Paul LaMasters

bad weather is surely the angst of a only poorly equipped kite flier! The 2 pauls will be there for Blue Ridge Friday morning, certainly before noon and it doesn't matter what mother nature does (except electrical storms) we will still fly and have fun. 6 or 8 Dunton/Taylors flown from under the umbrella one year. No wind and SULs are the norm every time as it's a bowl-type/field, but a big one, maybe 900 feet on a side. We will see some of you there it sounds like, excellent!

So that is your last name Holder, Sa Bom Nim (Korean term for a Master Instructor) Hi Nigel!

Alice, Acquire or make your own "travel frame" and then everything fits into a backpack easily. A travel frame is automatically stronger and less flexible. So Diamonds become like Race, race becomes like 3 wraps and 3 wraps become like 4's. While you are down at the Shook Palace ask Eliot for the Skyshark alternatives, he can make 'em while you watch and drink their coffee! Take the frame(s) and roll a couple of sails around it, seal with velcro and the pkg can go along even when kites aren't going (wink, wink) You never know when you might have a spare hour or two to go fly. Take some short lines too, so you'll always have enough room regardless of location. Cramped & swirly wind locations are another opportunity to challenge yourself. Heck everyone looks good in a steady breeze on the beach! Practice in poor locations and really shine when conditions stink and others are waiting or complaining. ENJOY!

I'm so lazy, I have lines of different lengths on different handle sizes. I seldom will switch-out between handles. I tune the lines and leaders against a single stake, by sighting down the lines when tensioned, and slowly giving slack, the longer line will "show itself". I tune with the handles in my opposite hand. None of my lines or leaders are equal against themselves, only at the end of the strings does it matter, neutral is neutral! Using two leader line strands (Hi test bridle line 100#), but knots only on one of them, super close together too, so I can make little tiny adjustments. Say they are 3/8 of an inch apart, oh all my adjustments take place on the bottom leaders. I don't use sleeving and to catch the kite easily, the further out there you can reach the more dramatic of an impact you can have on it. So my top leaders aren't adjusted or only by 3/8" of an inch once. The leader reaches all the way across the gap of the handles from top to bottom. Longer handles, longer leaders. With the leader line that's not containing any knots you can quickly place one between the 3/8" gap, if necessary. Bridle lie ties and unties easily! I wind the lines onto the handles and carry 6-8 sets in a backpack. Last week I replaced almost every set with new Skybond (except for a set of 170#/120s), 50#/135', 50#/120', 50#/100', 100#/100', 100#/120' (long throw) 100#/120 (short throw), You know my old set of 50#/fifty feet was fine and those darn things broke when I was faced-off against Fletch in Hot Tricks @ NCBKite fest for the finals championship. Suddenly I have 3 strings functioning only and my extra kite is way across the field. You can't beat him like that!!!! So check you lines and replace 'em as necessary. Buy long sets and when they get ragged cut them down to short and short lengths. You won't be wrapping many turns on 30 footers. YES, I've noticed too, I don't do very much they way other fliers do it

We can still get a Shook mesh though, thank GOD!

Ha, I use my 3 Zens until most folks have switched over to mid-vents. Mine isn't squirrelly at all to double digits wind speed, in fact it simply superior until I need to put it away. I run magic sticks and a French bridle so it's reinforced like the wings of bi-plane, with struts and strings everywhere! Rev won't make more diamond frames for the Rev1 size. I had to return 26 Diamond Zen tubes last year because they were made the wrong size. Factory said they were going in a new direction so they sent me a Reflex instead of a refund. I need a new solution as I do break sticks in these wings and so do my hard flailin' friends. That significant pull is what folks can latch onto when learning how a quad actually works though, immediate gratification too as it is instantly powered up, even from dramatic slack lining.

The solution is simple, make smaller panels and control where you want the stretching to take place by angling the pieces differently. Icarex is the perfect fabric for kite building until it has catastrophic failure, nylon stretches when wet (I seen Lam Hoac wet his kites down before competition begins to get it slowed down more, heavier even). Dave Ashworth makes indoor kites out of Orcon. It is the worst crap, it sticks to itself when rolled up, it tears like a bag of potato chips, it can't be sewn (those are just perforations for the tear to follow), it can't even take a tight sharp corner. It has to be bonded (taped together with 3M's product #9460). Any stress areas must be icarex and some patches will have to be dacron (those items can be sewn) for further strength. So why use this material at all? Because for his purposes it is LIGHT WEIGHT, like the finished kite is 50% the wt of an indoor Rev. On the other side? Ron Gibian made a custom Rev that my bride acquired for my 50th b'day. It is a tarp, the most magnificient example of design and craftsmanship you have ever seen, but lots of it is 4 thicknesses of material. Lots of it isn't back-cut either. Who uses black on both the front and the back, separately on a sail? A kite builder who's not a quad-head that's who. I give lessons on that kite 'cause it built like brick shite-house, but cringe when folks ask how much ($950 ouch) and never answer or they get all panic stricken and no longer enjoy the experience. Run a reinforcing strip down behind any long areas you want to control the stretching/ maintaining the shape, like Eliot Shook does on his signature weave kites, or Alden Miller's "Vicki", it's a thong sail, but it still has a shape to be maintained for flight stability

Oh, today is the 4th! next time, -plm

I'm "in" I'm interested in the Rev1 two wraps size,... I've never tried 'em in my Zen. I'd probably cut down to a travel frame size and mix with diamonds/or 3 wraps for a hybrid solution (that fits into the Orvis case used as a kite bag)

most all of the omni-directional quads fly best with a straight or symmetrical handle arrangement. The X-wing came with almost wooden "paddles", marline-grade plywood, drilled out holes to lighten and shaped/curved away sort of cross-bow styled if you laid 'em down on the ground, easily 18 inches across. The Windfire Plasma Flame came with a straight and 3/8" diameter thin walled aluminum tube set of handles, less than 12 inches long. Ashworth's butterfly bowtie used Rev handles, but only because the graphics were very much a part of the overall concept and it looks better that way, upright. none of these kite will side-slide like a revolution styled wing, but none of 'em are 2 dimensional either!

make a kite of Icarex polycarbonate 31 for no/low wind, use the tape bonding method and explore new techniques, orcon substrate is next (for indoors) and that material cannot be sewn

Ha, My first quad was a Backtracker too. Oh man how I struggled with that thing, two full years before I knew you could even ADJUST it! I still fly mine occasionally, now I can do a bunch of tricks, including throw and catch on it My final exam of Quads for a PhD was a 6-pck stack of baby revs, bumblebees on speed, 36 inch leading edge (built by Dugard). Needs big wind (25 or 30mph to generate any flight) but are super fun when the coast guard won't go out of the harbor due to Hurricane forces.

it's not snow flying, but it was darn cold,... two tons of fun as well!

ENVY on that indoor location Wayne!

I fly in crap weather and kites are made for me to be abused, yesterday started with snowy rain, but the afternoon was windy and almost 50 degrees. john will enjoy blue ridge, it challenging, flying in bowl, but spectators make it worthwhile. Definitely an SUL location

polyester thread too, (never cotton),... and a thread stand will also help smooth everything out on the finished product, lasting for years! Practice until the stitching falls into the middle of the sewn piece from both sides. don't discount the strength of 3M's 9460 bonding tape either, it doesn't have to be sewn to be super-strong. This adhesive is made to bond two pieces of metal together, the fabric next to the seam will fail before the bonding ever does.

Nat'l Air & Space Museum indoor invitational is the 25th of March. Cherry Blossom KiteFest is April 1st on the mall grounds/Washington Monument, free,.... 3 activity fields and plenty of open spaces surrounding them MIKE/Maske is in April (but you probably do the Virginia Beach gig instead, as it's the same time & closer), Wildwood is the end of May, also Kurtiss Jones is running a new gig up at Liberty State Park over Memorial Day weekend, ODSKC is usually around the 3rd weekend in June if we don't see each other sooner. Good luck with the mission.

Please make an SUL sleeve, ... you don't need any more weight on that sail! There's also currently no solid center/middle section to push against, so a higher level of wind will need to be achieved before it is flight worthy. Ground launching (if the sail were to fall flat entirely) will be more difficult too. (like trying to dead-launch a "Vicki" model) Enjoy the experimenting and maybe we'l see one of these fly in Roanoke/Salem's blue ridge kitefest next month?

okay here's how you can practice, straight lines are easy peazy. buy some ripstop nylon in a inch width (or so bigger is easier but looks less professional) from someone like Phil Broder. It comes in all different colors but most folks use black as it buries and hides any flaws and makes a great contrast in the sky too. Pinch it in half and pull it against a stiff edge of a table glass top or the straight edged molding, so it's scored and folded TIGHTLY. Now you have to fold the two halves into the center at the tightly scored and folded edge from each side so the fabric is 4 thicknesses in the middle. You place that edge scored edge against the edge of the sail and you sew it on the better you fit it the more likely you are to capture all the pieces and make t look professional. Why am I stressing tightly against the leading edge?,... 'cause someday my friend, you're going to want to edge bind a curved surface. Oh now you're in trouble,... you have to stretch that edge binding to add a curvature as you struggle to hold it in place. Maybe you "hot tack" and chase the melted holes welding everything together with your sewing needle to hide those some holes (they'd better be super tiny too or you'll see 'em when back-lit. Or you could use painters tape and peel it up just before entering the jaws of the sewing machine. whatever works for you. Binding a straight edge is EASY but practice until you make it look perfect Trailing edge? Two rows of straight stitches are how you make it slice thru the wind in reverse, (also stronger like a parachute is built.) Most folks use a triple stitch zig-zag as it's easier to do. look at how Bazzer's efforts appear, it's done the best way possible and it flies like it too! You want a ribbon of material so it violates the wind in reverse flight, not just passing thru. Want to try a leach line? Now is the time to install it. It fits inside the center of the edge binding and make sure you don't sew it down either! It has to be allowed to be tightened or loosened to test the effects of flight. If you leave a tiny gap between the stitches and the center of your edge binding you could thread a micro carbon rod into the passageway to see how that effects flight. If you leading edge sleeve is composed of tabs instead of a solid sleeve all the way across you can experiment with the placement of the down spars and the angles, or even the lengths. Speaking of spars,...why would you want ANY stick showing beyond the sail? That is more surface area that could be used for flight. End the stick at the bottom or edges of the sail. a TIGHT sail has better performance, so use the best materials you can afford for it. P-31 Icarex from Tennepols or Cuban .4 ounce if you want a no wind/indoor monster. Nylon is okay if you are painting the sail or adding shadow details with an airbrush. Otherwise it stretches and gains water weight when wet, forget about it and stick with polyester. Think about your reinforcing patches, here's what my friend Dave Ashworth does,.. he builds a kite with tyvek (use fedex envelopes cut up if you want to save funds) and wooden dowels. He flies and it explodes but it shows him all the areas to beef up. Don't make a half saved prototype as all the framing must be multipled by 4 instead of simply doubled. About nothing is as rewarding as making your own kite and folks hearing the "men can sew". The experimenting is priceless knowledge unobtainable w/o you doing the work, maybe you get lucky and do a co-op with some friends and everyone grows faster as more variables can be compared to guide your design direction. After all, if you are building your own kite and putting all this love into it, don't you have expectations of increased performance too? Well experimenting can give you one of those objectives in spades and cheat the rest of your kite flying hand by denying something else. Want a perfect flick-flak, executed on the ground, no less?,... are you willing to give up an axel to gain that performance? What if I offered you a fantastic "falling leaf" but you no longer can throw and catch the kite? Want that still? (that is the difference between Bazzer's Phoenix and the B-series pro ~ it comes down to having the leading edge WRAP over the knots and form a curvature like on the Speed Series of kites vs. a rigid structure securing the end-cap BEHIND the sail. Same frame, same handles same bridle,... everything is identical except for how the end-caps and knots of elastic or lack thereof interact with the leading edge. enjoy and keep going, .... Alden Miller went home and told his wife that he'd met me and I told him he'd become a handy man kite builder. His designs are now offered by Revolution as Masterpieces. He doesn't fly like he can build a kite. Oh how he and the misses howled about my future cast that first day!

Edge binding is just not your thing?

2 six packs of Ames baby ryvs(42 inch leading edge), 1 six pack of Dugards baby really high wind revs Gibian masterpiece, w/Shook's custom Mylar SUL leading edge sleeve 5 Shook mesh masterpiece kites, a 40%, a 135% & 100% and two 70%'s 2 bazzer pro b-series customs, midvent and SUL bazzer's sizzle and old glory masterpiece kites, both built as SULs Bazzer's Phoenix ash,... a stock one off the shelf! B-2 steve Polansky's rainbow feather 1.5 original reflex rev indoor ashworths orcon indoor kites,( tirips, blast, 1.5) 3 Bazzer custom zen SULs supersonic

micro-carbon "fingers" like a bat's wing, you could try a "leach line" in the trailing edge to force an alteration into the airstream, it won't flatten out fully no matter what you do! even vents with velcro covers over them too, so you could open or close off more air passage thru the sail you might run the leach line thru or next to the leading edge tube, so you can pre-stress or pre-curve it somewhat. That cups air pressure but diminishes tracking (life is full of choices) no way you'll break that frame w/o impacts involved enjoy the experience of testing and tuning

one person's twitchy is another's responsive. A flexible frame requires a longish bridle so pilot commands don't distort the frame,... for example I fly in indoor kite about 3 x 9 feet, the frame is mostly point 125 carbon tubes. They bend just from gravity, imagine a hard command, you could probably break a stick if there's no bridle at all! I stiffened hard frame could be flown without a bridle at all. Jeffery Burka flies a rev2 like this & UPWIND too. if you want some smoothness built-into the bridle, examine how the bridle on a 1.5 can be wiggled at the center attachment point and also how the hinges connect on the separate pieces. All those wiggle points are why folks do the Whump,.. they are pre-loading the bridle for more instant response on command. You can put the smoothness in or you can take it out thru bridle fabrication and experiments. These tests are a lot easier with a partner helping out. Someone to stand directly underneath the kite and see how the bridle legs are tightened or loosened by flight. What happens if you move the positioning or change the overall length of the bridle legs slightly? Test one variable at a time, so you can control an expected outcome, take copious notes and work on the "feel" of your endeavors -plm

Shook 135%, green race travel frame, 170# sky bond, 13 inch no-snag handles (only if the port-potties are blowing over, then go to 4 wraps in the leading edge ~ a 3 piece is fine) keep adding "down"(reverse) into the tuning until it will fly forward ONLY if you make it do so intentionally & aggressively! only fly backwards and show how easy it is in these conditions to go slow precisely

going to edge bind before flight test?