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Picked up a Singer kinda "Heavy Duty 4432" for 25$ at a thrift store today. Almost grabbed a Sears Kenmore 1311 made in Japan w/ a 1.2amp motor earlier. This was to new and cheap to pass up.

We're pleased to yet again announce the next prize being given away to our most appreciated supporters, the Kitelife Subscribers... For roughly 10 cents per day they play a major role in keeping KL growing in every way. The winner of this drawing will receive one brand new Kaiju by Kite Forge, complete with 7' lines ($135 value)... Actual prize kite is white and blue, as shown in the photo and video above. == Info on the Kite Forge website: http://kiteforge.com/product/kaiju/ http://kiteforge.com/help-tutorials/ == If you haven't done so already, You can sign up here. Odds of winning for this prize is currently 1/381, and will be drawn on April 20th, 2019! Our thanks, and the very best to you... Let the drooling begin.

my experience is somewhat different, used to live in Hoffman Estates, IL.... then moved to Ft Lauderdale, HA! but upon my arrival in Washington DC ('93) none of my kites would even fly! I had to watch and learn all over again. Spent two years alone on a crappy Chinese "Backtracker" quad before I even knew they can be adjusted. Met a guy who flew 'em magically, paid him for a lesson to meet me at a park known for decent wind (Jeff Burka). At the end of the lesson he gifted me one of his custom Rev2 indoor, outdoor/up-wind one handed kites. That was 1996 and still can't fly that darn thing like Jeffery! Wait a few more years and someone actually asked me for advise,... wow I turned around to see who they could be speaking towards <LOL>. Since then I've worked for a couple of decades on mostly quads and I'm particularly proud of how I can tune a kite to my liking, any quad! Wife said I had too many hobbies so I gave up Golf and Martial Arts, that's like saying you don't love the 1st two kids anymore, only the 3rd one can stay home! In 1999 I teamed up with Harold Ames (Kitesquid), we took the SLE and made it fly in a dead calm,... with the big fat stick in there! Our kites were "no-sew" printed inkjet graphics and locked together in flight with rare earth magnets. That set a hook!, as an improviser paired with an implementer. I'd say what I wanted or offer a cocktail napkin sketch & he'd find a way to make it work for us. This was the end of the stock revolution bridle. It's got to be tighter, less sloppy for our town. 2003 we took on a new cooperative effort, adding in David Ashworth to our mixed up group. We converted the Spirit into the Tirips. I flew that kite design for about 3 years as everyone used Revs and I didn't want to be"that guy". Did a few more self-building projects and a few official workshops, where we'd ignore the offered project and make our own quad stuff. Stole all their best tricks too <HA!> Alas my expectations suddenly soared as well, being around all this grand talent. Doing it to my expectations took longer than I was willing to give, instead buy it! I gave up building, instead convincing myself that "commissioned" kites would reside in my A-bag. Kites that deviated from the approved design, where the build was constructed with my furnished materials, my way, I'll make the bridle and I'll choose the framing specific to each kite. A master craftsman just make the sail, or in some cases you just make a PART OF THE SAIL and somebody else will be paid to finish it so nobody can complain about what I want. Naturally you pay extra for this level of attention, and for me anyways.... I got what I paid for! I beat my kites unmercifully until failure. On a full sail that is about 18 months of life, on a full vent that is about ten years! You can do as much or as little as you choose with your quad-lined kite. My own personal rewards come best from experimenting and tuning. I've spent more time on the ground fiddling with stuff than flying. "What happens if?" is one of my favorite questions. I love to stick my handles into someone' else's grasp so they can experience a difference (not better) choice. Got into a local kite club, there's a whole variety of interests covered thru our membership. So you can play with a glider or a fighter, battle a mega-inflatable as helpful crew, fly sport kites and see grand national champion single- lined kites. Our conditions are more challenging, so you will have all-around skills. For 5 months out of the year we have "indoor conditions with an unlimited ceiling". I prefer no wind, dead calm and have plenty of kite choices for this weather. When our members travel to other parts of the USA we KNOW we can fly anywhere/in any weather conditions, owning the right stuff to sleep in a snow drift of wade thru ankle deep mud. Oh gosh, how to explain all the friends you will make across the country and even around the world flying quads. I've been to Canada, Tobago, Galapagos, Machu Pichu with invites to the Mid-East which the wife's scared of quite honestly. Flown around the states at some spectacular locations too! Enjoy your journey and share your experiences, they are joyful to us all. Each of us started the same way, my face is permanently wrinkled from smiling and laughing, and I like it that way.

Forum, plugins and extra features (including Tapatalk / KL App) have been updated, thanks for your patience.

I've been useing a brother xr 1300, following pfaff 1222's on ebay. Are there any other machines in should be looking for? Looking for heavy duty with a walking foot. All and any old pfaff's, Japanese built Kenmore, whites, singer heavy duty44__ series?

Just noticed where you live Cool area, I lived in Cowarmup/ Gracetown area for a year. would love surf northpoint ,huzzer again.

go to Reed Design kites < https://reeddesign.co.uk/kites/iskcb/mi17.html > and look up these various animations of the precision figures for competition. Doesn't matter if you want to do that, only that you can have something specific to work on. This is a favorite of mine the "Octogon", a stop sign outlined in reverse flight. You'll need Flash/by Adobe to view 'em and it is so worth your effort to make this happen! Imagine how SLOW you can do them, how precisely, imagine how they can blended, transitioning from one to another. How you could/should select components of each/of some favorites and add them together, into you own routine, suitable for a demonstration. Also, ALWAYS fly to music and relax too, let the kite do all the work,... if it doesn't do that (in today's conditions) you have another kite to acquire!

Well thankfully they weren't all in a row. I'm not that good but I'm not that BAD either LOL.A little over a month in I had 4 more kites of different flying characteristics. On my 2nd parts order I started ordering more spare parts.So yeah when 1st trying the Cascade I did have spares except for the Hydra. Hydra has spares now. There's only 2 kites I have that don't have a spare LS . Both are standard full size with Skyshark Nitro framing. Very, very tough and kinda pricey frames. If one breaks I can fly the other until parts arrive 😊.My newest SUL has the leading edge internally weighted by the builder. I got a spare LE when I ordered the kite. I have 2 very different kites framed in 6mm carbon tube and had another that I'll be replacing soon. Nice to have some kites with the same tubes.If I were to go back in time my 1st kite would be the 6mm carbon tube framed Sky Dog Cross Fire Competition. 6mm carbon tubes are cheap compared to others and tough. I sold my 1st Sky Dog Black Dog 3/4 kite to get a higher end machine. Regretted it and got another. When weather and ground is wet it's the kite I fly. For the simplicity of design(by Dodd Gross) and framing it's an amazing flier.Broken 1 LS and several whiskers. Got spares though.Cool thing about most 6mm framed kites is spares cover the leading edges and spreaders.If your next kite is a quad from my reading it's pretty much Freilein, OSK Freilein/ Revolution, Skyburner, Kite Forge in ascending order.Other high end ones are mostly special orders. For duals it gets kinda confusing.Lots of choices and lots of opinions. Heck you might dig the foils so much you get another type. Haven't buggyed yet but it's way high on my to do list.One of the things that's so neat about kiting is you'll develop your own style and strong opinion. Keep your opinion strong, share it always but be flexible or you'll miss something simple. Like not having a spare

Well it's official I'm a pilot not a string holder..I tracked down my local kite store and purchased a a 1.8 m dual line stunt kite. Went to fly today thought might be perfect... Alas I have mastered the solitarily launch and the crash. I really think there just wasn't enough wind. But I also know that I have lots to learn. My longest flght was maybe two minutes.this is probably stretching.it a few seconds. I can see how much fun and addicting it is. Thanks for the encouragement to take the plunge. Kite is fast. With a pretty good pull. Now on to the mastery of simple stuff

You only missed about 8 festivals within an hour and a half of you in Florida in the last two years. Google kite festival Florida. Not to mention other states within reach. Watch the tutorials on this forum until you're sick of them. Then watch again a few more times. They are GOSPEL and will serve you well if you do exactly as instructed. Even then if you are learning on your own you will encounter a difficulty or two. Don't let them frustrate you. It happened to all of us at the outset. Take care of it and carry on. Once you have control of a quad the smiles come easily. Good luck. Smile, have fun and don't forget to breathe.

I went down the exact same route didn't have anyone else's kite to try, just went and bought one spent 2-3 months on my own trying to figure it all out, enjoy your journey it's a source.