Exult

QLK – quad line kite And while we are at it: DLK – dual line kite OPKs – other peoples (persons?) kites

This must have been towards the end of the first week+! First when seeing the video I thought: good speedy QLK flying without the unplanned landings, then later in the video you had the hovers as well. It seems like a very good progress rate there!

Naaah, I’d say it is more parking the kite. If it happened to be so that it was unintentional only you would know. Funny you said so, as far as I can remember, it is the only kite that I managed to dead launch with.

For that price consider going for some dual DLKing with this wide wind window kite. Now the over all effort is not that large. Botch-up two straight pin bar-handles(*). Allow 1-2 sessions to get used to pilot one kite. Then I’d *estimate* you’d feel reasonably confident in perhaps five sessions. For me learning to pilot two kites in a *rudimentary* way was less of a trick than learning and claiming a DLK slack line trick. This being said, this was not something I stuck to (last time was about 2 years ago), but it was a nice self confidence boosting side project. There are so many aspects and things to do in this limitless sport!! For more visual effect, attach tails to the pair of kites because you are not going to trick them anyhow (wait… is it really so that it is ”impossible” to trick a DLK through a handle?). The feeling (in the end) was a bit less relaxed than for more normal kiting with occasional ”survival mode” two second episodes. Also I’m sure that there are other kites than the Kymera that could do this, but the large wind window giving room for the two kites fits the bill. * At the time I was (perhaps too) much into the direction of wooden fibres after a broken long axe shaft incident where the wooden fibres were not parallel with the shaft. Therefore I initially put effort in making sure that the fibre direction of the handles was OK. Actually the final(?) iteration of the handles was made from a light wooden (~1.5USD if I remember it right) broomstick. After all the forces from the kites are not that big.

Considering: Perhaps?:

Also, a bit late, I’d like to thank @drdante and @Louise for the related arrangements.

I have been in a green preferring kite period but now it looks like I might enter a blue one perhaps. I really like to be helpful and specific... (You can't go wrong!)

You see “Out of the blue” is just the beginning then it becomes “and into the black”, i.e. fully into the dark side (well occasionally DLKs then…). “You pay for this but they give you that” must quite literally correspond to your KL-subscription and the B-series you just won. The following two lines “And once you're gone, you can't come back; When you're out of the blue and into the black” is just to emphasize that there is really no way of out of QLKing. Have you figured out what I’m taking about?: Once more the tune “ƃuno⅄ lᴉǝN ʎq ʎW ʎW 'ʎǝH ʎǝH” has proven to be applicable to kiting. 🙂

Found a video where the turtle type of “fade” was presented quite clearly and besides could be performed indoors. See at 2:20 :

I don’t think it looks like a fade in the video. It looks like it ends on its back with the LE being away from the pilot (i.e. a turtle) after a quick tug on on the bottom lines, I think. See if this will trigger a new “is the dress white or blue”-like discussion ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress ).

I very much gladly would, but I would need a spectacular telescope for seeing that field. In fact, I would also need it to see any decent pilot from over/around here... If the surrounding kite flyers insist on hiding (because of them being non existent e.g.) I can only recommend some occasional travelling to some kiting event – one can live a long time on such an event (perhaps by actively keeping notes of observations and what has been learned). Another way is to find a kite video of someone about your skill level or slightly better and set that as a goal (or quietly surpass that video). Myself I appreciate not only those who share the “impossible” perfect video, but also intermediate stuff that is easier to relate to.

Perhaps there still could be a tiny bit of something more to get out of the PD?🙂: https://kitelife.com/forum/topic/8173-favorite-sul/?do=findComment&comment=65913

Hmm… imagine being out on a cafe close to a nice open surrounding, conversation going in a somewhat boring direction. With this in your “city sized” bag/back pack, how tempting would it be to make a poor excuse for sneaking away? This must be the kite-o-holic’s equivalent of a hip bottle. Photo by Tomasz G. Sienicki ( https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piersiówka_ubt.jpeg )

Don’t forget the slowing down and stall practice. The ground (when doing belly landings e.g.) tends to be difficult to negotiate with. Would any thought of Neil Young be very far fetched (“My my, hey hey … It is better to burn out than to fade away”… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cawk2cMTnGo 🙂). But it if the destructive crash thing would happen once more @Gladders , well again welcome to the KL community of occasional kite crashers.

Yes one could do one of them only. One could also eat plums as the only fruit and refuse all kiwis from right from the start until the end of time with no exception. That being said I have been doing mostly HWKing (Hadziki wing kiting, yes Rev like QLKing i.e.) lately, because locally (well in the Nordic countries – you can’t be too picky when defining “locally here”) HWKing has offered some kind of surrounding sport kiting activities (which is a luxury). When returning to DLKing I hope that I’ll make some use of the (this sounds fluffy) the QLK way of feeling the presence of the kite. When doing DLKing, have I 100% left the harder with too little feedback (from the feel through the lines) from the days of learning a long time ago or can something be added from QLKing? Another thing I’ll try to transfer to DLKing is more methodical way of learning with more repetition that I’ve applied since starting to learn QLKs (1.3 years ago).

I take this is a very polite way(/example of) of encouraging checking of kite gear/kite that otherwise could be a contributing source of the frustration.

Low (mostly) and low wind. After a successful belly landing the bridle side is on the ground and the nose is pointing away from you. See also: http://fracturedaxel.co.uk/wiki9/tiki-index.php?page=Pancake http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/p.j.f.peters/kites/basics/Duallinetricks.Landings.html#bellylanding

I assume the sport kite is a two line delta kite for tricks and/or precision? Do you know the model and brand of this kite? What do you find frustrating and which tricks (if that is what you are aiming for) are closest to be within reach? AND Welcome here @Gladders!! Ahh, I saw from https://kitelife.com/forum/topic/9281-kite-buying-tips/ that that you have an HQ Limbo kite. Also saw from that topic that crash avoidance and stall/tricks practice was a thing. I think that you should not wait for a new kite to learn - use the time until you get one. Wait for a day of low wind (which should be beneficial for the survival of your kite) and you can practice stalls and powering the kite on and off which also is useful when giving to the kite before a crash. A kite in the non-powered "falling leaf" mode will not break on impact with the ground. To get free from the idea (and learn you hands to do it as well) that the kite must constantly rush forward do "barely flying": start the kite, let it reach about 40cm and let it sink back (nose still pointing upwards). Repeat with 80cm, 1.60m etc... Try to hold it a few seconds (yes, this would be a stall) at the "highest" point. Then start and fly to the top of the wind window (backing might be required), turn so that the nose points downwards. Walk towards the kite and try to gain ground (moving downwinds) while the kite is going downwards. Landing normally is now an option. Another way is to extend your arms just above the ground (fight the urge to pull the lines to steer away from the ground!) to do a belly landing. It should not be destructive even if the belly landing fails since you are extending your arms (that is moving them from you - not keeping the arms extended). Then try launching from the belly landed position by a quick tug on one of the lines. Good luck!!

When I think of your video in https://kitelife.com/forum/topic/8859-progress-so-far/ the irony is very clear. Your video still serves as my two year goal next summer (though it now looks like I need to put a lot of effort in it and certainly not take any winter break). A toast for all inspirational material shared!!! 🍾🍷

Well, we only live once and don't want to miss out, do we? If we check out the Aerialis site to get the videos in order - I'm sure most of us would envy the progress rate.

To keep myself alert I think of the lines as power cheese slicers (of the wire type) (not sure if I read this simile somewhere or not). I also appreciate the sharing of @RobB 's image of a line cut: https://kitelife.com/forum/topic/7818-this-is-why-you-wear-gloves/

Find a few Youtube/Vimeo tutorial videos on basic sewing machine handling. Beginning with practice sewing on rags (or really worn clothes that soon would be used during some painting project or similar) sounds like a good start. If you can’t find any rags to practice on, sew on an ordinary (A4/letter) piece of paper. However you should not go directly to kite repair after this. IMO you should be familiar with the slipperiness of the ripstop before dealing with any kites (well the look of the kite bag on the other side might (?) be less important and the fabric is probably not ripstop). Just before doing the real repair job, practice on something as similar as the real job as possible, at least once! Other hints: Learn how to balance (upper/lower) the thread tension and don’t turn that wheel backwards ever. When you put the thread through the needle eye, the thread should go in the direction such that the thread goes along the long (almost needle long) grove of the machine needle. I also feel that I must make some advertising for a topic from earlier this year: There I covered unknown issues when building a small first model kite and mostly found out about the unknowns and put it into a context. Pointed at what was tricky and what seemed to work well. No, it is certainly not a guide from an expert, more the curious persistent rookie guide. Lot of links to external resources. Apart from the building process and material/equipment list, there you’ll also find explanations about the ways that needle dimensions are described, thread dimensions and fabric. Discussions on how heavy a seam is relative to the fabric. A thread combustion test is briefly performed (watch out for any remaining embers/glow). @Paul LaMasters contributed with various ways on how to attach the panels during the sewing process. Lot of links to external resources. Handling hints and some sewing exercises. Images on surprisingly blunt needle tips that worked...

It seems to be the theme of the day to make DLK to QLK or QLK to DLK transitions (or return to) - you and @Breezin. I guess that is kiting; challenge and improvement, we do it/strive to on every session. When you talked to Paul de Bakker, you didn’t ask him by any chance whether he plans to do Jinx or something Jinxlike available again? I have only tried the Hydra of Paul de Bakkers kites, but I got very curious after reading: http://v2.2.kiteclique.com/focus-kites-jinx-jinx-ul-first-flight-jared-haworth/