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DonFibonacci

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Everything posted by DonFibonacci

  1. If you're a subscriber, you're automatically entered in the drawings, no need to do anything else.
  2. Absolutely. I've used a lighter frame (2-wrap in my case) in a full vent B on days when I know the wind's not so crazy it might break it. But I'd also wait until you're pretty sure you can avoid hard crashes. Personally I think so, although as a beginner, you may need a lot of wind to fly a vented kite (as you get better, you'll need less). Vented kites, for me, smooth things out, which I think is good for a beginner.
  3. I'm back from my weekend trip. I used an adidas Unisex Utility Wheeled Bat Bag with my OSKUSA Quad Kite Roll-Up Bag inside. I had to cut out one of the inside pockets of the bat bag in order to be able to fit the quad bag inside, and it just barely fits lengthwise. I packed my other clothes and gear loose around the quad bag. I packed for three days, but I easily could have fit twice the clothes or more. Next time I might try some internal stuff sacks or bags like what JB mentioned in the old post I referenced, because by the time I got to Long Beach, my clothes were sort of jumbled all over the place. Not a big deal, just a little annoyance. When loaded, the bag won't stand up on its own. If I needed to stand it up, I had to turn it around and lean it against something to keep the wheels off the ground. Other than that, I was happy with it. I checked the bag; it wouldn't work as a carry-on.
  4. There's an old discussion on it here: The type of bag that JB notes isn't really available anymore, so I was looking for something similar last year. This was just before the lockdowns. I'm actually about to use my bag tomorrow for the first time, so I guess I can report back how it went after the trip.
  5. And "bridal" when we mean "bridle" 😉
  6. Ironically, just this weekend a family of four came over and was very interested in my kite. I had hoped for the wind to pick up just a little right before sunset and had set up on 120 foot lines. No luck, so I ended up playing my first game of "kids chase the kite" on 120 feet in 0-2 mph. That was a lot of work! I talked to the father a lot about the control (he'd been a glider pilot). His favorite "trick" turned out to be the ground recovery glide. Good thing, cause I was doing a lot of that...
  7. Welcome to the obsession! Keep working on that inverted hover. Someday it will just click. I had the same thought about how no one seems to realize what/who they're watching! I would have been floored if I'd seen a master in action before I had quads of my own. I'm floored even now. In my case, most passersby are completely uninterested in my flying. Some are interested, but if I acknowledge them, they quickly pretend they weren't watching. A very small number will actually shout something positive. Then there was the one guy who shouted... "let it go higher, a**hole!". And finally there was the only person who's ever asked to try my kite; he was COMPLETELY hammered and unable to stay on his feet when he tried to launch 🤣
  8. I'd love to see what you come up with. Inspired by two things - your comment in "Rotational Drills" about using them as warmups and your mantra of "don't judge success or failure until you've done five in a row", I developed my own sort of "warm-up" routine that I run through at the start of every session. I've been surprised at how quickly I've improved the individual skills. In contrast to Club 38, where you do a pretty long pattern stringing together sometimes unrelated or out-of-progression elements, I'm doing quick repetitions of smaller skills - 20 reps of X, then 20 of Y, now back to X, but in the other direction, etc. It reminds me of penmanship in grade school - rather than writing a paragraph, I'm filling a whole page with a single letter. The main advantage, at least for me, is I stay hyper-focused on refining each skill in its turn. Also, I feel like it's more directly building muscle memory for each skill.
  9. As good a time as any to update this. I added some Djinn and passed on a couple Revs to my brother in a desperate attempt to gain a flying buddy: Rev EXP Rev 1.5 B STD Caicos Quad (aka Peter Powell Omni) Djinn ST (Cool Fade) Djinn ST (All white, the ghoST) Djinn MV (Hot Fade) Djinn VT (Green Fade) Djinn XT (Green Fade) Djinn HV (Cool Fade) 10-14. Self-made
  10. I worked for SAP for a number of years. Now I can finally use the German I picked up for something fun.
  11. Is it possible the bridle is mix-and-match parts from a red and a black TK bridle? Not sure I can see enough detail to tell. The vertical leg has been attached to the horizontal incorrectly, but otherwise they could be. If that's the case, I'd just correct the connection:
  12. Wasn't I just saying I was in the market for a 240' set? 😉
  13. Oops, that's what I meant, not a "half-twist". Flying with upside-down handles is probably not a great idea at any length!
  14. Sold! Ordering line now. I love the fact that the window is 64 times larger than with 30` lines 🤔
  15. You're right, until you have longer leaders for the tops, you can't really do that. As a temporary solution, you can tie a knot or two in your bottom leaders. Shortening the bottoms will have the same effect as lengthening the tops.
  16. Ok cool, that helps. I think you just need to develop the ability to counter the turns the kite is making "on its own" and then make the turns you want to make! Videos and forums here and elsewhere, and most of all practice, will get you there. Finding someone to help you in person is a big win, but you can still learn on your own. However, one more thing to check - are all four lines the same length? Have a look at JB's line equalization tutorial. If they are significantly different, especially the two brake lines, that can cause problems. If they are within 1/2 - 3/4 inch, that's close enough for now. Your leaders as they are will give you a lot of forward drive (that's just how the EXP comes). That's okay for a while, because it makes it easy to keep the kite moving forward. But soon you'll want to do more than just fly forward, like stop, hover, and back up. For that, longer, adjustable leaders are really, really helpful (I would say essential, but there are people who do without). Personally, I think it's a no-brainer to buy a set or two of TK's leaders. Starting out, I struggled for a long time trying to hover my EXP - I'd never heard of such a thing as longer leaders - until one day a passerby saw me flying (still the only other quad flyer I've met here in Phoenix). He tied knots in my stock bottom leaders, close to the handles, and suddenly I could hover! Shortening the brake leaders has the same effect as lengthening the tops, it's just not as convenient for most flyers - you can't get any shorter then right up against the handle.
  17. That looks like a stock Rev handle with stock EXP leaders to me. It's possible you have the leaders reversed. It looks like the brake leader is longer than the top leader. If so, I would reverse them at a bare minimum. The stock leaders provide a TON of forward drive (in an effort to make it really easy for beginners to get off the ground). Having them reversed like this picture would result in even more forward drive - so the question is, what exactly do you mean when you say.you can't get the kite off the ground? Will it literally not take off, or does it take off, fly to the side and fall? Because with the setup you have here, it should want nothing more than to take off.
  18. Totally agree. As you get better, you will easily fly in a MUCH wider range of wind, but when first learning, it's frustrating to have to deal with BOTH basic control and too low/too high wind. That doesn't necessarily mean wait to fly until the wind is perfect - all your time on the lines will pay off - just realize it's going to be harder and don't get so frustrated that you give up! Side note - I think it's funny that what I would locally call a "really windy day" is officially known as a Gentle Breeze. 🙂
  19. An amazing thing about 3D printing that should be mentioned - the HUGE variety of models already out there for free download. One day, my car wouldn't start. I suspected the clutch interlock safety switch had broken off again. It's just a little rubber bumper that fits on the clutch to triggers a switch when you depress the pedal. Without the little bumper, the car doesn't know you have the clutch depressed, and you're stuck. This time, I had a brainwave - I'll go back to the 3D printer in my office and design a replacement! I was about to start measuring and modeling, but then I thought if my switch had broken twice, it must happen to other people too. A quick search brought up a design for the exact part for my exact model and year - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2447785. Ten minutes later I was on my way home! The moral of the story is you often don't even have to design the model yourself. Although that's usually the fun part - I admit I couldn't resist tweaking and re-printing the clutch switch later, the original one made a tiny clicking sound when I pressed the clutch... 😡
  20. My experience is that a small 3D printed part (in PLA anyway) is not very strong under tension compared to molded parts. It does pretty well under compression. I've heard that PLA will deform over time when subjected to constant pressure - but I haven't had occasion to experience that myself.
  21. PLA is what I've used for almost all of my prints. It works great for most things. I worry about its heat tolerance - my friend printed a dash part for his car, painted it and left it out to dry. It ended up "melting" slightly and warping. I live in Phoenix, so heat is a real issue when flying. I'll try the PLA+. I do have a closed (mostly) printer and I've printed a few small things in ABS. It's definitely trickier.
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