four lines at once. I tire quickly nowadays, so I avoid the second trip out to the kite. I stake the handles down at the flying end and take the kite with me, still rolled up, as I unwrap the lines. Then I set up the kite and attach the lines, go back to the handles and fly.