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John Dvoracek

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Posts posted by John Dvoracek

  1.  

    1 hour ago, Wayne Dowler said:

    And don't assume that new lines are equalized either. Many times I have gotten new sets that seriously needed attention. 

    Thanks for the confirmation. Look at my set #5 which I had flown very little. Three lines were almost equal and one was over one inch shorter. When I flew that set yesterday after adjustment, my tendency to spin one direction was gone. We pay a lot for these lines. I am thinking they are a money maker for the shops, not that I begrudge them (too much). I have been trying to find where to buy seriously bulk Spectra to see how much it costs, and it is difficult. A Chinese merchant on eBay sells 1093 yards of 100 pound "Super Strong PE Spectra Braided Sea Fishing Line" for $30 including shipping, but is fishing line the same (yes?) and is this Honeywell/Allied Signal Spectra? Then there is the problem of sleeving and tooling, and new Spectra (and Dyneema more) "creep" about 2%, so how long and hard would you stretch before cutting? We probably pay the shops as much for what they know as for their materials. 

  2. Over the past week I have equalized five of my six quad line sets. The sixth is very new so I didn't look at it yet. I had NEVER done this before. The background is I am a very casual flyer, and in 10 years I had probably flown as much as John Barresi does in a month or two. Some of these line sets were used more, but all were used. Black (BLK) were almost always connected as the brake lines. Black and red pairings were not always maintained, so BLK 1 could have been with both RED 1 and RED 2. In each set, one of the BLK lines was always the shortest and was used as the reference line to which each of the other three were adjusted (cut). I recorded the amount I removed from each of the other lines in the set, and I circled the line(s) with the greatest stretch in each set. Set 3 (50# 120' LPG) had some pretty impressive stretch, but I think I flew it a lot - and I remember having trouble with reverse. I would like to thank Bryan Wagstaff for nagging me on the importance of flying with balanced lines. Also see JB's tutorial on this website https://kitelife.com/forum/files/file/685-rev-tutorial-line-equalizing/

     

    Unequal Lines.jpg

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  3. I tried the anchor method but couldn't get the anchor to hold tight, probably a size issue. I had some 5/16 oak dowel lying around. Running a 5/16 inch drill inside the handles removed the inside lip left by the pipe cutter when the handles were made, at which point the dowel fit in fairly snuggly but not super tight. I cut four 2 inch lengths of dowel, drilled a 3/32 hole 1/4 inch from the end and used some old epoxy to glue these into the handles to remove any chance of them moving. I also added some heat shrink tubing I thought would make it hard for the end caps to move. As others note, this makes the handles a little longer, but these were my original short pair anyway. 

    large.DSC06243-drill-dowel.jpg.2ce207819 large.DSC06246-attached.jpg.345fc089f2f8 large.DSC06253-done.jpg.db6ef30ea801358f

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  4. OMG, I feel and probably am just old and dumb, but I wondered what the purpose of the extra bridle knots was. It never occurred to me that you would adjust the bridle, but with all the other DJINN innovations, why not! In addition to flying more, I need to read more.

    • Like 1
  5. On 9/12/2019 at 9:54 AM, Wayne Dowler said:

    The only thing I remove  is that nasty burr from punching the holes for the ring.

    1) Thanks to JB for posting, Watty who apparently made the video, and everyone who has added ideas. I am doing my old, original Rev handles today which I rarely use since I prefer my second, longer snag less set. However, nice to have backup and if I ever get my grand kids interested, they can start on the shorts.

    2) Shame on Rev for leaving those nasty burrs. One of mine measured 3/32". 

    3) To get the end cap soff over the above burrs, I closed a small adjustable plastic jawed clamp to just slide over the tube, then used it to apply pushing pressure to the end cap to slide it off. This left a nice mark on the inside of the cap which I guess won't hurt anything, but it's just sloppy work.

    • Like 1
  6. 5 hours ago, Paul LaMasters said:

    I forgot to address line lengths, the Zen is a big kite, it needs time to do it's thing, I use 60 feet or 100 feet of 50pound Skybond on long throw handles.  30 feet is an indoor length and not recommended at all on this sized format

    Thanks for ALL that technical experience - I will try all of that!! I just got the 30' lines to try to overcome my frustration with low, variable and swirling wind days of which we have a lot. I am trying to fly outdoors a little like indoors on these days, and I might go so far as to acquire some type of SUL quad. I worry about that though because even with the Zen, the wind will go from nil to enough to really fill the sail which might break a SUL. I don't have 60' lines but do have 80', but I need wind. Next time I am taking my son's Kestrel 5500 Weather Meter to record the wind every minute or so to just know what is really out there - or not. Thanks again!

  7. Amateur sport question: can you axel a Zen?  On the same line of thought, can you flic-flac a Zen?  I can barely do  both those with my Rev B and Phoenix, but didn't have much success with the Zen today.  Part of the issue could be highly erratic and low winds which is why the Zen was out.  This was on 30' lines if that matters.  Thanks in advance!

    large_ze..jpg.a0523e8ed5f9a13eace1b806a2

  8. 3 hours ago, Paul LaMasters said:

    Shook's mesh masterpiece kites have been around a decade or longer too, he's another vendor making a profound impact on the industry,.... three hundred times at least!

    large.20110529-shook.jpg.dec5a9b0f6c1b4d

    Relaxing summer of 2011 with Shook mesh #46 in 31 mpg average gusting to 37 mph winds, Texas temp 106F. 

    • Like 1
  9. Thanks for the topic! My new 30' lines arrived yesterday, inspired by what I saw by some TKL at SPI 2020, and I am dying to fly (retired this year). Average wind 4.1 and very light rain.  A little chilly at 42F, so may wait a few hours.  My biggest concern is the effect on Laser Pro Gold lines, but sounds like no problem.  At 30', I can unroll to dry out in the house.

  10. On 8/20/2019 at 12:36 PM, riffclown said:

    IMO, a balanced approach to venting across the entire sail whether a small amount or a large amount gives you the best result. You still have your balanced sail feel on the handles. You still have your glide. Most importantly, no part of the sail becomes overpowered in a gust. We've all made tweaks to existing designs to get what we want from our kites. The balanced venting approach is really hard to set down once you've tried it.. It feels like a full sail, flies like a full sail but handles the high wind in ways you'd never expect. Bottom line, is I feel a balanced approach to venting gives you the most stable sail design, within your targeted wind window and even just above it. It takes more work to make a kite this way but it's truly worth it for the increase in feel and handling.

    Nice review of venting styles. Only three of my kites are vented, but more probably should be. I only fly the Barresi B mid-vent and the Shook when I have to - but nice to be able to fly above 25 mph - because they do feel a bit "sluggish". I don't have enough experience with the Phoenix tail vent only yet. Thanks for sharing.

  11. On 10/30/2019 at 5:47 PM, riffclown said:

    ... since the patent ran out ...

    Curiosity only question, of no useful value, but when did the patent expire? 

     https://patents.google.com/patent/US5120006A/en?inventor=hadzicki seemed to expire in 2009 but Hadzicki-wing like kites didn't really seem to appear under other "brands" until 2015 or later?  Was this because of the "master builders" Rev used or the in-house Barresi's, etc., which went away eventually?

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  12. When I see posts on the FB quad kites group, I have really mixed feelings.  I am by nature and circumstances a lone flyer.  At the SPI Kitefest 2020 I was fortunate to sit with the Austin kite team who confirmed the winds are just lousy in central Texas.  One hour they are 30 MPH and the next still.  This discourages a large interest in kite flying, so there just are not clubs, especially not quad clubs.  I've ruined three hobbies by becoming outwardly competitive with others instead of just with myself, and I am not going to do that with kiting.  There is just an inner joy and relaxation (except sometimes with the wind) feeling the lines and watching the movements of the kite.  When I work through (mostly Kitelife) tutorials and learn (rarely master) new skills, I suppose I am competing a bit with myself, but it's also very satisfying to see the kite do new things.  I am not connected enough, but I guess the hard core guys do contests, but they have different reasons and motivations.  I don't get joy and peace by measuring myself against recreational flyers but by being better than I was before.  This all said, in my humble opinion, those FB posts about this club are more self-serving to the poster than they are to the general kiting community.

  13. Sorry, gotta ask first... Dual line or quad line? :)

    Certainly a reasonable question, but from personal experiences in 2010, I pretty much deduced this was an introductory 4-line flight ;) Yeah, it is a lot harder than it looks but it's also a lot like riding a bicycle which is very hard to do until you know how, then it becomes natural. The great news is that you can have a lot of fun without being very good once you can simply keep it up, which I could do on my third outing. Then you just keep practicing stuff. After one year, I'm still working on inverted hover, and that's not very advanced for a year, but it's fun just trying to hold the kite in one area of the sky in one position. As others have said, the quad-line tutorials on this website under downloads are INVALUABLE to learning. Have fun!

  14. A vented is MUCH smoother in a strong wind. Doesn't pick up drive so suddenly and irons out the small variations nicely.

    A vented is much smoother in ANY wind. I acquired my full-vent (see my avitar) fearing our winds would tear my B signature apart. When I saw the full-vent was just more docile in general, I refined my inverted hover using the full-vent in moderate winds. Then I went back to the B signature with improved inverted skills. Of course the vents have reduced lift too, so you need more wind to remain aloft.

  15. As others have said, flying a Rev is a BIG step up from a 2-line kite. Be patient, and expect to run headlong into a learning curve. I may be an unusually slow learner, or maybe just old, but I couldn't keep from crashing until the third time out - and I do mean crashing. While you're waiting for the kites to arrive, go to Quad line tutorials in Kitelife.com downloads and LearnKites.com and study the video tutorials. DO THIS!

    I know I'm too late, but I'll answer your question in case others follow this thread to help them in the same situation. You can't cover low and high wind flying with one kite, so you have to pick one end of the spectrum or the other. You are generally going to be in a low wind situation, so I would have recommended a Barresi B-series signature (1.5) package which comes with 2 and 3 wrap frames and very nice handles. To this add some lighter line. 50 pound will handle that kite in all situations you will encounter, about 90 feet of it. That will aid you in low wind conditions, saving line weight the kite won't have to lift. When the wind is heavier, you can put both the 2-wrap and 3-wrap frame in the leading edge, or for simplicity, you can also pick up a 4-wrap leading edge set for big wind (center rod and two spars). When I fly with the 4-wrap leading edge, I still use the 3-wrap vertical spars.

    If you get hooked, you will want a range of Revs better suited to a range of conditions. Have fun, and remember, patience!

    [Corrected to identify "B-series signature" as such and not as "B-series Pro" per post below.]

  16. How does the venting on that relate to a full-vent?

    Thanks Duane! I've never flown a full-vent. In search of a high-wind kite, I was looking at a full-vent, which must be a custom order, versus a Shook mesh which is also usually a custom order. After learning this Shook was available, I chose instant gratification, but I also wanted to try something different. My gut feeling and the comments of one flyer are that the Shook mesh will handle somewhat higher winds. Maybe John Barresi will eventually stop by and comment as I am certain he has flown both although a fair comparison would require some good, swirling winds.

    In the picture I posted, I am using a 2-wrap spar in addition to the 4-wrap stock spar. The mesh (and the vent) are definitely better behaved this way in high winds. I'm not an aero guy, but bowing of the main spar must upset the flight characteristics. We're on vacation today, and the winds are back, so I'll be out again.

    Cheers, John

  17. I agree enthusiastically with a seller endorsed by prior posters to this thread:

    Lyn and Rich at Midwest Kites in Iowa sold me my first three Rev's and gave me hours of flying advise and tips. Lyn really knows Rev's, and her advise has been spot on, and she has advised me with some single line kites as well. They ship very quickly and very economically.

    You couldn't go wrong with Lyn and Rick, especially if you need expert advise from folks who have flown an awful lot.

  18. The temp this afternoon in Temple, TX (60 miles north of Austin) was 97°F with humidity 42% and winds from the S at 29 MPH gusting to 34 MPH. Utilizing a shade tree, a chair, a stocked cooler, a white shirt, and a straw hat, I had a great time for two and one-half hours flying my Rev mesh! I'm also using 90 feet of 90# line and Barresi Rev handles.

    post-5021-0-49859700-1306732072_thumb.jp

  19. What weight and length lines are folks using for the new B-sereis Zen (one of which now rests in my kite bag)? I have 90#'ers (80') from my Barresi, but I'm thinking of getting some 50# 100' lines. Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays!

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