Greg Brouelette
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Posts posted by Greg Brouelette
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OK guys, I don't have ANY Revs. So obviously, I should win the kite.
And if John happened to receive a fine bottle of aged bourbon after I won it that would simply be an amazing coincidence.
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I would love to win this. I'm still a dual line guy and would love to try quads.
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After all the troubles I've been having with light winds, no winds, and then really heavy winds (which I underestimated and ended up breaking my new Kymera kite) I finally had a good day with decent, and consistent, wind.
We've been having a lot of small storms up here and of course, before and after a storm you get wind. A few days ago the wind was moderate, not sure what the speed was but it was not too fast and very consistent. I decided to try the newly repaired Kymera in the same park where I broke the Kymera over a month ago. This time things where much happier.
As I was practicing figure 8s, loops, squares, and flying horizontal close to the ground I realized that this was probably the first time I've really flown a dual line kite in decent wind in over 15 years. It was fun to get to know the wind window again, to actually fly the kite instead of constantly trying to save the kite. It was odd to have that sensation of experience from my flying days decades ago and the sensation of being a newbie at the same time.
I learned several things:
- The Kymera is a very quick kite. It's really easy to over steer when trying to do 90 degree corners. That's a reflection of my skill limitations, not the kite.
- Just doing a simple stall at the wind's edge is harder than it looks. Sometimes it would just happen and I had to try to "rewind" what I just did to figure out why it worked this time. It seems that a lighter touch and a lot of anticipation of what the kite will do is required.
- I was only able to get a side slide a couple of times for a few feet. And it almost happened by accident. The kite can definitely do it if I give it the right input. It's just going to take more practice.
- I only got it to do one backflip and I was amazed at how much slack I need to give it and how quickly it needed that slack.
- I'm glad I watched and rewatched the section on recoveries on the Freestyle Pilot DVD because I had to recovery from unplanned landings a lot.
Overall it was a great day. It was really nice to actually fly the thing instead of constantly fighting to keep it in the air. This reminded me of why I use to fly so often.
Greg
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Times like this I really miss living in San Diego.
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If it's still available after Christmas I'll probably take it. But I have to watch my funds until the end of the year.
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Go to awindofchange.com and check out their Revolution parts. They have individual spare for each model of Rev.
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4 hours ago, Wayne Dowler said:
Funny you mention indoor!! I find flying indoors - improves my outdoor flying more than outdoor helps my indoor skills! Something about the touch and feel you develop indoors, without the wind's help, that makes your outdoor flying better.
I can see how that would make sense. While it's frustrating having to search to find any consistent wind or a non-tree lined flying area up here, once you get the kite in the air that sense of touch really comes back to you. Even though I'm not doing impressive tricks in these light winds, I love the feel of dancing with the kite. It really is such a subtle thing to control the kite. That's certainly something I'm experiencing with the 3D and light winds which I don't remember experiencing back when I use to fly in big winds in Huntington Beach or San Diego.
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For the past two days we've had all sorts of wind, but we've also been going to family and friends houses for Thanksgiving. Today, when I have time to fly, of course the wind died down, but there was still something blowing around.
I drove down the hill about 30 miles to the town of Rocklin and tried scouting out another park. There was a lot of open area which wasn't assigned as a soccer field and there was some light, spotty wind. I pulled out my new favorite kite the Prism 3D and got it up in the air. Once again, the 3D saved the day. Although there were times when the wind completely died there were still times when I could fly it for several minutes. At one point I must have had the kite in the sky for 10 minutes or more. I tried to learn to do stalls at the end of the wind window but the kite wants to pivot right and left. I found that I really have to anticipate the kite's movement to stop that pivoting. A couple of times I even got the kite to do a small side slide.
I was feeling confident so I decided to try a 360. The wind was really low so I brought the kite down and turned it to the right and parallel to the ground. I swung it around to the right and started walking backwards fast. It was working great and I got it just past the 180 degree mark where I'm actually facing into the wind (if there was any). Of course, that's when the wind decides to pick up and knock the kite down.
I flew a couple more sessions until the wind just stopped utterly. I wrapped up my lines and was putting the kite back in my new kite bag when, of course, the wind really starts to pick up AND it's coming from the opposite direction. All day it's been blowing from the mountains towards the ocean. Now it's suddenly turned around and blowing back up the other direction. It really does seem like the best way to make the wind come up is to put my kite away. On the off change that the wind will stay strong I rigged up the newly repaired Kymera. No sooner did I get the kite in the air than the offshore wind died and the super light onshore breeze came back.
I decided to wrap it up. As I got to the car I realized that what I thought was 20 or 30 minutes of kite flying was actually 2 and a half hours. That's probably the longest time I've flown since I got back into kiting a couple of months ago. If I can just find a clear flying field with no trees on a reasonably windy day it's going to be a blast.
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Oh good, that gives me a chance to go back and repost and fix my spelling.
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Wow, very nice.
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Awesome Barry! Be sure to let us know how you like it, how it flies, and so on.
Oh, and if you hate the color, I can store it at my house for you. No problem, I'm here to help.
Seriously though, congratulations.
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here's the Reader's Digest version in a nutshell:
Adding weight (usually to the tail) increases the kite's moment of inertia for pitch rotations. All other things equal, this provides more angular momentum that helps carry the kite through the yoyo. [and other good information].
That explains a lot. I was wondering how making the kite heavier would make it fly better. But the inertia concept makes sense.
Greg, which kite are you looking to add weight to ? It's rare that I add weight to a kite, I just fly them the way they're sent to me. Some kites are really resistant to rolling up, and I have added weight to those kites. I just want my kites to be as light as possible, and hopefully fly easier in lighter winds. That's the theory, at least. I will sacrifice some trick-ability for a little more lower end is what I'm saying.
The Kymera (which I now have to repair) has 2 optional 5 gram weights which I'm going to order from Into The Wind. But I didn't understand why I would add weight to a kite. These answers are making sense to me though.
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I would love to see a video on how adding or removing weight to a dual line kite affects it's flight characteristics. I've heard that changing the weight will help a kit do Yoyos. But which way? Adding? Subtracting? Placing the weight where?
I just think that would be a great video lesson.
Thanks.
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JPhelps:
Actually, I cut 10 feet of of the original line which was around 40 to 45 feet long. So I have a li e set that's about 30 feet long now. For really light wind that feels pretty good. I can imagine it being much harder to deal the extra slack of a 40 foot line. So maybe my little leaf tangle helped me out in the long run.
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I took my new Prism 3D out today. As you may remember I tangled the lines so badly yesterday that I had to cut about 10' off of the end and then re-sheath the lines. I change the strings on one of my guitars today so I had an E string which, when bent in half, made a perfect sheathing tool. This also guaranteed that I had two equal length lines.
I found a park with a light breeze and gave it a try. I was still flying for only a few minutes at a time before the wind would die, but it was much easier to keep the 3D in the air. And when it did work it was wonderful. The kite is controlled almost with finger motions rather than arm motions. When it flies it's beautiful.
I even got a glide to happen a few times where you bring the kite to the top of the wind window, spin it nose down, and then release the tension so it glides away form you. If you walk quickly you can regain the ground you lost by walking backwards to keep the kite up in the air. I could actually feel myself breaking a sweat and getting my heart rate up. There's a surprising amount of movement required with this light wind flying.
I'm not sure how you guys can fly this kite indoors. That's some serious skill right there. But I think I may have doubled my total flight time to, let's call it, 20 minutes. I decided to go find another park with fewer trees. There's another park across town where I've tried to fly a couple of times but there were soccer games going on so I headed home.
It's still not a day of good wind, but at least I got out and got some exercise and built my own skill set a few minutes at a time.
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Well, it turns out that not only did I shred a bridle line. I broke an arrow nock at the end of a spare, and lost the T weight on the end of the center spar. I've been in email contact with Into The Wind and I'm going to ship it to them for repair.
Meanwhile, I stopped off at my "local" kite shop (45 miles away) and bought a Prism 3D which is super ultra light. I actually flew it in my back yard on just 20 feet of line. It was great, right up until I landed it and the lines caught an oak leaf which immediately tangled up the super light lines so badly that I'm going to have to cut off about 10 feet of line and resheath the ends.
If you heard an F-bomb echoing across the Sierra mountains about an hour ago that was me.
Total flight time over 6 days of attempts with 2 kites : 10 minutes 45 seconds.
I need a beer.
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I know nothing about dual lines, but I love them! The Kymera kite my be nice to park for a few months then try it after a few other kites. Grab a cheapo kite for learning curves. A kite is an extension of you, not you!
Just fly your kite the way it feels right.
That's all any of us do/does.
Yeah, when I use to fly years ago I remember that feeling of the kite being an extension of yourself. I know that in the winter when I had the whole beach to myself I felt like I was dancing with the kite. My whole body would move with the kite, it was an incredible and relaxing experience. Unfortunately, I've only had a few minutes of that experience with my new kite.
I've been seriously considering getting a Prism 4D for super light winds. Building a quiver of kites for various conditions may well be the answer.
That's too bad you haven't been having any luck with your new kite. Sounds like it's not you; you've just been unlucky with the wind conditions.
With dualies, I would definitely use 150# line when the wind is "howling." I start to get worried on 90# line when the wind gets above 10mph or so, though most of my dualies are slightly bigger than the Kymera.
I would guess the bridle breaking may have resulted from the line snapping (some kind of damage from the whiplash?) and/or the collision. At least your kite didn't get stuck on the lamp post. Sorry I'm not of any help in what to replace with.
I think that when the kite lines wrapped around the lamp post it slid down and hit a "No Parking" sign. That edge may have torn up the bridle. The sheath is stripped off and about 4 inches of the core is showing.
I was thinking last night that my slow and sluggish Action Kite Fire Dart with 150# lines may be just the kite for those conditions. Of course, as I look out the window at work right now the tips of the trees are dead still. No wind at all.
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I've had the Kymera for almost 2 weeks and in the 4 times I've taken it out the wind was so light that I could only get a couple minutes of flight at a time before the wind would die and I'd have to land the kite. Two days ago I went out and got exactly zero flight time because of low winds. In 4 outings I have a total flight time of about 10 minutes.
But today the wind is howling. At last I can get the kite into the sky and play with it.
I've been using 50# lines and I knew those were too light. I have a set of 150# (which I should have used) but I opted for the 80# 80 foot lines.
I got the kite set up, pulled the handles, and Holy Cow that kite shot up. I was in control and kept it up in the air and moving back and forth across the top of the wind window. About 10 seconds into the flight one of the lines snapped and the kite rocketed off to the right where it hit a lamp post. There doesn't seem to be any damage to the spars but one of the bridle tore apart. I have to build a new bridle now.
Five outings, total flight time : 10 minutes and 10 seconds.
So what should I use for bridle line? There's a local kite shop down the hill from me in Sacramento. I'll stop by there tomorrow after work to see what they have. I didn't see bridle line on the Into The Wind website so I'll see what my local shop has.
I do see that ITW has Wind Shields to slow down a dual line kite in high winds. Maybe I should pick up a few of those.
And the journey to actually fly this kite continues. . . .
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I've been trying to fly after work but the wind has been abysmal. There's a good amount of wind today (just got back in from lunch) so I'm going to try a new park to see if I can get a clear wind path without trees or hills surrounding it. I've had the Kymera for almost 2 weeks and I've only been able to keep it in the air for a total of about 10 minutes over 4 different days of flying because of sparse winds.
Back when was flying kites for the first time I lived in Huntington Beach. Beach flying in the fall and winter is wonderful. Great winds, no people, the whole beach is yours. What a great way to relax after work.
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Awesome!!
When you're ready to try some funkier moves...
Those are amazing. Right now I'm trying to get a consistent stall and the occasional side slide. Basics first, fly with intent. I heard somebody say that once. ;-) I've found a not so great field just 15 minutes form my house. but the winds are pretty light. However, I found a great field near my work (45 miles away) so I'm going to try a post-work-pre-commute flight time tomorrow.
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Quick FYI. This kite is sold and it's mine (and I love it).
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As a software engineer I know your pain. But isn't it great to share some kite time with your wife? I'd love to be able to do that with my sweetie.
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Sounds like you got the kite to roll up. That's the way I first learned that trick. It also means that you are able to do another trick... stop the kite while the nose is pointing away from you, and tug either the right or left line. The kite will spin on its back. Let it do a full revolution, and then pull on the lines just as the tail is pointed at you again. Fly away... That's the Lazy Susan.
Oh I need to try that.
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I may have misnamed the trick I was able to do. It might more accurately be a "backflip". It's the trick where you fly the kite to the top of the wind window, bring the line handles almost to the ground and give the kite a snap. Then stand up and raise your arms as high as you can to give the kite as much slack as you can. The kite rolls backwards tail over nose until the lines are wrapped once around the kite and are sitting on the yoyo stoppers.
Then, after flying the kite a bit, I gave the kite some slack and it started to roll back, as it started to roll forward again I pulled the lines and rolled it 360 degrees forward which puts it back in the standard configuration with no lines wrapping anything.
Is that a barrel roll or a back flip?
B-Series STD Package (5/25/16)
in Current Drawings
Posted
What? Who? Nah, I was just sayin' that it would be an incredible coincidence.
I guess I'll have to drink it by myself.