Hadge

A good snap stall is the basis of good trick flying, if you haven't already seen it I suggest reading this is a must. http://prismkites.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1213810335

For someone starting out learning trick flying I recommend Dodd's Flight school because it starts from absolute basics right up to some fairly complex combinations in easy steps. Benson's Trick or treat and to some extend the Prism tutorials are good but assume you already have a certain level of skill. Work your way through Flight school and as you get better look on Youtube for Randy Greenway (RandyG) or Martin Madsen ( DPmama74) for some really good tutorials. Best of all try and find some local trick fliers to teach you the basics as you will progress sooo much more quickly - it takes ages on your own from videos! I know!

Hi, welcome to the forum. a lot of people seem to think these clips are more trouble than they are worth. It's easy to remove them and just larkshead your line to the tow points - this link is actually a Nexus but the Quantum is exactly the same. http://prismkites.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1211657054

I was thinking that exact same thing today. So far the winds in my area, are favoring the 4D and other very low wind kites, and affording not many opportunities to fly the Revs, unfortunately. Hopefully that situation will change. You can have some of my wind!! Please take it! It has been a gusty 15-25mph+ ( sometimes up to 50mph+) more or less contantly since NOVEMBER!. ...I got a nice pre owned Benson Deepspace for Christmas and I've been able to fly it for less than an hour!.. .......the only kite that has been seeing any air time is the Delta Hawk!.....I now have very long arms.........

They look like this - just extended tow points really. SparkieRob - which duals do you have? There are some very good Dual line trick tutorials online - look for Randy Greenway ( RandyG) and Martin Madsen (DPmama74) on Youtube.

I usually use bridle line for my leaders - about 150lb for a standard. They should last a very long time and help to protect the trailing edge of the sail when you do roll up tricks as well as let the flying lines drop a little which also helps. For length, I usually work on enough for one complete roll up plus a bit extra - up over the leading edge, down the back of the sail, over the trailing edge and back up the face of the sail to the leading edge - this is usually around 4-5' but it doesn't matter too much.

The UK postal service is no better! I had some skyshark rods delivered a while back, although they had been sent in a very strong cardboard poster tube and wrapped in bubble wrap the Postal service managed to snap them in not just one but TWO places!!

Hmmm........3 kites in 3 weeks?.......I'm very sorry to tell you that you are showing all the symptoms of spontanious kite addiction.....there is no known cure. However we can offer a counselling service.....now repeat after me.. "....my name is Bob and I'm a kite addict. It's been ..... hours since my last flight............." Welcome to the addiction! Remember to watch out the the symptoms of 'Stage 2" Constantly looking at trees/flags to guess the wind speed... ....A swollen kite bag...... .....and an empty Bank account!

Thanks, I already ordered a bunch of small parts, spreaders, T's, etc along with the 3D case, enough to rebuild almost anything. Of course, now nothing will ever break I have found that you can buy the 2.5mm carbon rod that Prism use for the 4D frame from RC models shops really cheaply, I bought enough for a complete spare frame for around $10.

Climax kite lines are available in Yellow ( professional) and Orange ( Protec). Good lines but I don't know about availability your side of the pond.

For those that like to experiment there are some alternative 4D set up suggestions here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8C8EEoHKFQ

You could try attaching an anti theft device like this Seriously, could you use a head mounted 'Action cam' ?

If you cut your lines down you will have an 18' set - all you need to do is put a loop on the ends and make sure they are equal length. When I cut mine down I didn't even bother sleeving the cut ( kite) ends, I just tied a loop and coloured the loops red and blue respectively with some Sharpie marker pens! The sleeving doesn't weigh much, but in zero winds every little helps. For a winder for the 18' set I just used a winder from an old $5 single line kids kite I had in the garage - it even fits in the Prism case!

Like Rob, I found the 50' lines too long for the 4D unless there is a good breeze blowing and the 4D is really best from 0-5mph. I cut my lines down to ( roughly) 18' and 32' and I generally use the 32' lines now. One thing no-one has mentioned - and as I don't know your flying experience I apologise if I'm over simplifying things here - but even though the 4D can be flown in 0 winds, you still need to provide lift for the kite. You can't stand still as you can with a standard kite in good winds, you need to be moving backwards all the time to provide the breeze for the kite to fly in. Have a look at some of the videos of the 4D on Youtube and you'll see what I mean. It's a nice little kite that likes gentle inputs to get the best from it. I have also found that the middle of the adjustment setting seems best. Hope this helps.

I also use Windows live movie maker ( on windows 8) and find it easy to use and plenty good enough for most stuff (unless you're a budding Spielberg!). Don't worry too much about file sizes for Youtube - some of mine have been 200-300 Mb files or more when I uploaded them but Youtube will adjust. Go for the best picture quality you can. If you really need to reduce the files sizes look on Google for a program called Handbrake which reduces files by around 50%. ( You do realise that now you have a camera that no matter how good you are normally, as soon as you turn that camera on you'll fly like a complete newbie!!....I have a lot of footage of me doing the walk of shame........)

Some photos

The weather here has been lousy just lately, one Atlantic low pressure system after another. Lots of wind but no good for kite flying. The Delta Hawk loves it, but tries to rear your arms off after 30mph. So i was in the garage the other week and found a couple of old dead ( cheap) kites and some scraps of ripstop from an old project and Li'l Frankie was born! Basically a 60-70% Delta Hawk made from the canniblised parts of the dead kites! Half the pull , twice the speed!

It would be interesting to compare how much pull something like that 6 Hawk stack generates compared to a similar size ( sail area) power kite.

This perhaps? :lol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtFQ_Yt28j0 He looks like he's really enjoying himself!!

Although the Delta Hawk has been my regular 'go to' high wind kite, one of the UK shops now stocks the HQ Delta Flizz - the Hawks little brother - not so much pull but very very fast! Might be fun stacked with the Hawk!!

It's always worth having insurence just in case of accident - folks are only too keen to sue these days. Here in the UK you can get personal cover but it's quite expensive. A lot of the bigger kite clubs cover members on a club policy which is often cheaper. My club membership costs £15 a year and as well as access to club events it give me insurence cover of up to £5M whenever I fly.

I have a set of 30' lines for mine which seems to work well. Be careful of the gusts (6-7 mph +) with short lines as things can go really wrong really quickly as you have almost no time to react. Gentle inputs are the way to go, watch a few of the youtube videos to get an idea. It's a nice little kite, enjoy it!

Prism already have it covered! when you open your new 4D case you'll find the spars held together with a little rubber band ( at least mine was) - I just used that!

I had spars pop out twice due to the wind gusting and quiting on me, and I hit the ground twice doing the one hand two finger thing....I've never broken anything, so it seems to be pretty tough! This has happened to me too. I've used a short elastic band to join the centre T ends of the spreaders with larksheads so that when in place the elastic band pulls the spreaders into the centre T - they haven't popped out since.