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jasonmcmahon76

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Everything posted by jasonmcmahon76

  1. jasonmcmahon76
    So it wasn't just me... Ok it was mostly me! But it's nice to see that Prism has announced a redesigned centre T for the Quantum!
  2. jasonmcmahon76
    Suddenly, it's May! The weather has been turning colder here over the last few (eight!) weeks. Work has been busy, and combined with the end of daylight savings time, it has definitely put a crimp on my flying! I finally got a chance to debut my new ribbon tails last weekend, they looked great! Unfortunately I can't show you any video, the GoPro wasn't working properly - operator error! Then I got rained on and it dawned on me that I now had to work out a way of drying 2 x 25ft tails... The answer I settled on was pulling each tail through a folded towel, that seemed to work pretty well! I managed to put my first puncture in the sail, but my kite repair kit came to the rescue and it handily patched the small hole before it had the chance to become bigger. I got to go out and play for about an hour the following day in about 10 - 14 km/h winds, I had a lot of fun just keeping the kite in the air and moving it around in the window. Nothing fancy. I need to go back and review all the slack line trick videos again before I go out next time, that wind speed seemed ripe for trying a lot of tricks.
  3. jasonmcmahon76
  4. jasonmcmahon76
    This I get. This, not so much? Trying to relate back to the aerodynamics that I know: In unstalled flight, If I pull on say, the right line, am I decreasing the angle of attack on that side? Thus a decrease in lift compared to the left side of the kite, causing the left side to lift and the kite to turn towards the right? Assuming that much is correct, then in stalled flight, by pulling on the right line am I momentarily decreasing the angle of attack to the point where it starts generating lift again? Thus more lift than the left hand side and the kite turns towards the left? I haven't had much time to get out of late, but I will keep this in mind!
  5. jasonmcmahon76
    That is about where I am at, to be honest. Still less than 10 outings, really only maybe 5 or 6. Still working out my lefts and rights! Avoiding the ground is pretty much the goal at the moment. I'm aware that I stand too still. I'll try to start moving some more. Again, still aiming to avoid that ground! I know that the videos are way too long, and I certainly don't think or expect that many (or any!) will sit through them entirely. Video editing is still painful at the moment, I'm still working out how to do it (I much prefer still photography). I'm just cutting the footage down to all the flying stuff. As I become more competent at flying, I guess it will eventually boil down a montage of the best bits. For now I'm happy to display my raw inexperience in all its glory! Though a retrospective montage of learning a trick or certain aspects of flying is a good idea!
  6. jasonmcmahon76
    Thank you! I will investigate how much force is required for launching next time I fly. Someone else said I had lead hands, so I'm clearly just overdoing my inputs. Hopefully I'll get some kite time later today. You're right: I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of a few things, but I'm still way behind the kite. I am still working on the push/pull/combo turns but I have yet to work out those crisp 90 turns! Any slack line tricks are just luck at this point! I don't feel like I have enough finesse on the controls to actually attempt them at the moment. P.s. Don't worry, I am having fun!
  7. jasonmcmahon76
    New video! New blog! New video in new blog!
  8. jasonmcmahon76
    I messed up with the audio, still working out the whole editing thing! It was mainly wind noise anyway.
  9. jasonmcmahon76
    Here is my YouTube playlist. All of my kite videos will end up here!
  10. jasonmcmahon76
    Hello there, welcome to my blog! I've never really done one of these before... short story even shorter: I got myself a 2-line kite. Didn't know anything about kites. I found this forum and asked the following question: I received a lot of helpful information from the locals and the thread kind of evolved into me detailing my flying experiences. It was suggested that I should do that in a blog instead, and so here we are! I'm planning to put links to any videos that I have taken while flying. Beyond that, I'm not sure. Open to suggestions!
  11. jasonmcmahon76
    Thank you! I have finished it, just have to upload it!
  12. jasonmcmahon76
    Not a bad idea! I might do that.
  13. jasonmcmahon76
    I clearly am too rough on the ground recoverys, hence the T breaking so much. But I am learning this on my own, I don't have anyone with.l me to warn me about things that I am doing wrong, or to show me how best to adjust the kite bridle for each wind condition. At the moment all I am mainly trying to do is avoid the ground and get a feel for how much movement I need to use to control the kite. The light touch and finesse will come once I have more experience and control and can feel the differences between line set ups. Maybe after I win JB for a weekend, you'll see some improvements!
  14. jasonmcmahon76
    New video is up! I went wrong somewhere in the editing and the sound was all out of sync, so I just got rid of it. Same with the next video as well. So enjoy part 3, in which I break my kite, fix it, and nearly break it again.
  15. jasonmcmahon76
    Oh, look at what turned up in the mail today! I can also afford three more mistakes now...
  16. jasonmcmahon76
    I'm back on night shift again tomorrow night, so I should have the next installment of kite crashing action ready for viewing soon!
  17. jasonmcmahon76
    ...Isn't that normal for kite flyers?
  18. jasonmcmahon76
    ...what if I tie my Prism tail to the back?
  19. jasonmcmahon76
    No flying yesterday. ...or was there? #nostringsattachedfun
  20. jasonmcmahon76
    What is the kite equivalent of "mashing all the buttons"? I've kind of been doing that...
  21. jasonmcmahon76
    While I can understand that, my other half found out how much I spent on this kite. Which is why a) I'm not getting another kite anytime soon and 2) why she does not know that I've broken it. Twice.
  22. jasonmcmahon76
    If I just replace two inches of tubing, then hopefully it won't change the weight all that much. Unless it is substantially heavier I don't think it will affect the flight characteristics much.
  23. jasonmcmahon76
    I'm fairly certain that the tubing is aluminium, I wonder if I can find something like stainless steel in the same size? I will suffer doing the walk of shame a few more times before I go back to trying ground recoveries. The centre T already has a small bend in it, which is why there is a bit of an angle there. When I pulled all the rods out and checked them, I gave them all a little flexing. I didn't hear anything, so I don't think I've cracked anything. Yet. Thank you! I have been struggling to get a nice finish on the stake handle, a few more turns of light sanding and painting and I might be happy! So, I went out to photograph some air force planes that were supposed to be flying around the bay this morning. Complete fail. They only sent one aircraft, it didn't fly where they said it would and so I have nothing to show for standing around on top of a cliff for an hour. At least I didn't get a parking ticket! On the plus side: I got a call from the kite parts shop asking me about the order I put in that had 4 T pieces in it. They had never heard of anyone ordering that many before! They were surprised that I had managed to break two and bend a third in such a short time. They only had three left in stock, so I've got all of them, and I got a second 40' ribbon tail instead. I guess I had better make these three and a half t's last a while then! Also on the plus side: Since I was so close to the beach, I took my kite and found a nice deserted beach to play on with about 20km/h winds. I had quite a few unintended arrivals and accompanying walks of shame, but I did not break anything! I even got back into the car as the parking inspector got out of his! Win! I got some reasonably good footage this time, too. Will get that up soon, I hope!
  24. jasonmcmahon76
    I was beginning to wonder if there is something wrong with the setup. I still think that it's probably just a case of me being unsupervised and learning things the hard way! I have pulled all the rods out and checked them, there are no issues there. I don't know how far the lower spreaders are supposed to bow with the standoffs inserted. I don't think the amount they are bending is unreasonable.
  25. jasonmcmahon76
    I think I will give ground recoveries a bit of a miss for a while (at least until more spares show up!).
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