Jeepster

Howard, One of our club members gave the Beetle to my 5 1/2 year old grandson as the next step up from his SLK. Wow was he excited. But, at that age, his attention span is still very short, and so, it's still more of a novelty, thus an anvil is appropriate. If he develops an interest, I'll move him up. But, really, in a couple of more years, I'm hoping he'll be able to handle a Rev. It's too bad the Rev II takes a faster reaction time than the 1.5 kites. Otherwise that would be a perfect kite, size wise, for a youngster. I've made a number of four foot and five foot Rev-like kites. They are a blast to fly when the wind is really blowing. You can go from okay to disaster in less than a heartbeat. And after wards, when you go back to your 1.5 Rev, the world slows right down ... feels like you're flying in molasses. Cheers, Tom

Damn!! That adds new meaning to the term "street flying." I have enough trouble focusing on the kite, let alone worrying about becoming a hood ornament. It looks like a he's flying a Rev II. If so, it was made out of nylon ... yes? So, the dipping in the swimming pool didn't help keep the weight down. Impressive flying. Although, I've got some of those moves perfected. The "toss and crash" and the "tangle the lines around your feet" are two of my specialties. Thanks for posting, Tom

Interesting to see how little they wrapped lines during their routine compared to today's demos. Fun to watch ... thanks! Cheers, Tom

I'm not sure a one legged pair of pants would look that cool! Geez, old folks retirees in Florida sure have some strange ideas. -tom

Howard, I got in to kiting with a Rev ... completely skipped the dual line step/phase. I've flown a Beetle some while trying to teach my grandson to fly it, but it really doesn't spark my interest like the Revs do. Yes, I know the beetle isn't really representative of good dual lines, but ... Now ... if the random number generator choose to bestow a really cool dual line ... I'd spend the time to learn how to fly it ... but, so far I've not been faced with that "problem". -tom

YOu are most welcome. Glad I could help. -tom

Thanks for the chance John. They'd look good on the festival field ... actually, they'd look good on my home field. They'd sure make folks stop and look. Cheers, Tom

Congrats Martin!!! And a special thanks for saving me from the aggravation of winning a dual line kite! Cheers, Tom

Well, I hope the other light (day light) makes it to the west coast pretty soon. The bear has been stewing for hours and hours!!! Go wake up the random number generator and tell us who the luck guy/gal is ... please. Cheers, Tom

I think that's Duane's subscriber number ... at least I hope so ... otherwise he'll look pretty foolish!!! -tom

Duane, There are others flying three dual line kites at the same time. They use a stick (much like our handles) to guide the outer dual lines ... one line on each end of the stick. The third (middle) kite has the lines going to their waist .. one line on either side. You and I could probably one kite either with the stick or our waist, but two would confuse our mind. And, three would freeze it! Cheers, Tom

Nope, flying three kites is past tense. Here's a of Ray Bethell flying three dual line kites ... and making them look great!!Cheers, Tom

Congratulations ... Yes, you can buy a bridle inexpensively, but now you have a better idea about what's involved. And, you won't be afraid to make tweaks to see what happens. And, you thought that kite flying would soon get boring ... wrong!!! Cheers, Tom

... 1 ...

Opps, my mistake ... that earned me several points towards my village idiot award. The HiTech bridle line is 100# not 110#. I also have some 170# Laser Pro and HiTech ... both of them are way too heavy for a Rev. Cheers, Tom

I can send you the dimensions I use, but you'll get a better product if you use one of the bridles you have in hand. The best method to make copies is to make a bridle board. Use a piece of 1 x 4 pine board about four feet long. Buy some small nails (inch or inch-and-a-half long). Take the bride off one of your favorite kites ... Elvira? Stretch it out on the board weaving it back and forth (symmetrically) so that you don't need a twelve foot board. Pull the lines snug and drill small holes to insert the nails into to keep the bridle snug. I draw a line between all of the nails to show how the bridle is laid out. Then mark where the knots are located. I could never find a good explanation of how to make and use a bridle board, so stumbled around until I found an approach that works for me. Just experiment until the final product looks just like the one you took off Elvira. You'll have to make some trial knots to find out how much line is used in making each knot - each type of bridle line uses a different amount. HiTech 110# 100# line uses about 1/2 inch of length. So, if you're using HiTech, you'll drill an additional hole 1/2 inch further down the board. Wrap the line around the further nail, grab both lines with a pair of forceps where you've marked the knot, tie a knot with the tip of the forceps in the center of the knot, snug up the knot, remove the forceps and tighten the knot down. Easy peasy ... as the Gecio gecko says! Oh yes, PRE-STRETCH your bridle line. HiTech and Laser Pro line both elongate about 2% with a load of 50% of rated strength. You'll use about 12 feet of bridle line for the horizontal piece. A stretch of 2% means that piece of the bridle will grow a little over two and three quarter inches!!! If you don't stretch it first - then chasing your tail comes to mind. Oh, and if you already know how to build and use bridle boards, maybe you could write up a "Bridle Boards for Dummies" posting. If you get up around Washington, look up RevFlyer and get him to explain how he uses bridle boards. It'd be fantastic if he would make a video of how he does it!!! Cheers, Tom

... 2 ...

You're too restricted by reality and money. Think of the luge track that was built for this year's Olympics? It had to of cost a fortune, and yet, it'll see limited usage over it's lifetime. So, back of the envelope calcs: The Sauber Wind Tunnel at Hinwill was projected to cost 70 million Swiss Frances to build in 2003 (can't find the actual cost, but then this is just an estimate anyway.) It has a test area that is 15 square meters in cross section through which air can be made to travel at 300 kph. That's a flow rate of 45,000,000 cubic meters of air every hour or 1,580,000,000 cubic feet of air per hour. Our wind tunnel would need to be about 130 feet high (120 feet of lines plus tall John) by 240 feet wide (that should allow for team flying.) Thus the opening will have about 31,200 square feet. With the same airflow as the Sauber Wind Tunnel, we could achieve a max air speed of 9.65 mph. That should work. So, ignoring inflation and many other details, all we need is 70 million Swiss Frances (~65 million US dollars) and the money to maintain and run this facility. Oh yes, the fan unit consumes 3000kW of energy when running. Since that's about $4,000 of electricity per hour, the cost of flying could be prohibitive! Wonder if Ben would like to sponsor something like this? You might want to thank Mother Nature the next time you're flying ... the man made experience would be beyond our means. Cheers, Tom

Oh, but Duane is talking about THE Olympics. I can imagine them building a humongous wind generator solely for kite competition. Cheers, Tom

... 3 ...

That's Good Bear!! You know that's not a bad idea. When I die, and am cremated, they can pour my ashes in over my Revs. and bury it...and I'll take them with me! ... Duane, Man, that is so selfish to take your Revs with you!!! Why not have your executor send each of us a kite and some ashes. We could spread a few ashes and take your kite up for a flight ... the ultimate team flying!!! Cheers, Tom

Duane, Look closely and you'll see that he's using a harness to fly the kite stack. He's not taking the load through his arms. Still a neat trick though. Cheers, Tom

That's cool. Maybe we can talk Mike McDonald into trying that at Kite Party! Although, it'd probably take a stack of Thor's Hammers to achieve that type of altitude. Cheers, Tom

Thanks John ... I was trying to figure out how old the video was and then suddenly the date jumped up on the screen. I love to watch Lee and Sam flying stacks ... either individually or as a two man team. I spent a lot of time with Lee at Grand Haven picking his brain about building and flying stacks. He's incredibly enthusiastic about kites and kite flying. Hard not to catch his excitement. I'm really looking forward to Grand Haven this year. I finished building a six kite stack of five foot Rev-like kites that I want him to try. It was completed right before the snow and cold settled in, so I've only had a chance to fly it but once. Cheers, Tom

That's really nice to talk about your wife that way on Valentine's day. Cheers, Tom