makatakam

The leaders will move less and therefore take longer to wear out if you secure them to the screw using a clove hitch. Also not as bulky as the larkshead.

You don't have to take them off. Just turn them around.

You should buy her a Ferrari, or maybe a Lambo.

The wind that you see on weather reports is normally measured at 10 meters, roughly 33 feet. When presented as a speed and not a range the high end is what's being reported to accommodate transport, construction and other industries.

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

I remember it well. 😂

They do, but not enough to worry about. It's the frames that suffer more from being "frozen". Letting a wet sail freeze is not as bad as it sounds. I've done it without dire consequences, but it can damage the sail material if the circumstances are "perfect". Usually if you don't make hard contact with the ground or other things in cold weather, you'll be fine. A little caution goes a long way.

Full vent -- sure, no problem. Midvent would work too. How steady the wind is would the deciding factor. You fly the lower of the shifts. Fifteen would be uncomfortable with a standard sail. I would definitely want vented. Safe would be what you make it. Safe for the kite, and safe for the people near it are both important. The kite can be repaired easily and at lower cost.

The newer models, like the Djinn, have improvements to the panel design, bridle and other features than have over time been shown to improve performance, as well as improvements/reinforecements that have been shown to reduce wear. Many of the original and older designs have not yet begun to put these improvements into their kites. The less expensive kites are known to have panels designed to look good instead of performing well, lower grade materials, inconsistent sewing and poor quality construction overall. Ask Edmond about the first quad kite he ever owned. He got a really good price, but not much else. The less expensive kites may also have lower weave density lines which will bind more quickly in less spins. You get what you pay for. Your VW Beetle will not perform like a Mustang, and the Mustang will not perform like a Ferrari. The problem is when you pay for less than a Mustang and get much less than a Beetle.

It's possible that someone NEW at Premier Kites unwound line by rolling it off the spool and for some reason did not need the line unwound so wound the line back onto the spool with the winding "crank" motion which puts a half-twist in the line with each wind. The rest you can figure out. Came back from lunch or the next day and unwound it by rolling it to make a line and no one noticed. Untwist and equalize and you'll be fine. The line was probably half of a foot longer which made the kite fly wonky, and a full foot after you unwound it -- even wonkier. Putting 30 or 40 twists in a line can shorten it by a foot, or close to it, assuming you exaggerated just a "touch". Spectra line is braided so strands cross in opposite directions. You can get all the twists out by staking down the lines at one end with nothing attached at the other end, and walking them down to the loose end from the stake between your fingers with a bit of pressure one at a time, doing each two or maybe three times. And yes, you can see the twists by sighting down the line. A couple or six is nothing to worry about. More than that may affect flight. This is exactly the kind of question that should be asked on this forum. This is how the knowledge base expands. Any question you have, one or more of us has asked when we were just starting, so fire away.

Sanity is in. They make these things called parafoils . . . . So, I was sitting in my car, flying my kite out the partly open window, when a surprised-looking squirrel came by and said, "I'm sorry, I thought you were nuts."

I don't know if you checked the prices of spectra line, but buying bulk and making your own line sets will save you nearly 50% of the cost. Buying a finished set costs roughly $1/foot. If you have some dead time to kill it's worth the effort to make your own. Sleeving is an option that can be used at either or both ends, and it does reduce wear on the kite bridle and handle leaders. Do not buy the spectra line used for fishing. It has a different weave and binds much more easily. There is one brand out there that some have said works, but I have not tried it. The ones I did try were horrid. Most kite shops, both online and brick and mortar, carry bulk spectra in either Laser Pro Gold or Shanti Skybond, or can order it for you.

You can close the space by folding the part of the edge below the seam over and running a stitch down the length of the trailing edge. Sand can't get into a space that doesn't exist. Of course the more sand you can remove before running the additional seam the better.

Definitely get some 120' lines if you ever plan to fly with others. This is the default length for team flying. The relatively long length allows for more time to react and gives you a large window in which to play. However, it also increases the amount of time you must wait for the kite to react after you give it an input. Any length from 65' to 80' is fine for learning. Just remember that the shorter the line, the faster things happen. If you are having problems longer lines will slow things down to a manageable speed. You absolutely MUST replace the factory leaders and begin using additional brake -- let the top lines further out -- to allow the kite to fly to its full potential and maintain control in stronger winds and unexpected gusts. You won't like the feel at first, but you'll get used to it in a few sessions. After that you won't fly without the additional brake ever again. Remember that this kind of kite is about control and not so much speed as I'm sure you've seen in the videos. Zip around all you want for fun, but also practice slow, methodical control. If you master it slow, then you can do it at any speed. Don't worry about sizes and springs until you can fly for a couple of hours at least without crashing at all, meaning no unintentional contact with the ground or other objects. Be selective about the wind in which you fly. Flying in bad wind when learning will only teach you how frustrating it is to fly in bad wind when you are still learning to control the kite. Check lines for equal length. A difference of more than about 3/8" will begin to give the kite a mind of its own. It will steer you around the sky instead of you doing the steering. Most of all smile, have fun and don't forget to breathe.

Best to keep it simple until you get the hang of it. No point making changes if you can't tell the difference. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Also available are replacement bridles for the Djinn, the quad that JB is making. The bridle for this model of quad has a design change from the original Rev bridle that improves some flight characteristics and makes certain tricks and maneuvers easier. It also fits the 1.5 size Revs just like the original. It may be worth a try to see how you like it. As far as being a fix for beginner blues -- forget it. There's no such thing. You'll get better and have less issues each time you fly, so just hang in there. It will come. We all went through the same stages. Just smile and keep going. After all, you're just flying a kite. Relax. Have fun. Pretty soon you'll be flying well and you won't even know when it happened. Keep watching the tutorials. Rinse. Repeat. Repeat until you're sick of them. Every word you hear, every move you see is Gospel. Tried, tested and proven. You can acquire your own style once you're comfy with the kite.

The sand grains came in through the leading edge air intakes, fell towards the trailing edge when the kite was upright and worked their way between the stitches into the trailing edge seam. Just reverse the process. It will be long and tedious and you must be careful not to apply too much pressure and movement since sand is what sandpaper is made of, and we know what that will do to sail material and thread.

Yeah, those holes may or may not be intentional. If they are intentional it is for the purpose of letting some wind pass through the kite which allows flying it in higher winds by reduced some pressure. However, that's some really sub-standard stitching. Kindergarten level. You will notice they are evenly spaced across the trailing edge, so they may be intentional. You can use slit vinyl tubing to close/open them to match wind conditions. I don't think they are the reason the kite flies to the right. It's probably a sewing/symmetry issue judging by the stitching quality. Begin shortening the left side in small increments, testing after each change. That's why I recommended slip knots. They can be easily tied and untied on the flying field. As I have mentioned, should you get tired of screwing around with it, just find a kite store in the US, either brick and mortar or online and buy something better quality. A brick and mortar store is always your best bet. But if you play with it enough to make it fly correctly you will acquire a great deal of knowledge about how to adjust any kite to correct unwanted effects. It's fun to experiment with what makes things work sometimes, especially if it helps you do it better. Have fun with it. Don't turn it into a job.

Hi, Lon, and welcome to the forum.

Not really -- you want to shorten the line in any manner that can easily be reversed. Google "slip knot". You can use any method you can think of to temporary shorten the line in small increments that won't undo itself under tension.

Don't be afraid of taking it outside and using longer lines. It's not what it was built for but will handle some wind easily. If you get hit by a gust just let go of one or both handles. But you have to stay ready and anticipate the gust constantly, so don't wrap the handles around your wrists. Hold them in a manner that will allow you to drop them in a hurry.

Check that the bridle lines on the left are the same length as on the right in respective position. Outer edge left same as outer edged right. One in from edge left same as one in from edge right, etc. The kite will tend to turn towards the side with the shorter bridle length. If every segment is equal, then there must be an inequality in the surface area of the sail. You can't fix that unless you take it all apart and sew it back together, which isn't worth the effort on a kite that cost so little, but there is another way to even things out. Since the kite tends to turn in the direction of the side with the shorter bridle, you shorten the bridle on the side opposite of the direction in which it turns. You can tie slip knots with a stopper in the part of the bridle that comes to the center attachment point one at a time until it flies straight, then measure how much shorter you've made the bridle line on that side and shorten it that much to make the change permanent. You can also change the angle of attack by shortening the front length of the "Y" on each side of the bridle in quarter-inch increments. This will force the kite to fly higher and flatter and will reduce its tendency to turn. If none of this helps just go out and buy a kite that isn't a cheap Chinese knock-off piece of sh*t.

Surface wind is the wind blowing near the Earth's surface. It is measured by an anemometer (speed) or wind vane (wind direction) at a standard height of 10 meters above ground in an area where the distance between the instrument and any obstruction is at least 10 times the height of the obstruction. This is the standard currently being used by most reporting agencies. That's where the wind speeds you see on weather apps are measured. So if 33 feet up the wind speed is 10mph at 10 feet up it will be close to the same if there is enough unobstructed ground around, meaning no buildings, trees, etc. At ground level it will be 10-25% less depending on terrain type, gradient and type of ground cover. If you have an indoor or zero-wind kite wind speed doesn't matter. You just go and fly the kite that matches the conditions. That's why we end up with so many kites.

You should just Google "figure 8 tie off" and watch the videos. There's a few different ways to do it.

The pattern shown is straight, but it is a computer-generated illustration. It is a flat drawing as opposed to a cutting pattern. The pattern for the build does have a curved leading edge. P.S. -- I'm not sure if you guys are talking about the banana kite or the drawing I posted. I'm talking about my drawing, but it looks to me like Wayne is referring to the banana and Zuul is talking about my drawing. Hard to tell and confusing.