johnnmitchell

That is a good way to start out! A good tip is to always wind up your lines yourself and always use the same technique. Kindly turn down offers from others to wind up your lines for you, even if you loaned them your lines.

Jim, Did you see me doing that with the indoor REV yesterday? The next time we meet up, I will show you the trick of winding lines around the handles and unwinding them with no more then one or two twists.

John, John, John Barresi...I will be honored, Hoping to meet you sometime. And I am going to use this space to answer to John Mitchell; that is a very good question. My answer is: as long as you keep the lines tight they won't come out of the spool, the Yo-Yo's depth is enough to keep the lines in place. Since the purpose is to do the dog staking fly style, you don't have any slacking lines. I was thinking that, if, there is very little wind, then the lines will fall behind the Yo-Yos, and the way I have it set up, they will not fall out. There is allways, room for improvements, and one of those, may be, having the Yo-Yos closer togheter, but the basic idea of not having any binding lines, HAS BEEN SOLVED WITH THE BALL BEARINGS ROTATION, not alowing the friccion lines. (from now on, it will be called: YO-YOS STAKE, KITE FLYING) Both John Barresi and I had the priviledge of meeting you at KP5. Low wind with slacking lines was what I was thinking about as being a problem. It is nice to hear you have been able to solve that problem.

Really neat, great idea! Do you have any problems with the lines jumping off the Yo-Yo spools?

Not recommended until you are really use to handling quad line messes. I learned how to do this from the North American quadline competitors and the Guadaloupe competition in 1997. I use this Method quite often to clear the field quickly of my lines. At the end of the day I still wrap all four around a single winder as this is not a good storage method. The ends of the line are wrapped between the handles on the grips to hold them tight.

I made that one. It flew excellently, but nothing like a REV. It is another world of 4 line flying.

mainly the assembly instructions. If anyone has a good shot of one put together, it would be helpful. How about this? And here are two more photos of another one.

mainly the assembly instructions. If anyone has a good shot of one put together, it would be helpful. How about this?

This subject has repeated itself on practically every kiting forum whether it be in English, French, German, Spanish and etc. From Day 1, I have always wound all lines together on to the same winder. The video that came with my REV I back in 1991 had Joe Hadzicki explaining exactly how to do it. I practically never have a problem with twists, unwinding and connecting my lines. One big tip! When you unwind the lines, shake them out very well first before you even think about trying to unravel things. They very rarely have more then a single twist and maybe a single line feed through. Pull them, shake them even fly them out as they came off the winder. Then take those twists out. Next tip! Always hold the winder in the same hand when you unwind and wind. This will eliminate majors twists. Next tip! Always wind you own line, especially if you loan them to someone else. Don't accept offers from someone else to wind your lines for you. Believe me, this works! I have wound and unwound quad lines several thousands of times.

Yes, they are very light. They are usually gold on one side and silver on the other. Snow skiers often carry them, so you could try a sporting goods store. It is a nice item to have in the car for the winter, so try an auto supply store. Rescue team and paramedics also use them at times in cold climates. The package blanket is small, about the size of an empty wallet. They usually only cost a few dollars.

Hey Penny, I already used mine at the Portland event (OOU) the other day and they're awesome!!! Cheers Mario Mario...Hi! I don't believe the Mylar tails that Scotty Weider uses are available any more. I think he said the material is no longer made. I'm answering you here, because maybe Penny and/or someone else may know? T Try one of those emergency winter blankets made of mylar. They are cheap.

Penny, An idea for your indoor kites is to line the inner trailing edge with 1/16-1/8 inch wide streamers 3 to 6 ft long made of mylar. It should look really kewl indoors.

Mylar tails looks exceptionally good on single line kites, that are not moving all over, as can be seen at Cervia on this small kite at these URLs: http://home.arcor.de/johnmitchell2/3-Photo...sm_DSC16855.JPG http://home.arcor.de/johnmitchell2/3-Photo...sm_DSC16858.JPG http://home.arcor.de/johnmitchell2/3-Photo...sm_DSC16875.JPG The tails had a width of 2 or 3mm(less the 1/8") and I would guess at about 4 to 6 meters(4.4 to 6.6 yards) long.

I made two sets of Red, White and Blue tails which are essentially junk. I made two mistake making them. 1. I COLD CUT them with a razor(scalpel). They fray and stick and hang on each other. Really terrible. ALWAYS HOT CUT!!! 2. I made them too narrow about 1.8cm(.71"). You need at least 2.5cm(1") width. A width of 3cm(1.2") might be quite nice. I also made 4 sets of Rainbow tails. They were all HOT CUT. The first set was nylon. They were heavy and caught on each other. The other three sets were made all at the same time from polyester(Icarex). Ten years later they were still quite usable. The reason for three sets is that I had made a progressive Rainbow train. I put a set on each kite. It was really beautiful with 18 tails, but an absolute disaster when you stopped, flew backward or made a too tight of a turn. The first two sets of tails tangled in the train lines. I flew it one time like that and never again. Lesson learned: Tails on trains should ONLY be on the last kite in the train.

The advantage of the tube type tail is that it holds a very nice circle. However it does create a bit of drag as can be seen on the last REV. They are really nice with a good wind.

In June 2005, I was judging for 4 days at the WSKC in Lincoln City. If I recall right, you had planned to be there. Did you ever make it? Sometimes, but rarely I do make it to Vancover, WA to visit my older sister. You have really come up with some nice ideas of items to attach to your REVs. I like. The Pink Panther has not flown for years. I lost all the attachments somewhere, no idea where. I do recall seeing the sail about a year ago. Picture, I shall look for some with it flying. There is a picture of it landed at: http://home.arcor.de/johnnmitchell/1-Compe...6-19930701b.jpg The arms have hands. The legs have feet. The mouth folds back for reverse flight. The tail has a white tip. I have heard some people calling it a mouse.

With the kite you saw a picture of, at a competition, I flew in zero wind on hundred foot lines. I did 360s and the whole lot with tails. I took my first, first place with a Quad line. (1994 Swiss Nationals at St. Gallen) I have heard people theorize on these type of tails that it actually aids the lift of the REV more then it hinders the lift. I am not an aerodynamic engineer, so you could not prove it by me. What type of material were the tails? BB Penny The tails are made from Icarex P31 polyester. You will have to make them yourself as Icarex is not available in narrow strips, only in 40" or 54" wide rolls. For each tail you will need 1 yard(almost 1mtr) of material. If you are using 40" wide, hope that the edge does not look too bad or just shorten the tails by that much. Hot cut with a sharp razor type knife into two 20" wide pieces. Sew the two pieces together at the 20" edge. Hot cut the 20" piece down the middle to create two 10" pieces. Sew the two 10" pieces together at the 10" edge. Hot cut the 10" piece down the middle to create two 10" pieces. Sew the two 5" pieces together at the 5" edge. Hot cut the 5" piece down the middle to create two 2.5" pieces. Sew the two 2.5" pieces together at the 2.5" edge. The last step is the hardest as there is not much material under your ruler to hold the material. You will find cutting works best on a glass table top. I used a tempered glass table top that I bought for the purpose at IKEA. If you lightly moisten the glass surface, the Icarex will almost glue to it. So keep a damp cloth handy. It sounds like a lot of work, but really isn't. Next you will need a large halo ring to wind them up. I have tried various methods, but this seems to work best. It is compact and the tails look good when you put them on the kite. Now you need to a way to attach them to you REV. I found that velcro works quite well. 1 sq inch for each tail is not too much nor too little. I attach mine to the trailing edge of the REV. So, you will need to sew pieces with the velcro soft pad to the points you want the tails to attached. On one end of each tail, sew on the velcro hook pad. I sew the soft pad to the kite as the hooks can catch a flying line when you don't use tails.

With the kite you saw a picture of, at a competition, I flew in zero wind on hundred foot lines. I did 360s and the whole lot with tails. I took my first, first place with a Quad line. (1994 Swiss Nationals at St. Gallen) I have heard people theorize on these type of tails that it actually aids the lift of the REV more then it hinders the lift. I am not an aerodynamic engineer, so you could not prove it by me.

Jim, Try multiple tape type tails. They really look nice and have only negligible drag. Stay away from plastic tape. They are too heavy and fall apart quickly.

I have attached a small plastic bucket to the back and filled it with candy and made a candy drop for the kids. I made a Pink Panther REV that had two arms, two legs, a tail and a movable mouth. I have put loop hooks on the end caps to pickup objects that I have placed a loop on. I have attached a digital camera to the middle, too heavy and the RC failed. Flop on only try. At the moment I can't recall any others. At Castiglione de Lago in Italy, I saw David Brittain put a loop on the tip and dip it in bubble water for blowing bubbles.

It is a lot of extra work unwinding and winding tails, but it is worth it. I can imagine one of your ladies with tails in the colors of the REV. Must look really nice.

I have attached a small plastic bucket to the back and filled it with candy and made a candy drop for the kids. I made a Pink Panther REV that had two arms, two legs, a tail and a movable mouth. I have put loop hooks on the end caps to pickup objects that I have placed a loop on. I have attached a digital camera to the middle, too heavy and the RC failed. Flop on only try. At the moment I can't recall any others.

Each tail is attached using velcro. The velcro hooks are on the tails. I wind then all one after the other on a large halo kite reel. The tail widths are 25mm(1 inch).

I found this rather nice picture of a REV I with tails that I built in 1994. http://home.arcor.de/johnmitchell2/3-Photo...30504-41_wm.JPG At the time such a design and material was not available from the mfr. The material is Icarex P31. The tails are 15 meters(50ft) long and are also made by me from Icarex P31. The tails are cut with a hot razor knife. They are much better then the nylon counter part as the slip very easy amongst each other except when damp.

I never managed to break REV I 4 wrap rod. I have even had the leading edge bowing over 90 degrees at times. How did it break? multiple pieces, two pieces, splitting or ? I did have a REV I (Stiff) 6 wrap split at the ferrule once, which was either transport damage or mfr defect. It would be a battle who stays up in the strongest winds, you with your REV II vented or me with my REV I super vented. Neither of us could beat the totally vented REV II that I saw in action at Fano Denmark years ago. Maybe somewhere I have a picture of it, maybe not. The only time I ever saw the wind stop at Fano, it was very strong wind from land (unusual). The wind stopped dead, a very tiny twister went across the beach and picked my dual line kite train straight up and dropped it. Then wind started howling from the from the sea. I am talking about a place where the wind rarely goes below 15-20 MPH.