garydogwood

the beetle arrived today. took it to the park. had variable 8 - 15mph winds. this was a lot of fun. the winds seemed to get lighter the longer i was there. since it is my first dual line (and only experience the single line a couple days), i cannot compare it to anything. but, it did seem easy to fly and land. i've been reading a lot about flying and visualizing the takeoff and landing. pretty much happened the way i thought. felt pretty comfortable after about 10 minutes or so. did some loops and a lot of back and forth flying. this is going to be a LOT of fun. again, i have no experience but i did notice the beetle seems to flex a bit. when the wind would gust up ocassionally, it looked kind of like a skeleton. today no hard landings so all is in good shape (one semi hard landing described below). the heart stopping thing today was one of the lines came loose from the bridle. thing started spinning like crazy and heading for the ground. i gave it a lot of slack as it neared the ground and it slowed down a lot so even then it hit fairly light. and lucky me, there just so happens to be a kite festival this coming weekend near my place (dallas). am looking forward to meeting some other flyers and hopefully pick up some tips. thanks, gw

Long post.... hello, good to find this site. i've been eyeing kites at the store for several months and enjoy watching the various kites flying this past spring at bob woodruff park (plano,tx). was discussing with a work mate and they said they had a "really good" kite but could not get it to fly and that she would give it to me. i got it but it has not instructions or anything. looks like a 3 stack delta. i've put it aside for later. i did buy i cheap $8 delta single line yesterday and proceeded to the park. first attempts really were pitiful. after about 10 trys, i decided to try later in the afternoon (besides it was HOT). came back around 7:30 pm and was a little cooler. wind was light (est around 7 - 10 mph). kept trying to launch and the kite would go up a little way then dive to the ground. each time it would go higher; finally after about 10 more trys, i figured it out and it stayed up. i was surprised that it took me so many trys to get it up. i only remember about 3 times flying a kite when i was growing up. they were the cheap paper and stick. so, now i feel somewhat satisfied with getting this thing flying. i have ordered a Beetle based on various readings i've done over the last week or so. looking forward to reading every post on this board. always been interested in things that go up (rc airplanes, rockets, ) so now kites. by the way, i have read of a good park (breckenridge) in richardson,tx. that is fairly close to my home but i went by there sunday morning around 10:30 or 11:00 and no one was there. anyone on this forum from the dfw area and know if that is still a kiter hangout? gw.