cdcflyer

I was introduced to Mike at Worlds last Summer... I had heard of him, knew about him but only just begun to know him. I know how much he meant to many of you... My thoughts to his family and the friends that will miss him. Scott

Hey Alan, work is going to force me to be late on Saturday and I would highly reccomend that you choose another floor director. You probly don't want to wait on me. Scott

459 for me...

Nice kite...! Scott

Brian and Heather as T mentioned but they have a factory sponsored flier in Seaside, I believe his name is Ely? He will be there as well. Scott

The Beetle is small, fast and durable... as far as tricks go, the beetle is small fast and durable. My recomendation is move on to another kite... Nighthawk by Premier is next logical step, it has great durabilty and will do ALL the tricks, a superb design... The beetle is a great kite to learn how to control a dual line but there comes a time that you outgrow it, but it is small, fast and durable... Scott

Just today I was having a conversation about a car hittin a wall at 5mph and how much damage you can do. A kite will absorb an impact of far greater speeds than that and in comparison, the technology is relatively simple. The Beetle is almost bullet proof, still see them break but extremely durable. Size is the major factor here... Take a piece of steel rod 1/2" thick 8" long and bend it, pretty hard to bend. Take the same steel and make it 8' long and it so flimsy it wobbles when you pick it up. Same goes for wingspan on a kite, the smaller the stronger. Penny is right, The Nighthawk from Premier, a little over 6ft and tricky as the day is long. A little less bullet proof but still extremely durable. Prism also has the Quantum which is pretty much designed for the new flyer in mind with some shock absorbing innovations. A little harder to trick and pulls like a freight train at 12mph though. Welcome GW Scott

Hey John, Hope all is well in New Mexico... Happy Birthday

Hey Jay, I am sorry to hear that you contracted such a bug, very difficult to cure... Right now the Premier kites are the hot ticket. Both the Nighthawk and Magnum out perform their retail price by a long shot. Both are fully trick capable, both are well built, both come ready to fly and both Highly Recommended over the Prism's. If you do go with Prism... Go Fanatic... A little harder to fly in the beginning but the reward is much greater. Good luck!

Inspected, It will strictly be a bridle adjustment issue... adjusting standoffs does change the characteristics on some kites but the Addiction is fine in the stock setup. Yor bridle is obviously set too low, how low I cant say without seeing it... the best I can do here is tell you to first, make sure both tow points are in the same place in relation to the rest of the kite. Second, move the tow points up in 1/4" increments test fly and repeat until it feels right, when you get to that point, the fine tuning is in a reasonable wind, at the center of the window, the kite should rise to directly above your head, 75-85 degrees in relation to the ground. If it wont go that high move up a little more, if you go to far there won't be any pull and it will turn way to s-l-o-w, then move it down a bit. As far as the winder goes, when you are done flying, wind both lines in reasonably tight figure eights on the winder while walking towards the kite, disconnect fly lines and secure, either with the attatched elastic strap or a big rubber band. When setting up, connect the fly lines to the assembled kite and unwind as you walk away being careful to unwind from the same direction that you wound it up. When you are done all you have to do is put the winder in your pocket and launch.

Hi Jeff, Delta Park is a viable field and alive with kite fliers! It is the home practice field for the sport kite team TKS Mid Air and we fly there every Sunday that we are not competing. Spontanious flies occur during the week as well on Wed. Thurs. Fri. Team TKS Mid Air is composed of John Barresi, (editor and master of this very site), Scott Ralston, who along with Theresa own and operate one of the premier sport kite shops in the country, The Kite Shoppe, located across the bridge in Vancouver, and two other fliers Moon Kushner and Jim McPherson. All of us have one common interest... The Kiting Community! There are many fliers that regularly show up and the skill levels are all over the map, interacting and learning from others is a regular feature when we are there. The shop always brings a bag full of kites for everyone to fly and we are talkin serious kites... The best you can find anywhere and what we don't have... some of the other fliers do. We will be there probably both days this weekend tuning up for the next event. John wont be there because he is flying individual in, and covering a National event for Kitelife. But come out, introduce your self and see what kind of flying we can get done. Hope to see you there.

Hey Geoff Can't answer specifics about weight wind and lift but can talk about new gen parafoils. Most that I know of like HQ Beamer 2.5, Ozone L.D's etc... are quad line and when you get into trouble, it's real easy to bail out of the wind... Do a little research on quad line foils. I do believe that 2.5 meters is probably a little small for serious hoppin. Probably need to be in the 5 meter category. Foils are similar to dual line but inputs are WAY BIGGER, face plants are a little more common as well as rotator cuff issues. Good luck, have fun and be careful, watchin from the sidelines on crutches is probably a less desirable situation. Scott

Really... The 1.8 will fly indoors? Even though it won't fly indoor without some walking, bridle adjustment should get you to 1/2mph. Some of the nose seams tend to be a little rough on all my CDC kites. I usually take care of them before first flight. Time to move up to the 1.9 or the 2.1...

Can't tell you how many times I have heard that lately... The problem is that when that happens, everyone is in the dark.... Sorry.

I would say then it comes down to the actual design, Does it have a bridle? Is it in a traditional eddy shape or other? Is it aerodynamically sound? I would edit your post and for the subject line put "single line guys...HELP". They would probably have an answer.

John....... I am your Father...

Getting back to the 1.8... We discovered today that the bridle on our kite was way messed up, it is truly amazing that it flew as well as it did, or even at all. So take everything back that I said before and we will start over... So flyboy... any word from CDC on those bridle settings?

Yeah... I spent a couple of minute talking to John at Paint the Sky and they have some kind of business association going on and Marc is moving here.

Shhhhh... The possibility may exist that we might know someone who may have a possibility to maybe pull some strings... But we're not quite sure yet ...

Ummm... We're workin on it, Theresa at the Kite Shoppe is tryin to hook it up. Stay tuned!

So we got out today in barely a puff of wind, out of the bags were a 1.8, an Amazing, Jim M's Vapor, Johns UL Shiva and a lightly sparred Rev. The Amazing and the vapor were the show stoppers, the 1.8 flew but took some effort and I was too lazy to work that hard. Moved the bridle and the tow points around but still a struggle, and decided the 1.8 was best at 1-2mph. Regardless of what CDC says, as small as the 1.8 is it will be a difficult zero wind flyer and after spending some quality time on the Amazing... I will just have to get both inside and see. Lots of 360's... I saw Moon do a couple on the rev, her first I understand... John is turning into quite the trick flyer, but don't tell anyone A great NW day of flying.

I just finished meandering through the last issue of SKQ and in the competition and standings section I noticed two things, first was how many events that you won or did well in, I even saw a perfect score, IMPRESSIVE! Second was that Troy Gunn is listed in the Nortwest standings, was he a Northwest flyer?

Well, for two copter crashes I would recomend the Jack in The Box or the Easy from Level One Kites. Three copter crashes I would go with the STX 1.8 but for four copter crashes you are into the Big STX like 2.1 or 2.3, or Level One JTM or Atelier Transfer, but its gonna take 4 copter, 2 airplane crashes, 3 cans of fuel and 4 sets of R/C batteries to get into the Nirvana and the DFM.

The comparison is hard to make... The Alpha is a big strong kite capable of handling a lot of punishment but it also wont fly below 5mph. It is a very precise kite capable of some tricks and is actually a good starter kite, but it's pretty old school... The Quantum is also entry level but a newer design, it too is designed to absorb a lot of punishment, but I've broken one more than once. The Quantum is better at tricks and loves to be on its back but it is an absolute freight train when the wind is above 9mph and wont do anything but drag you around the field. The bottom line on both is they're both an entry level kite with a lot of limitations, great to get started on, and will fondly look back upon, but as your skill increases, will need to move up. The time frame all depends on how much you fly. Rat... A lot depends on what you want to do with a kite. Do you want to compete? Do you want a trick monster? Where you want to go will generate more and better responses. If you are limited by a budget, there are better options than these two. but again, where do you want to go?

I fly the 1.8 regularly and it is 0.1... metric conversion It can be flown in zero or indoors but it takes skill and effort. The best method is a good yank and work with the little hang time you have. But once you get it, it is amazing, it does the best tornado's. Here's a link to some vids of guys doin it right, although watch the guy in the background, he's havin some issues wondering if it can fly indoors too. http://aubert.pauline.free.fr/