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Mike

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Everything posted by Mike

  1. I know how you feel Litsong, and I'm so happy for you. My first sport kites were a stack of diamonds (rainbow stunt kites) with long tails. I used to fly them on the beach in Santa Barbara, after work.
  2. Good looking team and nice photos!
  3. Mike

    STOLEN KITES

    I bet you're happy Conner. Jumping up and down, bouncing off the walls happy. I know I would be if it all happened to me. It is such good news that it turned out the way it did.
  4. Mike

    my quad sticks

    Scott, I'm slapping my forehead right now. I taught a paraplegic to fly and I forgot all about quad sticks. That is the magic that guy needs. It would sure give his daughter a break. I'll have to make a set and surprise him with them this spring. Thanks for re-opening this thread.
  5. Congrats to Mom and Dad and welcome to the world little Joni!
  6. Best wishes to your wife for an easy pregnancy. Dec 1, 1:00 am.
  7. The wing flip is very common, perhaps universal, among beginners. As Baloo says, it comes from over control. Think smaller movements. When flying in reverse you can't go very fast and when you are starting to learn it, go very slow. Start by practicing with gravity on your side. Fly up to the top of the window and reverse back down to the ground, leading edge facing up. The inverted hover is an advanced move and just takes time to learn. Start with the kite upside down on the ground and reverse up and hover a few feet off the ground. Measure your progress in seconds. Your first try may only last a second. Then you'll graduate to 3 seconds. Pat yourself on the back when you can hold it for 5 seconds. Then, one day, something will just "click" and you'll have it. Have fun, there's always new stuff to learn and keep things interesting.
  8. glue works well for small tears. Put some scotch tape (cellophane tape) on one side. Apply a little crazy glue to the tear on the other side. Let it dry for a few hours. Remove the tape.
  9. Ha! I actually did try that, but gave up and went and got my charming wife to push the shutter.
  10. okey doke, I went into the backyard and took some photos. Please ignore the way the lawn looks; we're not supposed to water our lawns right now. It's not bad really. Now we don't need to mow either I attached the lines to the kite and unwound the lines off my handles. Here are some photos to show that the lines look tangled: At this point all I had to do was to put tension on the lines and all those supposed tangles disappeared! There were only a couple real twists. I put my handles together and turned them once, and then I turned one handle around once and that was it. Now, to wind the lines back on the handles, grab the the handles like so: Point the handles in the general direction of the kite and start to wind the lines. I like to start by winding around the adjustment knots to help hold it all together better: Note that I start at the bottom of the grips and work my way up to the top, ending up like so: Now disconnect the lines from one side of the kite. Sometime the lengths come out even, but usually it looks like this: To keep things even on the handle, I larks-head the shorter line onto the longer line: After larks-heading the other pair of lines, pinch all four of lines thru the grips to hold it all in place. When it's time to set up your kite, attach the lines to the kite and walk backwards. Grip the handles the same way you did when when winding them up. Point them towards the kite again too. This is essential. That's it! I hope you enjoy Mike's Magical Method of line storage!
  11. I dunno, I don't use a figure eight. If you get a lot twists, its because the lines were not unwound the same way they were put on. If you orient the handles the same way when you wind and unwind you'll be ok. If you orient the handles one way, and then unwind with the handles pointed the opposite way you will have hundreds of twists.
  12. A newbie asked me how to wind his lines. I told him I just wrapped them around my handles, but warned him that many folks worry about the technique. He decided to go ahead and wrap around the handles and had no problems thru the weekend.
  13. Heya Jim, I think a diagram would help But if I understand you correctly, I still don't think it would make a huge difference in the way that you are talking about. A few things to consider: The difference between the yo-yos is maybe a foot. Assuming 120' lines, the end of each line is 60' away from the stake. The kite moves in an arc. I think some actual math needs to be done to see if there's much difference. Also, it's probably easier just to try it with an actual kite, as you suggest. But don't make the stakes a couple feet apart, make it more realistic and make them a foot or so apart vertically. Hector, you could bungee a couple carabiners to a pole to test the idea. Cheaper and quicker then welding a whole new stake!
  14. Heya Jim, It has been a while since I've taken geometry, could you explain that a little more? What do you mean by "error"? Also, I was wondering if the strings spend much time rubbing against the sides of the yo-yo. It seems to me they would rub against the plastic unless the strings were coming straight off the middle of the yo-yo.
  15. ok, even more info. I keep a set of handles with 75' x 90# lines wrapped around them all year round. This is what I fly on most of the time. I have a set of handles that I keep free of line and use winders for my other linesets. When I don't want to carry my kite bag, I can just carry my handles, with the lines wrapped around them, and a kite. I don't need to carry anything else. Except when the field is icy/slippery, I usually don't even carry a stake (but that story is for another day).
  16. Yes, that's what I do. I hold both handles by the metal part, point the tops towards the kite, and wind the lines around the foam. Ha! I am anything but a perfectionist! (just ask John B. ) I'm a laid back kind of wrap-it-up-quickly-and-toss-it-in-the-bag kinda guy. I swear on a stack of Revs, I have no problems doing it this way. My kite is set up and ready to fly very quickly. I keep my lines on my handles, pinch the ends between the grips like John Mitchell said, and throw it in my kite bag. Here's some more info; more than you need: I hold both handles together, by the metal tubes, in my left hand. I point the the top of the handles towards the kite. I draw all four lines together towards the bottom of the foam. I start winding from the bottom of the foam, catching the adjustment knots on the first couple winds. I wind fairly tightly. I keep winding near the bottom, gradually working my way to the top of the foam. Ideally, I would reach the top of the foam only when I've wound the entire length of the lines on to the handles. My daughter does it the same way. It works fine for her too. Maybe I should take some photos and do a tutorial?
  17. I'm great. Tell your simian friend thanks for the really nice article in the latest Kitelife.
  18. Looking forward to seeing the new design Hector.
  19. Get down with my little gnome self! But I just figured out why I look so confused: the bridle is on the wrong side!
  20. The really important thing to remember, as has already been mentioned, is it is not as bad as it looks at first. Here's my take on it. I've been flying for years and no superstitions for me. I don't put a finger between the lines when I wrap and I don't use a winder most of the time. I don't have a problem with tangles. It's usually a couple twists, sometimes one handle thru the other, and that's it. Without a winder, I grab all four lines and wrap them around my handles walking towards the kites. Then I larkshead the left pair together and the right pair together as others do. Just make sure to point the top of the handles towards the kite both when winding and unwinding. When using a winder, I randomly larkshead the top and bottom of one side together and then the other side. When I get to the other end, I larkshead the longer line onto the shorter line. I think the lines always come out uneven because you can't put exactly even tension on all 4 lines while you are winding. I don't have a ritual about starting at the kite end or the handle end, I start at either end. I probably always use the same hand, but I don't see how it would make a difference when unwinding the lines. Hold the winder with both hands, hold it with the left hand, hold it with the right hand, it seems to me it will always be oriented the same way and shouldn't make a difference. I have 4 sets of 120' lines on winders that I loan out regularly. I assume to both lefties and righties. They wind up their own lines and I haven't had any problems with that either. Maybe I'm just lucky? Or maybe it's rule #1: #1: It is not as bad as it looks. Always stretch out the lines and move the twists towards one end before worrying about the tangles. Spin one handle one way one or two times to see if it is better. If it's worse, spin it the other way 3 or 4 times. Repeat with the other handle. Look to see if you've got one handle thru the other. It's probably only one time thru, so if it isn't fixed with one pass, undo what you just did and try the other way. When you've managed to get a big mess, Penny's way is a good way to solve it. With the lines attached to both the kite and handles, and the handles staked out, walk that that tangle towards the handles. Loosen the tangle by pulling it apart and by pinching the lines between the tangle and your handles and sliding your hands towards the handles. And finally, remember, is it is not as bad as it looks at first.
  21. Mike

    rev option advice

    The unmarked spars in your EXP are 3 wrap spars. I would strongly encourage a vented 1.5. It will fly in all the wind ranges you mentioned and will be easier to fly in reverse and do the other moves you mentioned. You can take the spars out of your EXP and use them in your vented kite. They work well in the kite for much of the wind range you're talking about. When the flex gets to be too much in high winds you can put in the 4-wrap SLE spar that comes standard with the vented. In high winds you can do well with that spar, despite what some folks may say. If you want to avoid the SLE, you may want to see if you can order your vented with the 4-wrap skinny spar (1/4" diameter) instead. The vented may be my favorite kite. If you want to have a complete package, order a set of 2-wrap spars as well. It's great flying the vented in lower winds with the 2 wrap spars. The spars will also lower the wind range of your EXP.
  22. thanks for the props Jim and Hector, but of course I have to share a lot of it with iQuad. The Spanish version just arrived in my inbox. I'll have to copy over the translated text into a pdf. It should be available soon.
  23. I don't know if we really want to print these signs, it might scare the public too much. I actually have enough control where the public isn't in any danger. In fact I like to interact with the public and my kites. (I landed on a cop at a festival in Wisconsin once, but we had talked earlier and he was a good sport) However, I was having too much fun with these signs. Here's a couple more: If you want to print some for your wall, suitable for framing, PDF versions available here: http://kitemike.googlepages.com/caution-revfliers.pdf http://kitemike.googlepages.com/caution-revfliers2.pdf http://kitemike.googlepages.com/caution-revfliers3.pdf Print on yellow card stock and tell Adobe Acrobat to "Reduce to Printer Margins" in the print options.
  24. I guess you could just print it out and glue it to some card stock. I you really want to print it out, I should make it in black and white and then you can print it onto yellow paper. Save you a lot of yellow ink!
  25. Perhaps, when quad fliers are around, we should post these signs along the pedestrian walkways.
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