Skyclad01

Damn, just missed this one. I was gonna give him my best offer of $10 for the full vent!

I Definitely want to make sure im an ambi-turner!

Had a very nice 2 hour flying session this evening. Was a good 90 something degrees out (Thankfully its a dry heat at least), and the winds were good and consistent. Although, every now and again the winds would blow a bit strong, but it wasn't anything a low inverted hover for about 20 second couldn't handle. While flying, it was rapidly apparent how rusty my flying skills have become. So that sucked. But at least I know i'll have fun sharpening them back up. While flying the kite around with no purpose is always fun, flying with intent looks so much better! But before I can do that, I need to improve my flying skills, so I have decided to focus on doing boring and repetitive things. Mainly, to work on my clockwork skills. While yes I can spin and turn the kite I have a difficult time keeping my kite perfectly level when flying in a straight like and keeping my turns sharp and even. Practicing clockwork turns will pretty much kill 2 birds with one stone. It will help me with holding a steady hover (which is important even when the kite is in motion as it keeps your flying straight instead of having the kite undulating while flying), and it will definitely help me keep my turns and spins sharp and even. Once my clockwork turns improve, then flying with intent should come easier (hopefully) and my overall flying will look that much better. And that will be the big payoff of working on the boring and repetitive practice motions!

Thats a nice one, thanks for mentioning that one. I just checked out his song bean time. Pretty sure that one will be added to my playlist

Unfortunately I am a solo flier, so I dont have to worry about flying in pairs/teams. Though demo/comp flying, I would bring my own choice of song. Over the past couple of years, I have come to preferring to fly with music rather than without.

Happy Birthday!!

If I ever did happen to compete, I doubt I would win. So I guess I would be mainly flying for fun with hopes of getting lucky on a possible win. As far as music for that; im not sure that what I like would mostly be stuff the judges would recognize, but would hopefully appreciate (for examples, see page 2 of my "Revolutionary Morning" thread). My approach is that even though its unlikely ill have the opportunity to compete, id still like to keep in that frame of mind as a a form of self training - if you will.

I figured id give this old thread a bump, but with a bit of a category (as I need to make a new playlist finally). Personally, I dont fly comps (yet), but I look for music that fits within comp time and catagory type of music. What bands/songs to you listen to while flying - Duals... Quads.... Uptempo... Downtempo

Unfortunately the days got shorter pretty quick, plus with birthdays, holidays and general winter weather coming on not too much longer after my last post here I haven't really flown all that much. I have only flown once or twice since then. I really felt out of practice, lol. But they were both good days. Nothing spectacular, just fun flying the kite around without any thought or purpose. Now that the days are finally getting longer (and much warmer), I should be able to get more time on the lines in. Which reminds me, I need to make a new flying playlist!

I see sponsors in the sponsor section and am no longer getting that download pop-up!!!

I'd say thats too much of a gray area for you or I to judge. Depends on what John/the admin's have to say. If its against the rules, they will chime in and say so. If these kinds of posts are allowed, then all is good for mywindstuff. I wonder if there should be a category or sub category called "Kite Deals" or Market Watch" (something to that effect), where people can make posts about places that are having a sale on a kite, or who find a good ebay deal listing?

With my Opera browser, the site sponsors section is blank. But every time I load the page, or go to any page on here, I get a download popup for a file called "default". Now when I open this site with Chrome, I dont get the download popup, but the sponsors section looks like this: HTML as you see there. Seems to me like the 2 issues are related.

It would be nice to have a direct link to it (if forum rules allow). Moreover, it would be very nice if you also at least listed the price your asking for it. (ETA) I just noticed its an auction and not a "buy it now" listing. Im not sure auctions are allowed here (though I could be wrong).

The Laser Pro Gold line is very good. Im not familiar with Skybond though. When you buy kite line as a pre-made set, it normally comes wound on a standard card winder. As for the straps though, not always. As far as changing the straps, its really quite simple as this image shows (Just ignore step one as your lines are pre-made, they will already have the knots)

The field I fly in is all grass so the only thing im worried about is cracking the end of a LE rod if it drops and lands on a tip.

A lot of of what determines which line length and weight to get are the kite you're flying and the wind conditions you will be flying in. This video (Even though its geared for Revolution Quad kites), will give you a good explanation about line weights and lengths. Keep in mind though, this is for 4 line kites and not 2 line. The average dual line weight is 100# - 110# and not 90#, but the video will still give you a very clear explanation regardless. And other replies you get here will be better defined for your dual line flying.

Somehow, either my measurements were off (highly unlikely), or the bridle leaders have stretched. When I made the leaders following Wayne's setup, they were 10" long. Now that I measure them today, they are 10 7/8" long. Could this be due to the knot's tightening while flying? Normally I would think so, but I question it as the leaders on both handles have stretched equally. Yesterday while flying, the winds were a little on the high side so I was able to fly one more knot forward on the leaders. The higher winds made it easier to get used to giving the extra input needed to give the kite its drive forward. It's surprising how much more control even just 3/4" will give you. So now im flying with my top leaders at the 10" mark (and my bottom leaders still at 3/4"). It was frustrating at first to get used to the extra pulling needed to give the kite its forward drive, but I remembered reading in that post of Johns about the leaders, "practice on that knot, and the knot on either side for a minimum of 45 minutes (takes a while for our physical technique to adapt and stick).". And he was correct. After about an hour, I was starting to get the hang of the inputs required for the kites forward drive. More importantly was that it gave me that little extra control on the kite where spin stops were becoming easier. Though I still need a LOT more practice with them. Also, I have started to practice cycling my hands when I spin the kite. I have noticed that doing that makes my spins look cleaner and also gives me better control of them. While cycling my hands during spins, it seemed the kite would start to drift a little to the left (or right, depending) and I immediately realized that I was starting to do a forward bicycle! Which I have tried to do a number of times before and failed miserably at. So it made sense to keep going with it. Even though it was majorly by chance theses forward bicycles (or moonwalks at times) were inadvertently happening just because I was cycling my hands during spins. I've still yet to fully get the hang of them as I don't really yet have the control to do them at will (let alone in a specific direction), but I did notice that it really helps to slowly walk forward while doing them as he helped to keep the drive on the kite rather than trying to do them with my feet planted in one spot. So now along with practicing my vertical ladders and clockwork turns, I now have the bicycle/moonwalk to practice on. And those are really enjoyable to practice as its something very visual as opposed to just "watching". The only thing about practicing them is that rods on my rev are taking a slight beating as ive yet to gain the fluid control needed. Hopefully I don't break any LE's during this learning curve.

Thank you Dcnlarry. That is the exact reason for this thread. When I started off as a dual line flier, I would create a post here and there asking questions, opinions and help. And I got plenty of helpful replies, but the bad thing is those posts would fade off and you would have to use search to find them again (which is no way is a bad thing). When I started this thread three months ago as a total newbie to the Rev, it was originally just to look for help and answers. As it quickly started gaining a lot of views and a lot of helpful posts, I though I would keep it alive as a sort of quasi-journal of my trials, frustrations, success and ramblings not only for myself, but to help other newbie Rev fliers who may have the same questions and frustrations I did, and for others (such as yourself) to vicariously live the experiences of a typical Joe Rev flier. Plus, for some odd reason, people seem to enjoy these little ramblings I post for myself no matter how trivial I think if might be to the seasoned flier. I hope that my posts and all the extremely helpful replies its received help you to have an easier learning curve as a newbie Rev flier and keep you inspired to keep flying even during moments of frustration. I look forward to hearing about your flying experiences with the Rev!

I think they're pretty good, and based on them, it looks like your balance, concentration, motor skills and hand/eye coordination are pretty much back to normal.

Just do it the easy way like this https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOgaJiwz_hajcyhV8fwIhzg/videos

I'm certain I will! I plan on using John's process of finding out which set of knots work for me.

Actually that wont be too hard to do. Earlier on in this thread, ive stated how I removed the stock bottom leaders and larksheaded them to the stock top leaders (and made my own temporary 1" bottom leaders). And with stock leaders having that set up, I had my lines attached to the end of the 2nd leaders. I compared the length of that to the to the new setup (your setup), and that equaled to the 4th knot out. So now i'll have an extra 3 knots out to work with.

I received the bridle line this afternoon and applied them to my handles following Wayne Dowler's setup For the top leaders, and for my bottom leaders, I have them 1" long with one knot at the half inch mark and the end knot at the 1" end. Now I just need to wait till Monday evening when the winds are good to give the extended pigtails a try,

Thank you Makatakam, that is very kind and much appreciated.