Exult

You are doing well after only a summer! You are also aiming high when going for the fade and half axel. I started out in a different order (not guaranteed to be a better one but a different one) - flying squares (well you do as well), doing ground work, turtles, landings launches - more simple tricks but striving after doing them cleanly (still do btw.) rather than doing more advanced tricks. Another approach I had when starting out was just to see what I could provoke the kite into. Can't say that this (the provoking i.e.) gave me a new set of tricks - perhaps some knowledge of a kite's general behavior and how to get out of less controlled situations was gained. On the other hand I guess any attempt on a difficult trick could do this (i.e. handling a tumbling kite). I had bought a couple of Dodd Gross kite school videos (on VHS-cassettes) and read written trick descriptions on the web (videos on the web were rare (or too bulky) at the time). One good complementary reading that would have been good to have had at the time (an impossibility since it wasn't written yet) would have been http://kitelife.com/kl-archive/tutorials/tutorials-dual-line/flying-with-intent/ - really good reading IMHO. Another thing - if much of your time is consumed by making the walk of contemplation - try learning Card Wheels. It is kind of an investment giving you more time to learn other stuff (sorry if you did but I missed it). Tough starting out with an half axles as early as this - it is not half as difficult as an ordinary axle - quite on the contrary. Personally this is somewhat of my nemesis "move": they don't look good, are not reliable, the pop part is not performed well and attempting an half axle cascade it typically ends up on it's back after two to three cycles. During the session this morning (local time GMT +2h, daylight saving time) I tried to mimic the turns you made at the end of the wind window when attempting the half axels. The closest I got was when I did an aggressive 180 deg push turn upwards (or rather punch turn throwing the lower arm forward) either maintaining a slight tension on the upper line or doing the push turn with a fraction of the movement that one does when one enters a snappy turtle from horisontal flight. It can actually be made to look quite striking and could perhaps be useful in turning when space is limited. Hm..., I wonder if the fade close to the end of the video is more of a turtle (it is quick and partly outside the window so it is a bit difficult to see)? Don't let this put you off. I quite often learn (or notice) things that I didn't intend to practice initially - learning doesn't always follow a pre-determined path. Your question regarding the contents of future videos at the end of the video is almost a bit to humble, I think this is your kite piloting and that you therefore chose what to display. However, on the other hand, I'd think practicing things like landings, figure flying, speed control, getting in and out of a turtle till it shines could add another angle to your flying. The small parts adds up to your total session. Besides if the Illusion 2K is close to the Illusion it should be well suited for precision/figure flying. But I feel a need to repeat myself - mind the LLes. I broke one just when landing a bit hard on a wing tip in light wind - didn't even intend to do a hard tip stab. I've seen a list of recommended tricks to start out with when learning in http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/p.j.f.peters/kites/ , in the "Tricks" > "Adding difficulty levels" section (the actual trick list is under "Contents" last in the page). A small part of me envy the stage of exploration and discovery that you are in, even though I'm grateful for the knowledge that I've had the opportunity to get (especially since there is long way ahead before I reach the goals that I've set). But most important - fly and have fun!

Nice to see your story of progress. Commenting in videos as you did here is also an efficient way of conveying a message. Your choice of kites appears to be well thought through - you seem to cover a large wind range. From low to a bit high, from Ozone via Illusion 2K to a Quantum. To be honest I don't know about the Illusion 2K, but I have an "oldie" Illusion and more assumes a similarity. If the Illusion 2K and Illusion are much alike, be very gentle with the LLEs - they would then snap easily and are no longer manufactured.

Nope, and I'm not going to give any further clues. The purpose of extracting parts of the conversation was to share a fun and unexpected situation, without embarrassing individual sales employees. ... Hmm... I think such things could be generalized into a topic. How about a "Kite related misunderstandings and unexpected fun situations" topic in the "Home > General Kite Stuff > Open Topic" forum, the next time someone experiences something of that kind? I also realise that this post has completely left the Kymera drawing topic, not a single word relates to it and that I probably should volunteer for a walk into the corner of shame.

Since I'm a bit concerned regarding the ageing of the repair and the reversibility of the process, it was interesting news that you could peel it off even though you applied it on the fabric of the nose - a porous surface. So It didn't go into the fabric to any large extent, but more remained on the surface? Even when you thinned it by mixing it with naphtha it didn't enter the fabric so much, so that you couldn't peel it off? No, I should start to make tests instead, I just saw an offer where I could get a spray bottle of rubber paint for about USD 9, as long as I freely chose the color blue. ... No I don't want a kite with a blue nose - I should go for the black or the transparent rubber spray instead.

Correction, it deserves to fly in the Nordic sky! The reason? - I've still not gotten either of the two kites I ordered previously yet, since they are still waiting for one of them (also a beast, but of a different type). All I ask for (I'm not in this drawing obviously) is that when you, Roger_Lingelem, win it, use long lines a fly it across the national border so that I at least can catch a glimpse of it! Before the order, I asked the kite shop if they could supply a ITW Hydra ("ITW" since I didn't mean the HQ Hydra traction kite) and a John Barresi/ITW Kymera and after a 1.5 weeks delay (vacation times?) they returned with a bit surprising reply: Let that sink in for a second. Administrators for sale? I think that the JB-model that I prefer is the kind, kite all-knowing sort that daily minds his forum and members in the best possible way. (OK, the last statement was perhaps a bit on the ingratiating side)

I join in into the subsequent welcoming phrase: Hi David! I know that story, I was just a few years ahead with the start, but on the other side the lapse was looong. Diversified I see. Slacking them for a second to do a trick once in a while?

When being removed from your comfort flying zone you might get new experiences that you couldn't imagine or predict. This blog entry is also a vacation post card from the medieval city (in the sense that ruins and buildings from that time still exist) of Visby ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visby ) in the island of Gotland ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotland ) in the Baltic Sea as well as an example of how flying during new and non-ideal conditions turned out to be educational, fun and very different from my more normal dual line flying. Most of the last section "Conclusions" is a condensed list of what I learned/experienced for the first time during the stay. This funnel makes no secret of the initial letter of the island of it's destination - i.e. this is the start of this mini vacation. Pestilence wort ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petasites_hybridus ) is growing around Visby in several places. Here to the north of the city wall. The leaves becomes rhubarb-like. In spring the flowers appears before the leaves. Before the flower buds open it looks like a small pineapple in my opinion (the photo of the buds is from the 26th of Mars). St. Lars church ruin. The walls contain passages designed for hiding out during crises and war. Yes, you are allowed to enter them during day(/evening?) time. The second photo is a view from St. Lars through an archers crenel (possibly, at least it is shaped like one on the in- and outside of the opening). Donners plats is in the central part of Visby with many restaurants etc. The dark green creeper plant in the background to the left is (most likely -but can't tell from a distance) ivy - the province plant of Gotland. This evergreen plant got lobed leaves, except for old stems where the leaves are un-lobed. The ivy is so common here so that I forgot to take any photos of it. And no, it is only ivy, not poison ivy (which seems to be a really unpleasant plant). The trip, Visby and Visby as a (land) kiting area My family is here during the medieval week, more by a coincident rather than with the intention of participating by being dressed in medieval-like clothing. Everywhere in the city inside the surrounding defense wall and around, there are people dressed, perhaps every 10th to 5th person, in certain areas even more. The city has today grown beyond the defense wall, but the old part still functions and not only by tourism. There are even areas inside that are close to desolate even during summer vacation times. Medieval themed market during the medieval week. I like the mood and mysterious tone in this image. Alarming news - Gotland is dry! Let me translate part of what was written on the first page of "Gotlands Allehanda", the local newspaper: The medieval beer is finished before the medieval week is over. No it is not as bad as it sounds, I only saw one group and one hotel guest that seamed to have looked to deep into the bottle during my stay. The ground of the island is sedimented limestone, the pebbles on the beaches and the rocks are also of limestone. Fossils from the Silurian age are very common. Some rocks are high and steep - in other places softer limestone has been eroded only to leave high pillars in odd shapes. The Baltic Sea is a low salinity sea, though it is not a lake so it is not fresh water. Some species living in the salt water on Sweden's west coast (~Atlantic Ocean) has managed to adapt to the water here, but the individuals tend to be much smaller (species, adapt, individual... sounds like something from a Borg "philosophical" discussion). Swimming in these water leaves no sticky salt feeling afterwards as swimming in an ocean does. Visby as a kiting area is not perfect at least to my knowledge of what is in walking range (a couple of km) from Visby. To the south there is a high plain that ends in steep limestone cliffs (actually if looking carefully one can find a path at in intermediate height level when walking there - it is so beautiful, when I go along the path I can't stop myself, I take photo after photo...). A plain sounds nice, however there are bushes sparsely scattered here from about 2m tall all the way down to a dm high bushes. If the wind is from the sea, going over the cliff edge, the winds can be a bit turbulent (it can also be a bit turbulent in other directions, but you can "always" find a spot to fly on here). To the north of Visby there are beaches, however unfortunately they are mostly very narrow and with trees and walks/roads limiting. Some beaches are of sand, but most of them are of limestone pebbles (well an exception might be perhaps 5km to the north during the parts of the year when beaches are abandoned). To be fair, Visby is just a small bit of Gotland. People living on the East side of the island tend to think that it is very far to the west side (and vice versa...) an opinion rarely shared by "outsiders". Other places are really kite friendly. They even had kite festivals on Gotland. It might also be so that there is no coincident that you can find one of very few kite shops, Drakjohan (translation: "Johan (a personal name) the kiter"), only dedicated to kites here. The result of web searches are a bit confusing - several main pages seem to exist. One of Drakjohans specialities is to make kites out of bird's feathers! These two images show the area close the path and the start of the path. Following the path here would be to much of a diversion (perhaps another time since I've been doing kiting a bit ahead at an earlier occasion) Maestro 3 meets water - the first non-travelling day So driven by my wife's request that I should "be with my family" when they do swimming and "sun worshiping", I didn't go to the bushy plain as I usually do, but to the very limited beaches north of the town. Add to this the to high wind (the LE of kite got deformed in the wind) that makes dual line slack line tricks more difficult. I had only brought one (dual) trick kite to Gotland, the Maestro 3. It is OK, it certainly does not limit my tricking, but is not my favorite kite. The wind was almost parallel to the beach, but still from the sea. I found an opening between the trees, a bit close to the path unfortunately. Not to scare the pedestrians and occasional bicyclists by flying close I could only fly towards the water side. Standing close to the water increased the margin further. Holding the kite tight when taking an image with the other hand. The short 15m lines was the only option that worked here. Also the large turning radius that occurs by the edge of the wind window for my kites of newer design (but for none of my kites of older design (why is it so - deep sails?)) reduced the margins further. Perhaps the remedy to the lack of space would be to learn the half axle profoundly and ingrained as a reliable maneuver as an alternative to traditional turning at the edges of the wind window? I don't own a kite stake, but here it was needed. The amount of stones to hold the handles in the image were just enough. During forward flight in mid wind window, the round pebbles and the pull and slope of the beach caused the feet to slide. This meant that the situation was so that running downstream to do tricks was quite much out of the question. Doing a (snappily initiated) turtle it moved sideways in random, however seemed often to follow the contour of the beach slope, ending by slowly sinking down or sharply "unturtle" to the ground. The sideways turtle sliding is perhaps not so surprising, since the wind can't go through the sloping beach, the component of the wind normal (90 degrees) to the lines needs to follow the slope as well. Being one metre up from the sea level, flying the kite to the edge of the wind window I could position the kite under the horison at the wind window edge. When making the transition from the wind window edge position to a stall a couple of metres into the wind window, the kite sank quite rapidly when stalled if you didn't handle it (in spite of the wind and the fact that the bridle setting was so that the nose was slightly tilted towards me). The turning radius at the edge and the sinking stall are the things (I tell myself) that I don't like with the kite. But hey, can't the possibility of making a landing by stalling the kite in hard wind be a feature? No, I haven't really tried out this kite yet, e.g. I've only briefly tested with and without weights when the kite was very new. The decision to do the Jaws trick was not a sudden decision. In fact, last year I already did a limited attempt, but then decided it was not for me. This was during a language course for my children in Sidmouth (in Devon, UK) last summer. I almost had my Elixir crushed (it looked like) when landing at a depth of a just a few cm, when an Atlantic wave engulfed it. Here in Visby it was a completely different matter, I just noticed that it offered no problems, so I just increased how much the kite was submerged a bit more for every time I landed it in the water. Also, in my much subjective opinion, submerging the kite was beneficial for the look of it. Travelling after geological periods (Devonian in Devon and Silurian in Gotland) was not an active choice. Should I instead actively follow this hinted trend the next summer, I'd go somewhere where the sediments/sedimental rocks are from the (older) Ordovician period. If you are not familiar with the Jaws trick, the trick is performed by letting the kite sink down while stalled with the nose up and then let it return to the surface and then take off again. You can also read about this and other tricks in the Fractured Axel's Tricky Wiki. Yet another place to look for trick descriptions is in Peter Peters site ( http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/p.j.f.peters/kites/index.html ) in the tricks page ( http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/p.j.f.peters/kites/basics/funcidx.frm.html ). PP's trick list contains a brief description of each trick and how to perform it, but I'm tempted to say it is more of a reference (although it got a helpful list of which tricks to start with as a beginner). Much info is from the last years of the previous millennium in web pages that look typical for the time. The kite terminology is always useful as well. The links list however, is more of a kite museum than a set of working links. Kite tunnel vision - my family might agree on this image text. Notice the seaweed residues after the Jaws trick (under water landing and take off). Much more of the seaweed mess was to come. I guess the conditions for submerging it were quite ideal - hard wind so the kite didn't flip forward when taking off, low waves and a OK kite that wasn't one of my most dearest ones. The waves were reduced by a long shallow shelf stretching out from the beach. Here and there the were also boulders breaking through the surface which I guess also could help to reduce the waves. The "OK but not the dearest kite" might also need some explanation. After buying the Infinity the Maestro 3 felt comparatively redundant (however different kites always offer differences useful when learning tricks). For various reasons I'd never fly on this beach in hard wind and practice Jaws for the first time with my e.g. Infinity, Jam Session, Maestrale, Illusion, Elixir... . In a way not flying a "museum kites" wearing silk gloves adds to the usefulness of the Maestro (I wonder how I'll consider the Maestro in 10 years or so). I feel a bit bad about this. This is the only kite I got whose appearance I don't like. Many colours on a kite can be nice and one colour plus black can be nice as well, but this ... it is extra of everything. It reminds me of my one of my birthdays as a child. I made my own cake and was given full control over the ingredients, so I mixed "everything" that I liked - the result well you can guess... Perhaps this is difficult - if you design many kites and there is a requirement that each of them should have a distinct look, each kite model therefore can't be the best looking or close to best looking. Another thing I tried out was to attempt to park the kite in harder wind by using the failed Sleeping Beauty maneuver (i.e. you just leave out the take off part) in this harder wind - I just couldn't do the on ground rotation - this calls for further investigation. As described above the tricking was pretty much limited during the conditions, so I went further to the north to reach a still narrow but instead sandy beach where parts of my family also happened to be (for some more time at least). With the softer ground I dared to do some fades. Considering the quite hard wind (though slightly less than the first beach), I was a bit surprised how well it could hold the fade. Considering both the Maestro's good natured fade and turtle I might have been to hard on the judgement of this kite. The municipality of Gotland (and in fact at the same time the county of Gotland) must be very kind to kiters, since they obviously offer kite holders on the beach to resting kite walkers. By the end of the day I was content with myself that the wing nocks were still intact - this is something I've learnt from flying on stony beaches and rocks on earlier occasions. Not covering the wing tips/nocks with plastic caps limits the flying when flying on rocky beaches. If I hadn't forgot to bring the caps I could have allowed myself to do more groundwork. However looking at the nose I've had too much fun anyhow. The spine had almost worn through. Should one treat the nose with some hardening goo or a patch as a preventive measure before flying on hard surfaces? I was a bit surprised by how quickly the nose could wear out - only one to two hours of rocky beach in hard wind. Did I just go medieval on that nose (which in a way might be appropriate description given the time and place)? Could the sand beach have contributed as well? Previously I've only used my Maestro on grass and to some limited extent on sand. Could the water make things worse by making the fibre in the nose more easily slide relative to each other? Well well, should check the topic http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/6490-weekend-projects-nose-plasti-dip/ again. Then the feared telephone call came: "Hurry home - we are going out!". At this time he kite and lines were in a mess with much seaweed and sand after a second of some not so successful tricking over water. A kite with lines is a very efficient harvesting tool for seaweed. I tried to coax the large chunks of seaweed from the line - didn't work. Tried to slide it over the sleeves on the kite side of the line - didn't work either, the chunk just stopped at the end of the line. What worked to some degree was to step on the seaweed, grab each side of the line and pull to get parts of the large chunk off. I really didn't like to put the kite in it's current shape in its sleeve and did not have the time to do the cleaning, so I took it for the 4km walk back still assembled with the wind pressing the kite to my side. After a while I reached a low jetty where the sand could be washed away. On the way back these sea birds also wanted to be on a photo. Carrying a kite through the town can't be that odd - look at how the other people were dressed. On the way home closer to the city about a third was dressed in medieval clothing. Later that evening once more on the way back home (the children were at the tournament games), going through the botanical garden and city in the dusk (very atmospheric) I really belonged to a minority wearing modern clothing. Now being the deviant, even though the kite was at the hotel. The budget dual foil gets lured into pulling - the second and last non-travelling day The next day it should be even slightly more wind and the forecast from the very same morning also promised no rain. Therefore I decided to go to the high plain with my youngest daughter who joined me to try the foil out. To be more specific I was doing the walking and she had rent a bike. Also the rain that should not be, decided to join in during the walk. It was a very long time ago I tried the foil the last time and then it had problems with foil folding. One suggestion I got in KL was to try it in more wind. I had hoped to be blown out of my shoes, but was a bit disappointed, with the current wind direction. There was a forest about a few hundred meters upstream. This meant that there was no direct wind from the sea and the wind was a bit dirty. Is this the simplest possible "kite bag" (for a single Maestro)? Well, well it turned out that I didn't use it that day, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. The foil was instead in the backpack. A long time ago when I only had two kites I that used on regular bases (a Jam Session and a Maestrale), I used two of these bands to loosely connect the two sleeves - No, no, not tightly tensioned, I can't I can't wrinkle a kite sail if it can be avoided in any way. "The golden path to the freedom of kiting." It may not look so, but it is perfectly legal to walk here. To the right there is the sewage treatment plant and to the left?... I don't know what that fence does. The plateau can be accessed by anyone from many directions - pointless fence! What I had hoped for was something moving like a rocket over the sky, forcing the pilot to really struggle. Most of the time this wasn't the case. Largely the kite felt like an empty plastic bag at the end of the lines. Seen from the side when my daughter was piloting the lines never went above 30 degrees above the ground (and she can at least stear a dual line). However going close to the kite (a few meters downstreams) there was a very pleasant sound of speed. The old cheap foil I previously mentioned in the "What to do in high wind topic". These two photos are not from this trip. Seen from the other side of the lines almost all sensation of speed was lost. When going straight forward, the kite was quite round in shape in the direction of the spanwidth. It kind of pulsated while going forward, curling up and straightening out, without stability, speed or pull. Doing the slightest turn often resulted in some foil folding starting. Pull turns or push turns made no difference. To the kites defence it say that the foil folding was quite good-natured - the foil folding ended by itself just as quickly as it started. When this foil goes straight forward or turns slowly I don't give much for it's properties. It got a tendency to collapse or to curl up and never develops any real pull. Tight turning is a completely other issue - it becomes straight in an L-shaped way and starts to pull! To further investigate and see if i could get any fun aspects of this kite I did something that went against my nature as a framed dual line kiter - I gave a very large input for turning. I've never used this large input ever. The result? - It did several tight turns, but much to my surprise the kite started to pull and became stable without a hint of foil folding. The shape of the kite changed to something L-shaped. On the side you pulled, most of the kite went straight and on the other side a small inward winglet formed. Then there was a long gust and finally, YES! YES!, some (mild) fighting! This kite seems to be meant for spinning. Perhaps the bridle could be tweaked to make the foil straighter without constantly being in a turn to achieve the straighter non-curled up form? A fathers heart was much warmed after sharing this piece of knowledge to my daughter and then seeing the result, (she was still wearing her bicycle helmet after her ride) the look of her happy brutal fighting face and pose. That was until her, sigh!, interest in "Pokemon Go" took over. Patience, patience, never push my interests (maximum offering them is the way to go I believe) - she would instantly protest if I did otherwise. Since coming out of the foil folding was something that the kite largely managed by itself, I figured perhaps controlled foil folding is the trickflying of foils? Making turns with the rhythm borrowed from half axels (I'm still struggling with proper half axels with framed dual line kite though), the foil could be made to make a turn more or less on the spot with the foil folded, which then unfolded in the last part of the combo. Nope you wouldn't find these berries tasty. They sit on the Blackthorn/Sloe bush (Prunus Spinosa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_spinosa ). For them to be used in cooking you should harvest them after the first frost in the autumn. I've heard that you can add them to spirit to make a sweet liqueur, however with a limited shelf life. Normally I'd say that this bush is about 2m high (although up to 4m should be possible). Here on this plateau they tend to be very low. ...Now I see it! If I started a topic for plant interested kiters only it would TOTALLY dominate! ... For kiters I'm afraid that these plants are bad news - The twigs/thorns are not very kind to kite lines. They (well, certainly not me?) are responsible for damaging and me not fully trusting one pair of kite lines to my Fazer XL any longer. During Easter this year during a happy Fazer XL session, I wasn't patient enough to do the walk of contemplation when the lines got caught, but instead tried to solve it from where I stood. Conclusions So what was the outcome of this trip? Not waiting for the ideal situations (for a dual line trick/precision flyer that do not own a vented kite), which would have meant never during this trip, I got to test/learn starts with the kite fully submerged. saw that there was a problem with the failed sleeping beauty kite parking in harder winds which further needs to be checked out, saw that the Maestro 3 sat in a turtle and fade even during harder winds, felt some nice pull from a 2-line foil for the first time, studied the problem of the instability/foil folding, came up with temporary fix to do tight turns to handle the instability/lack of pull, got ideas on how to tweak the bridle, found some way of abruptly changing the foils course by utilising some controlled foil folding. On the family side of things, they seem to be keen on getting medieval clothing for some future time. My youngest daughter also went from the Pokemon Go level of 14 to the level 15. My personal conclusion here: I'd rather Kitemon Go in "civilian" clothing! Sometimes you get enough of pretty sceneries, evocative cities and too much nature. This ugly view on the way back to the hotel offered some rest. End of vacation, the return trip to a more mundane life - tomorrow back to work... If you made it to this very last line you are a very persistent reader - consider to wear a T-shirt with the text: "I read long and tedious blog entries".

I think, for children's activities in general to really "take off" or get an extra boost, they need to do it with their friends by themselves. And this is something, as a parent, that you can't really control - offering opportunities at maximum. The alternative is the weekly, planned and often paid sports activity, that often requires the adults help every time - this is quite far from kiting. But I do recognize how proud one can be when I see my youngest daughter piloting any of of my duals.

"Step 1 Consider how badly you want the stain removed.. Can you live with it?.. Step 2 Reconsider Step 1." (as riffclown said above) "Speaking words of wisdom, let it be" ("Let it be" - The Beatles) What type of ripstop fabric is stained in your case @Snapdragons? I assume nylon ripstop and not polyester ripstop (most commonly meant by "ripstop"?)? That kind of raises the question, does anyone know what surface treatment there is on various types of fabric used for kiting and if it is possible to re-apply the surface treatment after a tough cleaning. Other questions if interest could be how high temperatures can the fabric withstand, what cleaning agents would work and which solvents would be OK. (Sorry I can't help out here since my knowledge about kite fabric is much limited) I fully agree with @riffclown here, treatment and possibilities depends on the type of stain and fabric. To dissolve a stain you should (if possible) know what caused it. (B.t.w. what type of cleaning agent is Woolite?) Could any other previous topics be of use here?: http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/6082-cleaning-a-kite/ http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/6127-removing-dye-stains-on-icarex/ ( http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/7108-best-way-to-clean-kites-and-lines/ )

So now some time later - how did it go? Did the repairs last/age well? Would a 10 year old repair last or go stiff and fragile (if anyone would happen to know e.g. from looking on old plasti-dipped tools)? Does anyone have experience with using plasti dip as a fully preventive action (preferably before going to a rocky beach to really test it)? Is a plasti dipped nose a "never wear out" nose that should be on all kites? Possibly only a thinner layer would be needed for preventive purposes compared to what would be needed when doing a full repair? Perhaps do it on several kites in parallel? Can cured/dried plasti dip be dissolved in solvents that leaves the rest of the kite intact, if one would like to reverse the process? Any other types of "goos" that would work OK? In my shed I got tubes of acrylic goo/artificial latex and silicone for "marine use" along with a bottle of low viscosity primer for porous surfaces. For the acrylic goo and the silicon, I don't think that it would be possible to dissolve it if needed. Background: I've beat up my Maestro 3 by being on a very small rocky beach in hard wind (frame deforming) using 15m lines.

Interacting with objects I see. Fit a light brush to the kite and you could give the lamp post a new paintwork ! (or perhaps in non-gusty winds, with a non permanent marker, write "Kilroy was here" on the top?)

Few enjoys shouting in an empty forest. My deeds are those of a dual line kite flyer and the associated repair making. I'm a wannabe kite builder that have two kite building books (how is that for a start?), but find that the kite using aspects (along with rest of life) are too time consuming to initiate any form of from scratch kite building. I buy kites to experience and hopefully learn from the differences. However, I've more recently tried to get oriented in the jungle of spars. First, don't "adapt", your kite building abilities are a "feather in your cap" - everywhere. Secondly, I find it a good name no matter the language. If you think of it literally, it is almost poetic. I get images of either a framed quad or a horisontal yacht sail (somehow) hovering only a few meters away in light wind only a metre or so above the ground. Another aspect of the stiffness, do you have any idea if it is rotationally symmetric? I.e. will the deflection remain the same if you rotate the the tube along its axis? The reasons for asking are two. First when doing reading up on spars I stumbled on a Youtube fishing rod making video (Finding The Spine Of A Blank: Rod Building 101, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjtQWeFj4co ) where they looked for irregularities in the rod by rotating it. Second, I got an old broken 6mm pultruded carbon tube (from the last millenium - imagine, my wife thinks I'm "keeping stuff"). Looking at the crossection of the old tube, it does not look very symmetric.

Thanks for sharing result of general interest!!! ++Good! I'm probably just "morning sleepy" or post vacation slow, but I didn't get the weight and 37 inch triangle part I must confess. This test seems elaborate and specific with much thought behind however. Is this from using knowledge from gliders (line of thought: Segelflugzeug or Segelflieger both means sailplane in German to my understanding)? If the unit of stiffness as defined here is length (inches), the larger deflection you get the more "stiff" the spars are? Would it be more appropriate to call the stiffness something else like flexibility or deflection? If calling something stiffness I would inverse the unit so it would be one divided by the length of deflection. Also when checking the stiffness numbers of your measurements they do not differ so much between the P200 and the P2X. This is a bit surprising and interesting considering the manufacturers (?) (or at least the Bilboquet kite and sport shop's) words for the Skyshark PX Series Straight Carbon Tubes: "The big difference is the tubes are made with a higher modules of carbon which makes them 15% to 20% stiffer that the old P series tubes". This is not at all a criticism of your measurements, more to honor your "messen ist wissen" approach.

It could be so that I've ordered one 1.5 weeks ago. It could also be that the Kymera I've ordered is red. It could even be so that I've ordered another kite that I need to wait for. In such a case the two kites would be shipped at the same time. ............Ohh my god, my life is a kite waiting hell!! - However with strokes of much expectation, i.e. the painful joy of waiting. No I haven't even got a tracking number, nor am I sure of when I'll get one. Life is sooo tough! My original plan was to keep quiet until I had experience enough to share my impressions or to say something about the properties, but I just couldn't keep my mouth shut without exploding.

Bad luck, video blocked in Sweden on copyright grounds...

Thank you very much for this positive "review" (and sorry for my late comment/reply). I hesitated a bit initially when starting out to write this multi-layered story mixing less serious content with the pure kite related, by kind of telling a kite story/tale (and at the same time give a kite description/mini-review, a flight log and initial ideas for repair (yes, a way shorter version than the actual blog entry)). One reason for the hesitation of introducing the less serious content part is the need to quite often explain the difference between sport kites and toy kites, in a way to be taken seriously. The alternative angle, I figured, could therefore also make other kiters more skeptic. In your signature (as of today and for at least two months back) you suggest to reward posts that are helpful. Your post here is not helpful in some specific detailed kite way but more in a "Frank Sinatra way". I couldn't find a part of the lyrics I like more since I like the whole song, so I do something unusual, I narrow it down instead, to one line: I DID IT MY WAY!!!

I think that this is a good topic. How about changing the headline to only "Flare" and put it into "Home > Sport Kites > Trick" (if AndrewMarani who initiated this topic wouldn't mind)? There is no such topic in the trick section. Possibly include Belly Landings in the head line as well, since the only thing added to a flare doing a Belly Landing is timing. (The topic "Flick Flacs" exists however, but doesn't contain any info/hints on how to do the trick.)

I was about to write that it helps (/often can help?) to add a little tension in the lines just before the release. Then I realised that I haven't tested it without the initial pull for a very long time, i.e. I haven't questioned it in 15 years or so (and should do so).

Like two weeks ago I handed over the handles (of my 4D) to a six year old in low to medium wind. It survived - no problems. The field was not so abrasive - a harvested field for hay production. The kite may be delicate in one way, but resistant in another.

Nice set of photos, really liked the Hyperkites stack and their tails acting as an extension of the straws of reed. A cropped version of this showing only the stack and the reed?

Lots of time to do planning, checking inventory/repair and get(low or no wind kites?)/make stuff I suppose. In a way I share your non-kiting agony, silly, but I hurt my little toe by banging it into a leg of a chair yesterday. (Now see if this little red and blue source of pain will fit into my sneakers so I hopefully can do some kiting towards the evening.) It seems like you would need a double stacked Cabana or an HVAC environmental suit? I hope for a more cooperative weather for you soon!

Back after a month of flying I suppose? Welcome back and congrats to your Premier Addiction budget purchase! Do you mean http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/1640-premier-addiction-reviews/ ? In the above mentioned topic "Home>Site>Topics>Kite Models>Reviews>Premier Addiction reviews?" Fast EDDY recommends punch turns (to address over steer I assume). For my Fazer XL, the only kite with much over steer that I got, I can do square turns by doing push turns and at the exit of the turn pull both lines. Perhaps this would work for the Premier Addiction as well?

Fight'n trick without breaking a stick! Yes that is possible! In case you would like to vary the dragging by including the maneuverability and quite OK tricking of a framed dual line kite you could try a HQ Fazer XL (a 2.8m (9'2") robust kite sold as a speed/power kite) in just a bit hard wind. It won't break form high wind alone (before that you are dragged downwind), however be careful with ground contact in these heavier winds - a lower leading edge snaps easily if tip stabbing then. I think that I've read somewhere that shallower kites (Fazer XL is a quite shallow) tipstabs more violent/easily than kites with a deeper sail. But in the end, do the kiting you like - that is kind of the purpose I guess.

Use a cork screw to undo tight knots. Insert the tip only a few mm to start with in a few places in the knot. Avoid going through a line or sleeving. After impaling the knot a few times, go deeper through with the cork screw. The ski bag allows me to carry more kites than my kite bag if that would be required. A thick walled paper tube inside the ski bag protected the kites when flying/air travelling with kites as checked in luggage. In the (ordinary) kite bag I got plenty of rubber bands for holding line sets and loose spars together, a small light flash lamp to verify that I didn't leave something on the ground in the dark when going home, small loops of string to help me to tension the sail and attach the-string-on-the-sail to the nock on certain stubborn kites. Unfortunately no sun protective goo as I should have. I find that this topic is almost without bounds, especially if including repairs, and I therefore limit myself to to frequently used (well), efficient and simple gear. A good guideline was the "outside the box" phrase for the non apparent angle. I like this topic - it is info sharing efficient!