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  1. Deke Haid

    Deke Haid

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  2. jeepinjeepin

    jeepinjeepin

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  3. Mike Klaiber

    Mike Klaiber

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  4. Exult

    Exult

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Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/31/2018 in all areas

  1. https://kitepaint.com/#!/view?id=560 Sent from my P00I using KiteLife mobile app
    3 points
  2. I haven't found any lists of common changes people make but I think it could be a useful list to create. So here goes. Leading Edge Tabs The leading edge mesh eventually wears out and tears through. Instead of leaving the kite in two pieces, a series of short tabs are sewn in place along the leading edge. The modification adds typically 7 or 9 small strips of mesh or webbing sewn across the mesh to connect both sides. This can be done to support the mesh and help extend its life, or as a repair after the mesh fails. The tab material should be a non-stretch material such as 1/2 inch nylon webbing used in backpacks. Typically one is sewn into the center, a pair is sewn near the fold points (see the next modification) others spread across the mesh. Fold Point Leading Edge Tabs The leading edge mesh at the two points where the kite is typically folded wears out quicker than other sections of mesh. While they can be the same as the other leading edge tabs, these are typically wider because the kite does not typically fold at precisely the same point each time. They may use 1-inch nylon webbing, 2-inch nylon webbing, or patches of Kevlar fabric. Wear / Stretch Strips The kite sail stretches as the fabric bears the forces of the wind. The biggest stretch tends to be along the lines of the vertical spars. The modification adds a strip of less-stretching material along the sail down along that same path to reduce how quickly the fabric stretches. The most common material seems to be 1-inch insignia tape (a 3.9 ounce Dacron tape) sewn in place directly along the path of the vertical spars, but other sail repair tapes, lightweight webbing, or materials could be used. The Revolution Reflex uses a heavy tape for this reinforcement. Reinforced Bungee/Shock Cord Mounts Some kites have minimal extra fabric at the connection points where the kite sail is attached with elastic cord to the caps for the spars. The reinforcements depend on what is already on the kite. Adding a piece of Kevlar fabric with adhesive, with stitching, or with both, adds stiffness and makes the material more difficult to rip through. Adding larger washers to the bungee spreads the forces even more. Knot Covers The knots and washers on the trailing edge vertical attachment points can sometimes snag on the lines, especially when performing slackline tricks like an axel or catch/throw. Adding a strip of fabric that covers the knots but goes behind the spar (between the spar and the knots) will cover up the knots and washers, reducing the risk of snagging the lines at that point. Reinforced Leading Edge The leading edge of the kite rubs along the ground, and over time abrasion can tear, scuff, weaken and eventually wear through the leading edge material. Urban flying on concrete can quickly damage the leading edge material. This reinforcement adds additional layers of fabric along the leading edge. A strip of adhesive Dacron tape or Kevlar tape is stuck along the leading edge folding around it to provide extra layers of material. In a pinch other tape like masking tape or painters tape could be used. The tape can be removed and replaced as needed. Glued Sail Repairs When there is a tear on the sail that has clean edges it might be repairable with glue instead of a ripstop patch. After cleaning the surface with rubbing alcohol, align the tear so the edges are touching and secure it with adhesive tape. Be as precise as possible to align the torn edges. Flip the kite over, find the tear, and smooth out the material. You can use Superglue (cyanoacrylate glue degrades in water and is stiff) or a waterproof glue like Seam Grip (urethane glue is waterproof and more flexible). Apply a bead of glue along the tear. After the glue is dried remove the tape from the opposite side, smooth the fabric out, and apply a bead of glue across the opposite side. Magic Sticks A pair of standoffs for the rev kite. I think these were created and are sold by Eliot Shook, who runs a kite shop and sells these as a kit. 12-inch or 16-inch standoff spars are attached to the vertical spars, with short lines that attach to various mount points on the kite. The standoffs allow the kite to stay upright and stationary when landed without using a ground stake, and make the kite frame more stiff and less prone to bowtie effects. LED Lights Small LED lights can be beautiful when flying at dusk. I've seen small "finger lights" that can be ordered in large packs online, which have a small elastic and power switch on them. The finger lights can be slid over bungees or spars to put light along the kite. If the kite uses Magic Sticks the lights can be pointed directly at the sail to provide a bright backlight. LED light strips are heavier, but provide an interesting option. Some searching on eBay can find strips of color-changing lights with wireless remote controls and a USB power source (e.g. phone charger battery packs) which can be secured with adhesive tape. They add weight to the kite but add quite a visual flair. Tails and Streamers Easily attached and removed, they add some flair while flying. Any ribbon-like material could be added. In my own bags I've got bright spools of flagging tape (from the hardware store) that can be any length I choose. Unlike tails for single line kites, these can be unbalanced and attached at any existing mount points at any desired length. Several performers use them occasionally. Scott Weider has a custom black indoor rev with a silver strand design flowing through the length of the sail, ending at the wingtip where he attaches a long silver streamer. I've seen some amazing pair performances where two revs were tied together by a long ribbon. You can use tails and streamers to help tell a story with your music or as a decoration to the flight. Any other modifications and adjustments for your quad-line kites?
    2 points
  3. one of my combinations Sent from my iPhone using KiteLife mobile app
    2 points
  4. My latest in keeping with my Red White and Blue preferences..
    2 points
  5. Wahoooo! Alright. Let me dig in the vault and see what I can come up with!
    2 points
  6. The 3 stack is really nice from about 6-12mph. I don’t think a 4 stack would be as crazy as you think. Oh wait, you said 18mph. No.
    1 point
  7. Exults description of the Hydra is spot on for me too. When trying new things it and the Prism Zephyr are what I usually turn too. From a practical sense I probably got to many kites. In reality though I don't have enough. A hard thing for me is not buying something similar to one I already got. Been successful so far and all are pretty different from each other. It's the reason I haven't got a Soul std and ul. My Black Dog and Nighthawk are my 3/4 kites. Both are very capable tricksters but very different in flight and construction. The simplistic design of the Black Dog is pretty amazing. All 6 mm carbon frame. Heavy on the lines in a good way, tough and will fly in a wide wind range.Nighthawk is framed in P300 and P200 Sky Shark. Lighter on the lines and not quite as tough of a frame. Main difference for me is the Black Dog tip wraps easier and has a bit more precision. Tip wraps are not a good thing when learning. Last couple times out those are the kites I've been flying. Mainly trying to discern the differences and why. Sold both to get my Widow Maker but replaced them recently.Both kites are a blast. Most of my ground work and 1 to 2 feet acrobatics I've learned on the 3/4 size kites. Once you get it the 3/4 is funner but the bigger kites are more rewarding. The excitement of not crashing LOL. Have to agree that the bigger sails would be best for a newbie. The smaller kites are quicker and you can over steer real easy. Last time I went to ITW on a weekday I was stunned at the crowd. Really like those people. If you want we could meet up there, get some advice and go fly where they do. I'll pull the trigger and get their quad handle and line set. Wayne seems pretty happy with that OSK line.Do some research on the Blue Moon Mamba. That's Brandons 1st kite 😮. The guy who built that kite shows up here now and again. A MASTER!!! I believe he's the one sewing the Fulcrum. Look at his past builds and you'll be blown away. You'll learn something too.
    1 point
  8. If you most of the time got problems keeping the Quantum in the air you seem to live in a low wind area (you already are doing your kiting in good quality wind on a large field I suppose, with no large objects upwind for several hundred meters or perhaps at a beach with the wind coming in from the sea?). My DLK “chain-of-kites” (i.e. what I currently most likely would chose for tricking/mixed flying in different wind ranges starting from low wind to high): Prism 4D (not for its trickability, but because it is the most low wind kite I got), HQ Shadow, ITW Kymera, ITW Hydra, HQ Infinity, HQ Maestro3 (bit smaller than the Infinity) and Rev 1.5 B-series full vent (wait that is a QLK, not a DLK, but I don’t have any vented DLKs). Funny that you mentioned the(/a?) ITW shop, they now have a very good price on the Kymera and the Hydra (used to be around USD200 or more?). Of the two the Kymera got the larger wind window and requires a bit less wind. The Hydra is especially fun when provokingly trying newish things, very little input is required to end a turtle or a fade and the Hydra was the kite that got me into axel cascading). Both kites are certainly trickable however. They will both meet a harder winds with slightly humming trailing edges. Out of the two I’d expect that the Kymera would feel most "sensible"/predictable and be easier for a beginner.
    1 point
  9. Thanks for the responses. @Exult, good advice, I'll definitely work on those things with the 4D while I'm still debating on new kites. Thanks for the quick tutorial too! I really like the quick response i get when flying the 4D. Its night and day how fast the kite reacts compared to the prism quantum, which a lot of the time is a struggle to keep it in the air. @Breezin, I'd be more than happy to trade some tips sometime and share kites although I'm up in Greeley and don't get that far south very often. 100+ mile drive is a lot to fly kites..haha. I have a much easier time flying the Rev than the Prism and honestly enjoy the quad more but the trick list of duals is so intriguing to me. I did see those Soul kites on ebay, hadn't really thought about one before but the wind range looks good and they certainly sound like a very capable and well built kite. May have to put in an offer on one. @makatakam, I'm located in Greeley, CO. Its an hour north of Denver, fairly populated area here on the front range with others cities around. Closest local shop is ITW in Boulder, I've only been there on a Saturday though and its so busy that you can't get any time to just chat or talk with the pros there. Someday I may be able to get in there on a weekday but work interferes with that. I tried to look into the Rocky Mountain Kite Association but I couldn't find much from their website or any meets/events they have anymore. Most of what I could find was posted from quite a few years ago. I really would enjoy meeting some other fliers and trying new setups.
    1 point
  10. This is my choice for custom colors Sent from my P00I using KiteLife mobile app
    1 point
  11. Wow I really like this one. [emoji847] Sent from my iPhone using KiteLife mobile app
    1 point
  12. Results are in! The winner is @jeepinjeepin! Congratulations Josh! Message me your mailing address and I'll get your new Quantum on the way. Looking forward to seeing what's up for grabs next!
    1 point
  13. It all started looking for parts for my 2 line stunt kite (never let someone tell u they can fly a kite ,pile drove it into ground ).So as I search the internet I come across static 4 line foil kites start watching videos then I see the FAIL videos and decide at 57 my body doesn't heal quickly enough lol Then I come across this thing called a revolution, start watching videos (this guy JB makes it look so easy and fun ) One of the dealers i'm looking at for parts sells them and its on this side of the border ,more reading and I read about the B series (and this guy JB again designed it )so I watch some tutorial videos he makes it look fun and challenging. Read on Kitelife about the differences between reflex and B series ,the dealer has a B series full sail in stock still and if I order it with parts shipping is free for parts so 535 cdn dollars later its on its way . I live on a 160 acre farm plenty of room to fly ,its been windy here so much so that we actually complain about the wind regularly.8 days later kite arrives (Canada post but free so ).First I watch all the dvds , One thing I hoped the dvd would tell me is how to hold the second leading edge in place when using 2 together (john didn't mention it in any of the free online videos I had watched) and it did !! So for the next 3 days wouldn't you know it no wind, on the 4th day 5mph I take it up to the field ,not good NO FLY ,hay was too high, wind was so weak kite would fall forward 5th day no wind ,6th day 6mph gusting 10 .start on leading edge its just doing cartwheels leading edge to leading edge (I've moved to soccer field 2 miles away ).I'm getting depressed 7th day today after watching videos again reader some more I head out to soccer field 7mph with a few drops and some gusting but I have to try, check line lengths, check bridle set up Got it to flip upright from leading edge and stay there YEH Launch, spin ,wack on leading edge again and again and again .That JB guy gets in my head --pull those thumbs back Hold them there for forward flight-- YEH its in the air, up to the top of window YEH I bet I had a big smile on my face Then I tried to fly it around a little here it comes towards ground ,I believe it was riff that said slack the lines for softer crashes I did learn something from all that reading I'm so happy I got it in the air and I also learned u can't fly a rev like a 2 line kite its going to take a few more hours to get that in my head >use the brakes >and I also understand why that JB guys hands keep twitching in the videos . by the time I finished flying today I was able to hold kite in one place and do it on edge as well> plus land it Upright YEH
    1 point
  14. @Breezin there is absolutely no reason to delete aaany rant. Just put the rant between the rant start tag ( <rant> ) and the rant end tag ( </rant> ). Then it is automatically forgiven by eeveryone 🙂! Now if you wrote your deleted rant offline in a local saved file before the copy paste into KL, try the Testdisk program to recover a deleted file. I did this a rather long time ago when I discovered that some ordinary vacation photos just seemed to be missing. Proudly I showed the recovered files to my wife, who went “Nnnnnnooooooo, all my work to tidy up in that mess is lost!”. Especially since I try to get in contact with the (somewhat) local kite people during my Devon (UK) vacation trip, I appreciate or can relate to the meeting attempts/arrangements with increased understanding. Hope that it works out! Yes @Hiett_431 , another thing to practice while waiting for the new kites is (in low wind): the fly away, i.e. recover ground by pointing the nose down and run forward. Ideally you flare the DLK somewhat when doing this (perhaps you are already doing this?).
    1 point
  15. It's a really enjoyable, rewarding as well as a heck of a workout. Both mentally and physically. Really didn't think I could do it, but man I loved our session (myself, April, Eli and JB) Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using KiteLife mobile app
    1 point
  16. Of the three shown I like the green more than the others. To me the color "pops" more than the others. YMMV
    1 point
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