dragonfish

I'm in. Wow, what a great prize. Just the thing to get people excited about karma again. Thanks M.

Like Mark says, it is somewhat personal preference. 2 wraps and race rods are often used by different people in the same wind conditions. The response is different on race rods. Many people like them, some can't get used to them and prefer 2 wraps. I'm not sure what you are referring to as sul rods. Rev has the diamond frame. There are also a variety of other rods that people have made lighter than 2 wrap frames from, e.g. Skyshark P90, P1X, etc. There may even be some newer rods that I am not familiar with. These are generally more delicate than 2 wraps. I have a frame I made from P90's. I don't like to use it unless the winds are so light it's basically fly or die conditions. I'm not sure how well they will work in a (mid)vented kite because I've never tried.

My leech line is larksheaded onto the bungee if I remember correctly. It definitely is on one of my kites, because I've adjusted it, but don't know for sure if it's this one. Really easy to adjust when the standoffs are not in place because there is not any tension on the leech line, thus you have plenty of slack to loosen the larkshead and move it on the bungee. I guess you would still have to take it off if you were to make and use a new hole, but it should be straightforward to larkshead it back on the bungee. It doesn't even need to butt up against the knot at the end of the bungee since the bungee is kind of "soft", so the larkshead just bites into it wherever you want it.

FWIW, mine is like kitedad's. It's similar what you show in your picture, but the hole is about 1 1/4" up from the bottom of the spine. Mine is also a 2.5 though. Perhaps you can make another hole about an inch higher than the existing hole. You can do this with a soldering iron or wood burning tool as long as you have a tip that you don't mind contaminating with plasticky stuff (that's what you're going to get when the material melts). That will still leave quite a bit of leech line outside the velcro though. However, I never really thought of it as a problem, because if you're looking at the back of the kite, the back of the spine is recessed between the rest of the kite. Doesn't seem like it would be easy to get abrasion there. Having the leech line come out at the bottom of the spine might be more concerning.

kitedad's answer is probably your solution. However, I just wanted to check if the rest of the kite was completely assembled in pic 1. Often times if the kite is not fully assembled, the leech line will appear loose. It should tighten when the kite is fully assembled and the standoffs are in.

@happysuperbutton, glad you were able to make it to BKF. The learn to fly clinic in 2 weeks is put on by BASKL. Definitely a good event to attend if you can make it. There's no set schedule, so come when you can. I will be there. Some of the others you have met will most likely be there too. I noticed Rev had the RX Spider too, but didn't get a chance to go try it out.

@happysuperbutton, you know BKF is both Sat and Sun right? Hope you can still make it. Bumpy winds definitely make learning harder. Keep with it, you get it soon. At Shoreline if you're flying on the grass, the wind is much less closer to the ground. It picks up significantly about a third or half of the way up the wind window. The ground wind is a little better if you're further downwind in the dirt area (assuming typical wind direction). Good luck. (Edited typo, oops)

@happysuperbutton, glad you met "S" and "F" and got some good advice from them. Yes, I know who you are referring to. "S" even mentioned to me that he met you. Unfortunately I won't be able to fly for the next week or two, so I probably won't see you in person until Berkeley Kite Festival or after.

You've got lots of good advice already, so I'll try not to repeat too much of it. Lines: Never let line ends flap in the wind. That will twist them up faster than anything. If you keep your handles attached to the lines, try not to pick the handles up by the lines and let them dangle. That will also easily introduce twists. Wayne's point D is done at the kite end. The handles should stay together, i.e. don't spread your arms out when holding the handles. Picture a triangle formed by the handles at one point, two pairs of lines forming two sides, and the kite at the third side. If you spread out the lines at the kite end, and keep spreading them out as you walk toward the handles (keeping tension on the lines between you and the handles), you will bring the twisted part of the lines toward the handles, where hopefully it will be easier to see. If the lines ever don't want to separate, don't force it as you could cause more problems. Spreading out the handles is not helpful because it will cause the twisted part to move away from the handles. Untwisting is sometimes a bit of trial and error. Remember what you did so if you find it getting worse you can do the opposite. And passing handles through each other will happen, don't fret about that part. Flat kite: If the kite is belly down (trailing edge toward you and lines underneath), you should usually be able to recover using makatakam's advice, unless there's really no wind along the ground. If the kite is belly up (leading edge closer to you and lines above), the ground conditions at Shoreline will make it difficult. There is not much for the leading edge to catch on to provide enough resistance for you to pull the bottom wing tips up. If you ever find your kite with the belly down, leading edge toward you, and lines underneath, just go for the walk. Good luck.

Yay! Sounds like a success. Next time, stand a little farther back so your kite isn't so close to those logs on the ground there. To learn the dive stop is really just to train your brain to tell your hands to hit the brakes as the kite is zooming forward toward the ground. Many people's instinct thinks "up" and their hands give the go input, which is wrong because the kite is upside down. You have to think from the kite's perspective not the perspective from where you are standing.

I was just teasing, not suggesting you should resew the panel. You know how much I like purple.

The last one needs more purple. Looking good though.

Welcome Bruce. You've got great advice from the above posters already. I'll add two more things. To check the bridle, you don't even need a measuring stick. Since the frame is already out of the kite, and the sail folded in half from previous steps, you can simply compare the right and left sides of the bridle side by side. And check for extraneous knots in the bridle that may be shortening one side. The pigtails you attach the flying line to can sometimes wrap around the bridle and form an extra knot. That is enough to cause the kite to favor one side. I've had such a knot form spontaneously between packing a kite up and setting it up again, and the kite didn't feel right when I flew it. Good luck.

Cool! So you've seen us out there. Feel free to come talk to us whenever you have time. Most kitefliers are happy to talk about kites and show you theirs. Let's discuss over PM about meeting up this Sunday. Hopefully I'm not exhausted from Saturday. Alternatively, you could just show up to Shoreline on Sunday and try your luck at running into someone.

Hi happysuperbutton, Welcome to Kitelife! The Shoreline Kite Lot is a great place to be for sport kites. There are a number of us who frequently fly there, dual line and quad. I'm a bit surprised you haven't run into any of us. Guess you're good about being secret. Berkeley used to be a really popular flying spot, but in recent years, it seems to be shifting to Shoreline, so don't feel bad you can't make it to Berkeley. (Do check out the Berkeley Kite Festival if you can swing it the last weekend of July.) Some of us, myself included, compete with the Bay Area Sport Kite League as well, so feel free to pick our brains about it if you want to know more. As for kites...sounds like you've done plenty of research on Rev, but have you taken a look at the alternatives? I'm not trying to steer you away from Rev, just pointing out another avenue for research if you don't already know about it. Here's one thread: I'm busy this Saturday, but might be able to squeeze out an hour or two Sunday afternoon to go fly at Shoreline. You're welcome to try my Revs. Oh, and protip: check the Shoreline Amphitheatre concert schedule before going to the Kite Lot. Most of the area where we fly is actually parking for the amphitheatre, so there's not much room to fly once concert traffic starts coming in. This Saturday is actually a bad day to go kiteflying there. Sunday looks good though.

Hi and welcome @CubeMaster5.66. Are you the guy I met at the San Ramon Art and Wind Festival? Feel free to ask away in the forums if you have questions. And, come join us in the group chat room. It is a bit of a hit or miss on whether someone is there, but just keep trying.

Just for kicks...rasta colors:

What about putting the text in the middle instead of the horizontal line? Possibly even mirror imaged text. Although, I do like the simplicity, so maybe text in the middle will clutter things up too much. Depends on the style of the final graphics I guess.

1 Rev EXP 1 Rev B-series (full vent) 3 Rev B-pro (standard, mid vent, full vent) 1 Shook mesh Rev (135%) 1 Lee Sedgwick YFO Hmmmmm.....looks like my list is shorter than most so far...

Wow, you're on a roll. Looks cool front lit. Hopefully black won't be overpowering when back lit, although maybe you'll end up with some unexpected cool effects.

With mesh having 2 meanings - the weave part and the screen part - I initially misunderstood the first sentence. But that got me thinking...with a mesh weave kite that already has holes, is the LE screen really necessary?

Bit late to the discussion...been AFK for a bit. I also frequent chat and enjoy being able to "talk" to other kitefliers around the country and sometimes world. The forum is great for somewhat focused topics, but I like chat because it's a lot more spontaneous and whatever people feel like chatting about. Really hope kitelife chat will continue in some form or another. I'm sure we'll learn whatever new system is selected when time comes. Thanks for doing this for us, JB.

Aww, so close. Congrats Tim!

Cool, looks like you got a collectible. The first line of Japanese is a phonetic spelling that sounds out as Eugene Freeman. I was not able to find any information on him either, although there is a Peggy Freeman listed as a contact for the Southern Oregon Kite Festival on the WKA event calendar. Not sure what the character that looks like an "a" is. Could just be an English A for a middle initial. "san" roughly translates as Mr. but is gender neutral. I am assuming the characters above "Tsutomu Hiroi" is his Japanese name. This is coming from someone who took a couple years of Japanese in high school and had to look up a character chart because I forgot most of it though.