Exult

I used a fretsaw to cut pultruded carbon fibre spars (before I lost the blades somewhere). By fretsaw I don't mean scrollsaw, but the hand tool that looks like something like a coping saw. Today I use a coping saw for pultruded carbon fibre spars (works, but doesn't feel optimal because of the low teeth density), but so far I've never needed to cut a wrapped thin walled spar. Considering that you can find fretsaw blades 0.24mm (0.01") thick with 23.5 teeth per cm (59 teeth per inch), i.e. teeth distance of 0.43mm (0.017"), shouldn't it be possible to do without power tools here for many cases? To check the specifications yourself e.g. search for "PEGAS Metal Cutting Fretsaw Blade". When hand sawing and sand papering carbon fibre I always do it wet - no dust! I'm on a old newspaper to collect the "carbon mud". On the taped spar where the saw blade is I put a big drop of water. When finished I clean the blade with a wet household paper. If sanding is required I used a couple of square cm (less than a square inch) of fine wet and dry sand paper and water of course. When finished I clean the spar as well. Then I let the sand paper remain in the newspaper which I make a roll of and dispose. OK, perhaps a bit thorough. B.t.w. any requirements on the vacuum cleaners filters? Do anyone know if it is would work well with a cutting disk of a Dremmel like tool to put a drop of water and direct the expected water/carbon jet to a paper or something or would the drop disappear too soon?

Did that, bought a pair of lines marked with a " 50# 18' " label (50 pounds? 18 foot I suppose - well thin lines that are about 6m anyhow) for zero winds. So I guess what remains is to work on the technique. Thanks for the hint anyhow.

I find that totally zero wind flying is very exhausting with my 4D (actually the only kite I got to do this with). Making several starts and landings is one recommendation I follow. I've also found that I need to work less with the kite at about 45 to 65 deg from the ground than with the lines close to horisontal. I really must work on my zero wind flying.

I don't know. It is what it is kind of and it is much different from my other kites (Prism kites as well). It is certainly not the one kite I would bring to a deserted Island, but it serves the purpose of training me to reduce kite spanking tendencies when not desired. Recommendation: avoid doing leading edge launches on rough abrasive surfaces. After only a 15 minutes session including a ...hrm... nose dive and a few leading edge launches on a parking lot like court of rough pebbles, the central spine had gone through the nose. Wish and wish - make it come true! This kite can be brought to many places to practice due to it's small size. The beauty part I totally agree with, I've left mine up and assembled for several days now just because it looks so good! A Prism 4D with a repaired nose (visible?) on display because of its delicate beauty.

This morning I was out on the local beach. After a while the wind increased so I abandoned the Illusion for the Infinity. When it was time to park the Illusion without having it to blow/tumble away I got an idea - why not start out making a Sleeping Beauty and then "fail" to have it parked in a face down nose toward you position? Although stretching it a bit (after all it is not a launch) it is another reason for getting involved in doing Sleeping Beauty like stuff. An example of this also from today is that I noticed that the Infinity ground-pancake-to-fade transition required (or could be made with?) very little input - could be done mostly with your wrists on top of a quite small arm movement. However the "pendulum feeling" in the move was still there, only on a small scale and low "mass". So what do I mean by a "pendulum feeling"? Well, imagine a flag pole without a flag, grab the halyard and make it's full length rock from side to side by periodically pulling the rope. Or picture yourself on a yacht with no sails, grab the mainsheet a metre from the boom and make the boom (boom suspended in an horisontal position) rock back and fourth like a pendulum. Now the "pendulum feeling" of the pancake-flip-release is one cycle of this (the possible moving forward of yourself and catching phase of the kite is not included in this). I should go on and see if I can find the "pendulum feeling" in the pancake to fade transitions in all kites. Me to, it is interesting to hear about others kiting attempts, especially those that you can relate to. A grey beauty against a gray sky is was I attempted to catch in this photo today. Couldn't do a full kite image, since I have no assistant and it was a bit windy. Should perhaps start to learn some basic single handed (dualline) flying to be able to take pictures with the other hand? After all, a KL blogger does quads single handed recently.

In a way I kind of recognise the feeling, quite a lot of the discussions are Rev related. Of course it is not bad with a Rev related discussion, it is just that there are a bit few ongoing discussions of other kite types relatively. Much info is already in old posts. Is that the case for Revs as well (have not study the topic in depth)? Could it be so that there are (more obvious) things left to be said for Revs? Since I joined KL two months ago soon I've tried to do something about this, for what it is worth, with my still quite limited contribution, to "dualify" part of the discussion, initially through posting in various dualline topics and then by writing blog entries and discussing the contents in them. (and if I would go quad line (and one day I will) I'd buy a Sky Knife or perhaps a Smithi Pro, most likely from some obscure desire not to be "mainstream")

In the text I explained that it was the lower leading edges (perhaps you did notice?) of the Illusion that easily broke (and that they snapped in two pieces and therefore would require some other approach than explained in the main part of the text and images). If a lower spreader of the Illusion broke at the joint as you described, I'd wind some extra turns of glass fibre there thanks to the knowledge you shared. With a DIY approach comes liberty to have it your way (Swedish proverb: "Yourself are the best farmhand"). You seem to be well familiar with the Illusion design, if I may, I'll ask for your opinion before future Illusion (spare part) repairs. [rant] The problem with flying is that spars might break and might risk puncture the sail - there is obviously no point in leaving home and flying kites. [/rant] The problem with the Illusion spars (as you expressed in http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/6637-older-prism-illusion-kite-need-help/#comment-53325 ) is that that it is difficult to get them. So given the choice, should one try to repair the Illusion and use it for what it was intended for or should one forever return it to it's sleeve? I'm not there yet (got a working Illusion, two snapped LLEs and a spare lower spreader with only the nock broken), but would like to be well prepared if possible just in case and not have the lack of spares limiting my flying. And if it would happen, a puncture in the sail i.e., I could Teldar patch it. In my years I've never had a broken spar induced sail tear. I've broken/worn out sail/fabric parts about six times and spars about ten times (not counting C-clips, nocks, fittings...). But perhaps the Illusion is more sensitive here? Regarding the lower spreader of the Infinity repair (which is what the main part of the text is about), the extra layers at the repair point, are at least as thick as the original tube wall thickness, so I'm quite optimistic here. Would it break, well then have learnt something and I'll learn something more during the next repair. And, b.t.w. thank you for commenting!

Added 21st of June 2018: So in a way @RobB was right, the repair didn’t last. Well there was no catastrophic failure, but a new fissure emerged (still using the tube though). Today I'd increase the glass fibre content. For images and the second iteration of the tube repair including heat shrink tubing (and more) see: https://kitelife.com/forum/topic/8458-widow-ng/?do=findComment&comment=68307 https://kitelife.com/forum/topic/8458-widow-ng/?do=findComment&comment=68335 # Original blog entry from 2016 below #### After a too hard ground contact with my HQ Infinity there was a set of small about 1.5cm (~1/2 inch) long fissures parallel to the axis on the inner end of one of the lower spreaders. This is a description of how I repaired it - not necessarily the best way. If you consider to use other fibres I've written down what I learn't in a comment to the previous blog entry "An Infinity...". Feel free to comment in (close to) any way. Material: Nitrile gloves (epoxy is not healthy) Sand paper Glass fibre - here is long fibre strand used (but I suppose a thin mesh/fabric would do) Tape Epoxy Spatula/flat pin CA-glue Wire Scissors and a hobby knife Nice to have/possibly needed: Hot air gun Heat shrink tube No snug fit - The fissures caused a play when connected to the other LS via the (normal) DT-15 connector rod. Also click on the image to see the small fissures that should be visible in the image then). Using a wire to compress the expanded/stretched opening while pre-gluing it with a small amount of CA-glue. Verify that this part goes well enough before proceeding. When I tried it the result at this stage wasn't perfect, but it tuned out quite OK in the end. Sanding the surface to remove varnish (if any?) - is this a necessary step? Tape the parts of the spar that you don't want to apply any epoxy to. The simplest way to extract the glass fibre strands was by cutting parallel to the strands to be extracted. Limiting to one cut minimised the number of itch inducing short glass fibres on the loose. Before cutting the strand loose from the fabric, put a droplet of CA-glue on either side of it to keep it together, before cutting through the strand/CA-glue. A 3dm long strand was extracted. The damage to the welding sheet was reduced by making the cut in the double layer fabric close to the end and then sealing the hole with a strip of gaffer tape. The sealing of the hole also reduces the number of exposed fibre ends. The way I tried initially to cut one strand end and then pull the strand out step by step using a needle, only resulted in a several places broken strand - not recommended. No the image does not show a broken fiddle stick - it is another old broken (pultruded) carbon tube (used for a practice repair) - here with a CA-glued strand attached. You could of course use tape to attach the strand as well. Wear rather thin nitrile gloves (really not worn or with holes in them though) when handling the epoxy so that you don't lose precision. Be in a well ventilated area or outdoors. Now mix a blob of epoxy with the spatula. Coat the area on the spar with epoxy by smearing it out. Soak the strand in epoxy by dragging it a couple of times through the epoxy puddle. Now roll the soaked strand around the tube to be repaired. Connect also the free side of the strand, so that it doesn't attempt to unroll itself. Add some more epoxy and/or smear/make it uniform. Let the epoxy harden. Cut and/or sand points of the repair that you suspect will point out from the second layer of epoxy. Mix some new epoxy (not much required) and apply the second layer. When the epoxy is almost hardened, remove the tape. The tape closest to the repair might need to be cut using a hobby knife. If the epoxy remains (already solidified but) slightly sticky longer than your liking, have a go with the hot air gun gently for a couple of minutes. At this stage the repair was finished. I was a bit concerned that the diameter of the tube after the repair would be a bit to large. When connecting the two lower spreaders together, the spreaders could be wiggled so that the outer tip could be moved (like a flapping bird) about 1cm relative to the other spreader. However when comparing this to my (still intact) Maestro 3 the amount of play was very similar. If it would have been necessary to handle I would have tried to put some heat shrink tube around the connector part of the other LS to act as a cylindrical shim making the spreader to spreader connection play free. So far I've tried the Inifinity only one time after the repair in quite light wind due to the winds lately and I might have gone slightly less risk taking after the incident. Will it last? - only time will tell. However if it would break I would comment on this blog post and try with a higher content of glass fibre if feasible to repair. The next time I think I would have two strands in parallel to increase the amount of glass fibre in the repair. Perhaps a next project could be to see if it is possible to repair some old broken lower leading edges of my Prism Illusion (Avia Sport G-Force UL)? Yes, this repair could have some unfortunate effect on flight behavior, especially since it is far from the centre of the kite and also might affect the curvature of the leading edge. However, the Illusion spars just snapped in two pieces when they broke, so some other approach is required to repair them than the above - a thin walled carbon tube that fits nicely into the Avia spar and a very fine fibre mesh would very nice to have here. (A spin-off from this project - now I got a nice long glass fibre source for sealing the spigot of the wooden stove. No definitely not the epoxy for that - got a special heat resistant type of goo for this.)

How do you do that ... got a some kind of plate/holder to connect the handles to? Can you control it single handed with your other hand as well?

Found this Rev/Smithi comparison Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3jiJphwC0w Impressive IMHO (did not know that any maneuverable foil like this existed until recently). However the hovers seems less well controlled than other framed quads or just not there (in other videos as well). Any other differences my non quad eyes have difficulties in seeing? Are the series of partial collapses of the Smithi at 1:41 (and 3:00) in the video intentional?

When trying fade launches yesterday during a low wind session with my HQ Shadow I got the same result as you described with your Gemini. It just jumped into the air without flipping on its back. Not until I pulled a bit harder during the ground pancake to in air nose down position and then released abruptly I got it to flip on it back. So a bit heavier on the lines initially and then an abrupt release flipped it on the back. Or put it in another way, pressure on the sail and a sudden release. Hope that this is of help. Could this reluctance to flip on its back be a low wind thing?

The skeleton photo makes you wonder if it (bone) rattles to. Also (stretching my imagination) trying to picture a mobile Cabana offering shade to a dual line flyer.

Thank you Wayne for addressing my "case". I think the effects on weight, centre of gravity and moment of inertia of the kite are negligible. First the added glass fibre is there to increase strength while reducing mass of the repair itself. Second (and third) the repair/reinforcement will be on the inner end of one LS, starting about 0.5cm from the centre sideways and extending a few cm to one side. I also expect the centre-T is already somewhat close to the centre of gravity in a lengthwise direction. My concerns are more in getting the work done properly, getting the epoxy in the fibre strand and the air out without leaving too much glass fibre/epoxy that needs to be sanded away (and I really dislike the itch that you can get from abrased glass fibre). Better warm up by repairing an old cracked pultruded carbon tube that I got in the shed. Another possible issue is wetting. Generally glass fibre gets wetted well by both epoxy and polyester resins. This means that they work well under both compressive and tensile stress. You can however, to my understanding, treat a glass fibre so that either the wetting by epoxy or polyester increases. This is called sizeing the fibre. The welding sheet I got have some kind of treatment according to the text on the package, but you can't see it. If this is of importance - I don't know. If there would be any problems, could it be put on burning coal or washed in solvents to affect the treatment of the fibre? Why not just use a Dyneema or Spectra kite line (polyethylene aka. polyethene) instead of glass fibre to wind around the tube with the fissures you may think. Well the wetting of polyethylene by epoxy is supposed to be terrible. Still generally speaking, this got two consequences, a composite with poor wetting breaks easily under compressive stress (of any importance in the spiral wound case here?) and when being sanded chunks of the surrounding resin might come off from the fibre. A Kevlar (or aramid) fibre's epoxy wetting (again to my understanding) is somewhere in between glass fibre and Spectra/Dyneema. Disclaimer: I'm not an composite authority in any way, have only made a single glass fibre/epoxy item before, but have been doing some reading up recently. The info above is intended for giving a direction for my repair and is only hopefully right.

I appreciate the continued kite display decorations/art of yours. Especially the X-mas kite arrangement, OK the sun-through-the-sail-trick can make a kind of shining kite, but have never thought of doing it in colour (but then Swedish X-mas trees tend to have just white illumination). A thought I got after a while regarding your eight Microns - they could be used to make a star-like flower cone, slightly less than 2m (78inch) in diameter. Join all, lets say, left wing tips and then join all spines nose to end. ...No, I see a problem here - the front and rear side of the spine wouldn't meet. Instead rotate every second kite so that instead the right wing tip would be in the centre - now the spines should meet. ...No, a new problem - looks like the kite edges would over lap ...could the overlapping be done in a nice looking systematic way...? Perhaps this star/flower thought is not original, after all you had already realised kite decorations, while I just started to think about them.

As response to what you said in the "Boat ramp fly" blog entry (that I yet hadn't seen this blog entry), well now I have. I can only agree in what has been said here about the video really coming to life with the new angles. Also (regarding the water contact), I checked out the recommended reading, http://kitelife.com/kl-archive/issue-81-hydrodynamics-and-kites/ , and that wasn't exactly empty of things that could go wrong . But OK as described and as you said, you can most of the time reel it in (instead of entering the water) if anything would go wrong, especially (I suppose) if it would be floating horisontally on the surface after falling over? But getting stuck must be another story, but this is perhaps very rare?

Thank you for your (blog-) welcoming message SparkieRob! The latter one, POP (from ground) into fade. Wasn't aware of that it was possible to launch it when already being in a fade on the ground. Haven't had the opportunity to try the Gemini because I have not done the required kite travelling (in time?) to test OPKs. You have surely already tried to really give slack to enter the fade as in the above comment: The jumping you wrote about makes me think of my old Jam Session, that is the one I've jumped highest with - from "ground pancake" pop lines and maintain the very slightest pressure - that did the trick for this kite. The Jam Session is the kite that I've had most time with - especially when I was working on this. Gemini, Gemini sounds familiar like from the days I read Kite Passion in late nineties. ...hm (web search for "Gemini kite" now and limited to results before 2000)... So, it is still sold (in a way I kind of seen this, but without much thought "processing"). Is your Gemini new or old and what would the difference be? Also saw an KL article in old KL during this search, http://kitelife.com/old-site/magazine/issue28/rgraziano28/content.php , where a Ron Graziano got interviewed (in 2002). He there mentioned old-school kites. Now this gets confusing - now we got current, old school and ultra old school? To be honest, I've not really understood the precise definition of old school. I've been thinking in new and old terms of my kites in other ways to. When you prepare for doing a side slide by turning downwards at the end of the wind window side, the non deep sail, mostly the old kites, kind of falls through the turn. By "the turn" I mean at the wind window edge, turn downwards from nose towards the wind window edge to nose upwards. Almost all kites (Jam Session, Maestrale, Elixir, Illusion, Fazer XL, Tramontana,...) just falls through this turn with very little input required to complete the turn. The newer kites, the Infinity and the Maestro 3, just doesn't do this. The result of the downwards turn is for the newer kites more like a large radius turn, which might end in the ground if you are not prepared for it. It is not the case that these two kites can't turn sharply - it is just the behavior at the edge of wind window that I'm thinking of here. Ideas of why and how?

Warning: The horsing around is omnipresent in this blog entry. If you are easily annoyed by silly contents that is scattered through this text you are hereby warned. Sunday afternoon after almost 2 days of cold rain the winds were really good for the local field/beach. The breeze was perfect, even (T-shirt) warm. I decided to get my HQ Infinity out. We have only seen each other about five times in kiting fields so far. There is a freshness about the situation. This is the first kite for me where all the spars are wrapped and and at the same time is equipped with an adjustable weight. The mysterious Infinity late on its first evening here after its long voyage. Could this be the one? The wind was so that the kite could maintain a pancake on the ground, while going from the position with nose on the ground trailing edge upwards to ground pancake was a bit difficult. I'd say that the wind was quite ideal for fade launches. I'd also say that compared to my other (oldie) kites maintaining the fade feels easier. It is however difficult to separate ones own progress from the properties of the kite. So, the wind made putting the kite in a "ground pancake" (by tilting forwards as above) for the fade launch a bit time consuming. Card wheels are very often useful when launching a kite, but unfortunately as thrilling as cold porridge. Therefore I decided to try launching the kite in a way I've never tried before: let the kite fall backwards instead so it gets in a ground fade position, pull on one side so the kite flips around and in some way can be launched. Now to the surprise, something that never has happened before - a trick succeeded in the first attempt! In fact, it only failed once in this afternoon evening! When looking it up later the name of the trick turned out to be a sleeping beauty (sleeping beauty by DPmama74: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VANxs3rZd5E ). Once again I don't know whether it is me or the kite that can do this trick easily (suspect the kite though). Although I've tried it on other kites and on other occasions and managed a few times, the lazy Susans was now there for the most of the time. Not always but to a degree that I had not experienced before. I also noticed that the turtles did not sink so rapidly - hm ... should compare this to other kites. First dinner with the Infinity - a long wonderful but yet so short evening. The air was dense from expectation. (yes, the Swedish midsummer nights are bright). Ménage à trois: "No, Jam Session return to your sleeve! - It is not infidelity, this is Infinity! To condense the tricking of the last session the Infinity, compared to my other older kites, seem to assist me in the in these tricks (yes a very limited list of tricks, but the tricks that I'm currently working with): * Fade/fade launch * Sleeping Beauty * Lazy Susan This thing about the wrapped spars is a bit new to me, the pultruded ones has been the standard for so many years. The main exception being the Prism Illusion, where the lower leading edges are just very fragile. However the infinity is not the most light wind kite (with weight at least) so this kite could be more durable? How much can these spars really take? Dynamic DT15? A secret code was obviously written on the lower spreaders of the Infinity. Getting a bit too carried away by my barnstorming text of fiery rhetoric pitch for being heavy on input on the lines (in Home > Sport Kites > Beginners > Breaking Spars, Very Common?) I kind of entered a more careless daring mode. After a while, during a heavy on the lines type of lazy Susan close to the ground, the kite instead exited the turtle and rapidly banged a wing tip into the ground. After this the kite felt a tiny fraction slightly more flexible and there was a small group of about 1.5cm (~1/2 inch) long fissures on one of the lower leading edges closest to the centre-T. All fissures being parallel to the axis of the spreader. I decided to go on (I hear the forums collective "NO!!!"-cries of horror), but with gentler handling. I now think I know how much a DT15 can and can't take since I now has experienced being within and at/beyond the limit. The Infinity after the session that caused the fissures in one of the LS's inner tube end. Pink Floyd - The Post War Dream: "Was it you for you? Was it me? Did I watch too much TV? Is there a hint of accusation in your eyes?" Also notice the deep sail that should make (I assume) the kite to track well (OK, but not immensely impressive after turning with tail weight at least). As I said this is still the early days with the Infinity. I've only tried the Infinity with the weight yet and has been starting from this spring very spoilt with tracking from the Tramontana. I should try it out without the weight and be observant on how tracking is affected. There are so many nice features, so many bridle settings that can be adjusted, the leading edge connectors are covered to reduce snags, there is a well centered thick patch to protect the sail from the top spreader, yo-yo stoppers, adjustable leech line, keeper lines to avoid having the bridle being caught on the end of the spine and there is even the slack lines that help the LE to preserve its shape and to prevent it to vibrate during higher winds. I have one minor complaint, the sleeve is a bit narrow. A detail you may think, but I don't want to add wrinkles to the sail. This kite is best oriented in the sleeve with the nose up. A bit too narrow sleeve. The First Letter to the Infinity During your convalescence I've been flying with my HQ Maestro 3 - fear not because with it's sail pattern it is sure not a beauty. However the tricks we experienced were still there (fades, sleeping beauties and lazy Susans), though the lazy Susans were not as mighty as yours. The sleeping beauty success ratio was a bit lower, mainly because I started to experiment with inputs. Infinity, I hope you'll recover soon, so we can perfect the lazies and make them reliable, so we can test smooth soft sleeping beauties and more aggressive ones and so that we can start to work on those back spins. And Infinity what would happen to your personality without the tail weight? The Second Letter to the Infinity I keep practicing the tricks I learnt/discovered/evolved/refined with you. The Tramontana now can fade launch and sometimes do the sleeping beauty thanks to the inspiration I got from you. I miss you, I want you back, so now I've bought a nice double syringe of epoxy to have you here soon. There is also a woven glass fibre welding blanket from which I can salvage some strands of glass fibre. Perhaps a spiral wound glass fibre epoxy composite can make you complete and even stronger than before? Epoxy and woven glass fibre sheet. Added 21st of Mars 2017 00:47: I didn't think it was appropriate (at the time I was new KL member) - now I post with less self criticism (if possible). The music video that I mainly had in mind when writing this "new Infinity blog post" was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GDQGAZunEg (Lisa Ekdahl "Vem vet"/"Who knows"). The black and white video well matches the grey Infinity. Tonight I was on a musical concert (for the first time in 15 years or so). First it was a dinner included and then the the lady Lisa Ekdahl was giving a concert. In 1994 her greatest (yes this one) hit was written, but at the time my economy kept me from buying her CD. That little person (a head shorter than others on the scene) had such a presence (like an HQ Tramontana in the sky?). Yes, you are probably right when you think it has gone a little over the the top... One more kind of kite related thing, the person that got a HQ salsa kite as a wedding gift showed interest in the artist. He is a saxophone player and immediately got hold of the musical notes for "Who knows" when hearing of my coming concert visit, but I had already bought the tickets half a year ago, so he unfortunately couldn't join us...

My opinion is slightly different. First of all it takes super powers in self control not follow the package. Second it is the joy of seeing how the kite approaches its new home (or the agony when the courier company returns the kite to some package centre over the weekend after a claimed delivery attempt). Also if you are aware on how the shipment was performed, you can at least ask your kite dealer for another arrangement if you wouldn't be happy with the current one. I did this once and the kite shop representative appeared just to be happy for the feed back and not annoyed for the extra work.

You are grazing the water and literally sweeping along the surface! Isn't there a just small risk for, lets say, a "swim of contemplation" :-) here? When I fly (duals) over water I'm really really careful not to make any mistakes, I really detest the (long and painful) process of entering the water (once in it is not so bad).

To buy yourself some time to find the perfect kite bag - use a ski case in the mean time (if available). Before I got my simple quite cheap black/magenta HQ 180cm (~71inch) bag I used this solution after getting the third good kite that I didn't want to miss when being on the field. At the time of purchase this ski bag wasn't very expensive either, about the same price as the kite bag I believe. The ski bag is longer (215cm) than what you need for normal full size dual line kites, so I had one end folded over by using one of the two ski holding straps that already was on the bag. The folded part was a natural place to have a plastic bag with kite accessories. The 180cm HQ bag works well for all my kites and got one handy pocket for lines and other stuff. The length of the HQ bag is so that it works for all my kites (not simultaneously though). The Tramontana (my second longest kite sleeve) is close to the limit with a few cm margin (like an inch or so), while the Fazer XL (my largest) just fits with no margin at all. The zipper doesn't go all the way, but inserting the kites does feel quite OK. The manufacturer claims that it can hold 10-15 kites. Well that wouldn't be any kite-mix I would be interested in. When keeping the kites in their sleeves I fit five kites into this bag - yes a bit smaller then the ski bag. Perhaps a bit limiting, but when did you use more than five last time? - And I'd hate to wrinkle the sail of my darlings! The handle arrangement of the HQ bag is minimalistic, one side's fixed length strap is short while the other longer is of adjustable length. The longer one can naturally be put over one's shoulder when carrying the bag in a close to vertical position. When you carry the bag horisontally in your hand you don't notice that one strap of the handle is longer. However, seven months after I started to use the bag, looking carefully at the fabric where it meets the top side of the long handle, there are two small (like a few mm^2) small emerging holes. If you primarily carry the bag over your shoulder, pulling the top side with your hand to keep it vertical, consider to put a reinforcement patch on the inside of the bag around the point where the handle meets the fabric to make a more High Quality design (sorry, just couldn't resist that). Obviously if you have really large kites the ski bag would be the only option, but also if you wished to add a few more kites. The ski bag is not so bad in my opinion, just a bit bulkier, but in the end it is the HQ bag I tend to use.

You are serious kiter, the dungeon absolutely serious! With the many kites on display in your dungeon, don't you have any kites diffusing out from the dungeon and entering "normal" living indoor living areas? I've been thinking like this, if you have something that is beautiful, you like and is available and you had something like a party to decorate, why not use some strategically placed kites in the ceiling, above windows and on walls? Or, if the height to the ceiling is high enough, perhaps an arched inner kite ceiling above the dinner table? Or outdoors, a three kite large flower/parasol? No, I haven't done anything like this, mainly due to the boring reason: you typically don't do this. In a way, it shouldn't be so far fetched - for an out door party I've seen a tensioned sail as a party tent/cover before. Also compared to series of out door flags arranged on a string, a set of kites would be more interesting, even for people with very vague idea about kites. Is this hardcore or silly? I'm hardly objective and can't judge, but I know what I would prefer.

> Hop in the Cruze, turn on the jump drive tunes & listen to Tom Petty sing about Melinda How about "Learning to Fly" (Tom Petty) - isn't that what we all do?

Sorry (and thank you for your attention as well and concern for my kite), I totally disagree. With the right kite the sleeping beauty is a simple trick. The very first session I tried it I was using an Infinity (on a lawn like ground) and I only failed once. This is for me the one exception from the rule that you need to practice practice practice to learn a trick (e.g. a half axel is still a nemesis trick). Currently now when I'm investigating the trick, its limits and which kites it works for, the rate of failure is higher. You yourself determine how much power you apply during the take off part of the trick and with the nose about 1.5dm above the ground you just don't need much power. Dead launches, related but different, is riskier I agree, but again you decide how much you input on the lines. OK I don't attempt the dead launch very much, but I more feel that I'm wearing the kite out, not so much risking snapping/ripping stuff (my exceptions: 4D and Shadow). The only time I had a high success ratio for dead launches was with a Prism Illusion on some old, soft, spongy and horisontal and (yes) dead grass. I remember the last time I briefly discussed dead launches with anyone that understood, call me morbid if you wish, on the way home from from an old mans much expected funeral a year ago. I felt "extra deep", pondering over life and what you really want to do. I had a couple of days ago succeeded in doing the above mentioned trick for the first time and was in the middle of what later turned out to be a shopping spree of four heavily discounted and discontinued models of Prism kites (had previously only bought the Illusion - the first new kite in 15 years). I made up my mind, I don't want to miss the one remaining Elixir kite, so I got off the subway and headed for the circus/yo-yo/kite shop ("Fler bollar i luften", now only exist as a web shop). I know this is hubris, but I feel more confident flying a kite than driving a car. I started out with serious kiting before I got a driving license. On the beach, be early - if it gets crowded go home (no, people under the kite puts an end to learning) - or you can possibly try with shorter lines. Did that once it was a bit crowded when arriving with a HQ shadow on 15m lines. After a while by the end of the afternoon there was more wind and more room so I could switch to other kites and lines. In Sweden the beaches are only densely populated during during a few months and during the winter they are more or less forgotten (lucky me). A couple of times a long time ago I've been flying a 5m^2 Peter Lynn quad line foil. Given that I could control that to some extent/reasonably, how much would I have "for free" if I would try a Rev-like kite?

Thank you very much for your interest and comments SHBKF! When I was out today at the local field/beach for a session with my HQ Maestro 3 and Tramontana I tried the Tramontana with and without the tail - yes as usual with tail there was some extra attention from bystanders. Two of the tricks that I'm currently investigating, the fade launch and the sleeping beauty launch was to my surprise also there with the Tramontana. The sleeping beauty was a bit reluctant, possibly due to nose/line snags, but was still there. Fade launches with the Tramontana was definitely there, just advance forward enough to allow it to complete the ground-pancake to fade transition. Just before going home, after about 3.5h of non-stop kiting, I connected the tail again and then it happened: a rising fade from the ground with tail! I don't know how! After a certain time your hands start to do things more automatically without yourself being so observant - then it is time to go home. With this fade launch with a tail however, going home felt really nice (would have been even nicer knowing how I did it though). One other thing I learnt though from the two last times - sun protection! Why on earth don't I have a small packet of "sun-goo" in the kite bag?

Being relatively new here I'm not yet familiar with all the features/functions of this site. I kind of "discovered" the blog section quite recently and then figured out that ... hm... those earlier lengthy posts (like http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/7093-welcome-exult/#comment-57515 or http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/5459-what-do-do-in-high-wind/?page=4#comment-57785 ) might better had been put in a KL-blog instead? Even after a month I'm still in the process of finding my way around here. Agenda (as of now at least): I aim to cover parts of my dual line stunt kiting here by now and then sporadically writing reasonably well edited posts and blog posts that I would like to read myself. English is not my native language though. It is not only finding expressions that are spot on (which can slow down somewhat), but also avoiding unintended alternative meanings of words. E.g. the name I first intended instead of Exult turned out to be dubious I believe. Quite often I check what happens to the kite when you make a short flick on the lines in various situations without much subsequent feed back and try to see what the kite wants to do. Therefore I thought "Fling" would serve as a good descriptive forum name that describes the kites movement after the short tug. However, after carefully looking it up, it turned out that the alternative meaning might make it a good name in some other type of forum, which is very far from what I intended. Reason for limiting to dual lines is because that is what I happen to do and know. Currently I feel a four line would distract to much in learning tricks at my current level and also from to some more extent for apply the contents of John Barresi's "Kite Flying with Intent" ( http://kitelife.com/kl-archive/flying-with-intent/ ) for my dual line kites. Later when reasonably through (???) with this I'd perhaps feel more ready for a 4-line challenge. Another aspect is, in a time that still feels distant, I imagine that 4-line kiting might add a few more kite active years. Dual line slack line tricks can certainly demand that you rapidly run downstreams, which at an age no longer might be possible. When I come to think of it, there is more old but reasonably recent stuff that could make it into this blog, like this (second) e-mail to Invento-HQ and a kite retailer/source of mine: There was no reply. OK, HQ is not a kite forum and might need to focus on working to get the bacon on the table.