Jump to content
KiteLife Forum

vin

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    15

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by vin

  3. Pigtails (tuning your quad with knotted leaders)

    in Quad Heads

    Posted

    20 minutes ago, makatakam said:

    Any time the kite just drops out of the sky is a sign of oversheeting. It completely loses all pull and you can't feel the kite at all, right? Smaller inputs at the outset will prevent it most of the time. It becomes very apparent in low wind conditions and requires small and smooth inputs to maintain contact with the kite. If you can't feel it, you can't control it. You must have pressure in the sail to remain airborne. Any jerks or sudden moves and it falls. In a slide you are actually intentionally oversheeting the sail slightly. Too much input, especially at the beginning of the move, and gravity takes over.

    Exactly makatakam. The kite just goes diagonally downwards when I pull it and I lose all feel of the kite and can't recover it till its on the ground. Now that you have mentioned it, with very small movements at the start of the side slides actually helps a great deal and the kite does not drop out and I have control all e way till e edge of the window. 

  4. Pigtails (tuning your quad with knotted leaders)

    in Quad Heads

    Posted

    Thanks makatakam and JB for the sound advice. I did tune my Rev today and it was so much better. I do feel I can go out one more knot to get to that feel I like on the brakes when flying inverted. I did try it as well but I realised when doing side slides the rev falls out pretty fast as there is too much brakes on, so I had to bring it one knot in.

    But on either of these knots I have to give it a kick or a double tap to launch and that was a good sign for me knowing I'm heading in the right direction. 

    Tried uploading a video of some flying I did today, but my file size is too big. Will try to Comoress it and send it of possible. 

    PS. I really appreciate the detailed explanation both you and JB give. It really puts things into perspective and most importantly understanding what is actually happening instead of trying stuff blindly. 

     

    Thanks again all. 

    Will definetly stay tune for loads of tips. 

  5. Pigtails (tuning your quad with knotted leaders)

    in Quad Heads

    Posted

    Thank you JB. I really appreciate your inputs. And i think sometimes repeating does make a person understand even better. Yes I do the "whump" when I launch cos I honestly can't get it up with a lazy launch. Amd yes I do have tell tale sign in forward drive at times of the TE fluttering and sometimes even on dive stops. Will increase my brakes and try to give it a go again. What kinda wind speeds am I looking at for a good tune? 

    • Like 1

  6. Pigtails (tuning your quad with knotted leaders)

    in Quad Heads

    Posted

    8 hours ago, makatakam said:

    The slack in the brake lines and slow reaction to turning when you use brake to initiate a turn are both good indicators that you are not using enough brake. Try one more knot of brake each time you fly, and then one more after about an hour. As I mentioned above, you're not going to like it at first, but you will get used to it. It sounds and feels counterintuitive, but the kite will actually move faster with additional brake up to a point. That is the point you want to reach. Most experienced pilots will fly with their brakes set two to four knots beyond this point, sacrificing some speed to gain exponentially more control. The wind is what determines how the kite flies, so the more of it pushing against the sail as opposed to sliding off of it will determine speed, agility, pull and precision. You are trying to achieve a balanced compromise of these to have control of what the kite does. You can fly at the extremes, for instance lots of forward drive to gain speed, but then you sacrifice the others, each to a different degree. Where you set the line on the knots is based on what you want to achieve, but until you are comfortable with ALL of the possibilities you have not learned complete control. If you ever want to be able to fly really well in 2mph down to 0mph wind, or wind that is howling at 25mph or more, you must become familiar with all aspects of tuning. And trust me, to fly in 2mph wind and look like a pro, you will be using near maximum brake, in other words setting the angle of the sail to the wind nearly as square as possible for maximum pressure to keep it aloft.

    Just keep trying to use more and more brake each time and with time you will be able to feel the difference. And choose good wind to learn in as I mentioned. Bad wind is not helpful. Once you master basic control and can tune your kite to take advantage of conditions you'll be able to handle whatever the wind throws your way assuming the kite you use can handle it too.

    It's a journey that never ends -- enjoy it.

    Thanks again makatakam. So just to be very sure I am doing it right like you mentioned, when you say "try one more knot of brake", u mean release a knot out on the top lines and NOT bring in the brake knots in by knot right? 

  8. Pigtails (tuning your quad with knotted leaders)

    in Quad Heads

    Posted

    Thx guys for the tips. I have the best teachers. For real. 

    Firstly, winds are shitty at this point in Singapore. Weather Apps are not very accurate. But I did try to fly today and was scrutinizing everything to do with my flying style and I stumbled across while looking at my lines. While my handles are straight(hover position on handle) , my top lines are taut while brake lines are slack. Won't this cause my brakes to be less reactive? (I find my turns very slow. Prior to changing leaders, my turns were very reactive with the slightest move of my brake lines) Won't making my brake lines taut more or less equivalent to my top have equal reaction to forward and reverse bias? So, moving my handles in forward drives makes the Reflex XX move forward and also making reverse flight reaction quicker. 

     

    *sry if my questions are nonsensical. 

  10. Pigtails (tuning your quad with knotted leaders)

    in Quad Heads

    Posted

    I did try tuning the leaders today. Bottom lines not touched and all the way out on the first knot. And launching till I found my happy knot on the top lines. (About 4-5 knots in from outside). Winds were about 6-8mph. I tried hovering in all directions and doing maneuvers till I was comfortable and was not bias ok either forward or reverse drive and trying to keep it really neutral. Now, what if after I find this happy knot, I feel like I still don't hv e ought brakes and would like more brakes? If I move my top line out to make it is slightly to brake heavy and feel like it's hard to hover and the rev just keeps dropping out of e skies when I try to perform like eight point clockwork and etc. Any ideas on how to get slightly more brakes without compromising my forward drive too much? 

    Sorry if I'm not making any sense guys. 

  15. Pigtails (tuning your quad with knotted leaders)

    in Quad Heads

    Posted

    Sorry to revive this thread guys. But I just bought JB's leaders made by Tk. Awesome stuff. I am follwing the procedures of finding the happy knot from the furthest out. But what about the bottom line? Which knot do I put to begin with? Also at what kinda winds conditions should I be tuning to cos we don't really get good winds in Singapore sad to say. 

    Best regards, 

    Vin

    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...