Jay Farlow

http://www.revkites.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Revolution-Mega-Fly-Figures-v1d.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbaryl Yep, yep. When finished, and while the vac was still running, I introduced several burst of Sevin into the vac hose, and sealed it off. They had to put up with that, all night. Still a little nervous about opening the vac, though ? If there are any left in the wall, shoot some Sevin in there, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbaryl

The FW Alpha+ is a cheaply made kite, no doubt. But it taught me a lot and filled my needs at the time.

One advantage of a kite like the Flying Wings Silver Fox is that the same kite comes in standard, ultralight and vented versions. If you collect all three (over time), you'll be able to fly all the time and the kites will behave somewhat similarly. The Silver Fox is not the only kite that comes in all three versions, but it's probably the least expensive kite that comes in all three versions.

If you do some careful shopping, you can find several good-sized kites in the Flying Wings brand for well under $150. My first "big" kite was the 85-inch Flying Wings Alpha+. It's not nearly as nice a kite as the Widow, but I see it offered online for $78. I see the 90-inch Flying Wings Silver Fox 2.3 standard offered for $122. The UL version of that kite is offered for $112. I've never seen a Silver Fox in person, so I don't know its quality. You're right that UL kites break more easily, so I'd avoid them until you get to the point at which you have no "unintended landings" on the Vertigo or on a larger standard kite that you might get before you invest in a UL. Do keep an eye on places where used kites are sold. You might find a good used kite that normally retails for more than $150 offered for a price within your budget.

Have a look at a Prism Quantum and Premier Widow as possible next kites. Neither are ultralight but both will fly in pretty light winds (e.g. ~5 mph). Both are pretty sturdy kites and both have a wider wingspan than your Vertigo (which usually means slower flight). As to line length, the longer you go, the bigger your wind window and the more time you have to plan your next maneuver. OTOH, the more line you have out there, the more weight the kite has to drag around. I usually fly my Widow on 90-foot lines, except for the one time I was practicing for a competition, when I used 120-foot lines (some of the competition figures are nearly impossible on shorter lines). When I fly my ultralight kite, I often use lines as short as 50 feet, just to reduce the weight on the kite. If you decide to go ultralight, I've heard really good things about the HQ Shadow but I've never had a chance to fly one. I fly a Skyburner Ocius UL, which is more of a boutique kite and would have been well outside my budget, had I not gotten a good deal on a used one. Hope this helps!

One cool benefit of being a member of a club like IKE is that you get to know the people and the people get to know you and your interests. In my particular case, I'd indicated in the club's Web forum an interest in someday flying in a group. When the time came, I wasn't even flying .... I was busy putting away a single-line kite when I heard "Jay, get in here!" I hadn't even strung my brand-new (just bought that day from a member) 120-foot lines yet. If you haven't spent much time yet socializing with hard-core kite people, you might not have experienced what I've found to be universal hospitality. I wrote an essay about it shortly after my lovely wife and I got into the hobby (JB, I'll try to remember to submit it for editorial consideration). Recent examples: I showed up at the 2012 IKE retreat with dual-line kites, which I did fly a bit, before Mike Kory put a pair of handles in my hands, gave me a short lesson and sent me off to practice with his kite for the rest of the day. This year, I showed up with the Kite Connection custom rainbow 1.5 I bought with the gift certificate I won in a KiteLife subscriber drawing but the wind was too strong. So guess what? Mike had me flying one of his vented kites all day. I've begun to think, BTW, that Mike has an ulterior motive ... he probably wants to eventually break some kind of single-club mega-fly record, so he's pulling as many fliers to the dark side as he can! Bottom line: If there's a club or informal group of any kind near you, join it and participate in club activities. If there's not, introduce yourself to any new fliers you find. In my experience, once other kite fliers see you as a potential recruit to their worlds, they'll suck you in before you realize what's happening! Agreed. My first experience was as #10 in a 10-kite group. That meant I was often off the the edge of my wind window, where flying is a bit more challenging. It also meant I was always at the bottom of the pre-burst ball, where I had to hover right-side-up instead of the usual inverted, because I haven't mastered the inverted hover yet. Agreed again. I was so thankful for the loan of a vented as mentioned above. Another advantage: wind gusts don't seem to affect the kite as quickly, making a stable hover easier to fly.

Having won a drawing last year, it should be a long time before my number comes up again. But I learned at last weekend's IKE retreat that I "need" a vented Rev!

Cool business card!

My point, exactly. You just said it in a lot fewer words!

True, but it's also good to work toward being one of those people! My premise is that doing so requires more than solo flying.

Just came across another picture of an IKE retreat group fly. That's me, the tall guy at the left end of the line. The kite I'm flying (borrowed, because it was a vented kite day and I don't have a vented kite) is almost in position in this shot, in the lower left corner of the pyramid.

Surprisingly, I wasn't all that nervous. I'm not that confident in my skills. I think was was just so focused on trying to keep the kite in the right place that my brain didn't have time to think about being nervous!

Thanks Mark. I didn't know IKE cards exist! Yeah, there seemed to be a lot of bystanders who were pleased by all the kites IKE put up Saturday. I heard a member say that someone had seen us at the beach last year and made a point to return to see us again.

After officially joining the dark side with the gift certificate I won here last winter, I had my first chance last weekend to fly in formation with a group of other (much more experienced) Rev. fliers. What a blast! I was kite number 10 of a 10-kite flight at the third-annual Illinois Kite Enthusiasts' weekend retreat. We did some follow-the-leader and a couple of static formations. I had more trouble than anyone else staying in position, but part of the time I did OK. The other fliers were very gracious and encouraging and I got a great deal out of the experience, which is why I'm writing. If you're a novice (like me) or future Rev. flier, take heed: If a group of experienced fliers invites you to fly with them, do not hesitate! Don't worry about whether you're good enough. They've been watching you fly and know what they're getting themselves into. Do realize that group flying can help improve your precision more than solo flying. This is especially true with speed control. Flying solo, it's really hard to know how well you're really controlling your speed. In a group, you know exactly how good your speed control is! And these training benefits, I suspect, are big part of what prompted the experienced fliers to invite the novice in. They knew what it would do for my flying, because they've been there. If you haven't had a chance to fly with a group yet, I recommend that during your solo flying, you work on holding hovers more than just zipping around the sky. Then, fly horizontal figures 8, slowly, without allowing your kite to speed up on the descents or slow down on the climbs. This is particularly difficult to judge when flying alone, but work on it anyway. Then, find some experienced people to fly with. I'm lucky that the IKE retreat happens only a couple of hours from home, but there are plenty of other kite clubs around the country who have fun flies, so find one. Believe me, you'll get a lot out of it!

LOL. How did I miss that!

Michael: I'm not familiar with that kite. If no one else knows what line is appropriate for the kite, the manufacturer is still in business. They don't make kites any more, but they're well known for their line! http://shantikites.com/contact-us/ Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Best way to start is to post the make and model of your kite. Someone here will know what weights of line are appropriate for that kite.

Lee Sedgwick mentions flying to music in his recent Kitelife interview:

Lovely wife and I have been meaning to get to the island and have never gotten around to it. Will definitely take kites if we go!

Jeez, Jynx, if you make my head any bigger, I won't be able to get out of the house to announce another festival! (But thanks for the appreciation ... I appreciate it. Hope to see you at another event soon).

The announcer dude at 00:57 is yours truly. http://youtu.be/hWRIYfP0ZFA

Peggy and I would love to see this. Unfortunately, the festival falls on the first week of classes at the college where she teaches. It's hard enough for professors to get personal time off when classes are in session, but imagine trying to do that the first week of classes!

Has anyone participated in the event described at the URL below? It appears to be a "One Sky One World"-type event to commemorate the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. http://flykite.web.fc2.com/index_en.html