SHBKF

Bought a Blast last December from a kite store. It was kite only but included an extra set of leading edge tubes, black race rods. Tried them once so far but the kite seemed quite flexy. I have other Revs to fly in lighter wind so it's kind of a curiosity for me. Too bad it's not just a little longer I would put it in my Sedgwick. The bridle with tuning options was new to me also. Seems like I fly the Power Blast 2-4 more, but that's just my hunger for the feeling the wind.

July 1st is the perfect day, a retirement gift for a solo hill billie kite flailer. SHBKF Yes, just send em on.

PM sent on PBSK Bad Boy UL. Already have a Shadow. It's a great addition to any collection.

Livin the KiteLife in the mountains of Virginia here. Valley floor at 2,460 feet with a mountain rising to 5,726 nearby. Lots of trees live here too. Confusing gusty intermittent winds are the rule. Best flying conditions are fall & winter. But the force has become strong & I persist in my flailing efforts. Skills have picked up about as fast as can be hoped for especially since I work two jobs. I relate to the comments of all. Just returned from a nine day visit to my closest beach, 340 miles distant. Also home of my "local kite store". Flew over twenty different kites while camped on the shore. Wind blew night & day with the only lulls coming during rainstorms. Flew all my high wind kites & was glad I had them. Wished for a light wind day so I could fly the Zen but it did not come. Flew SUL kites while in parking lots during shopping conditions. It all seemed too easy somehow. Thank you inland winds, you're a tough master but the lessons paid off.

You might want to read about Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene fibers. Spectra & Dyneema are made of this material. Many items have been made of these fibers. I have backpacks made of this material. There are even some excellent tapes made of UHMW polyethylene that can be used in kite repair. Manufacturing variables allow for line to have different applications. Fiber winding, weaving, coatings, thickness, fusing & other techniques change its characteristics & applications. I was surprised at the cost of lines when I first got interested in high performance kites. I had just spent half a week's pay on a nice kite & had to spend nearly as much on lines, a winder & handles. That was in the mid-eighties. Just pick out an expensive set of the ones mentioned above. Start with an average length & weight for the particular kite you buy. That's the ones you'll actually need. The better the connection to the kite the better you will be able to fly. Looked at the ad just now, no length listed, does not look like much line on the winder.

All the above answers from the Masters of the Winds is why I love KiteLife so much. The help & encouragement I have received is tremendous. Thank you all.

A broken SLE, now that's impressive! Fly em till they're rags & sticks is what I say.

Well now I am humbled by reality and a 19 mph wind blowing all evening. I am sitting here at the beach with all four of them dang blast kites in the basement of the RV & the wind is honkin. If the wind doesn't let up a bit I won't have the nerve to fly anything but the 1.5B mid vent. Flew the five stack of Microns in 12 mph last night & the people all loved em, But a stack of blasts or even a PB 2-4 is not looking too likely right now. Edit: Second day of high wind here in Surfside Beach, South Carolina. Glad I had the the classic Prism Alien to fly. Even the vented dualies were pulling too hard today. The Alien seems to need lots of wind to fly at all. A good reason to have some alternative kites even if you don't get to fly them too often they can save the day when you finally get to the beach. Big storm rolled through late this afternoon. Sent the lawn chair tumbling but the foam noodles stayed bungeed to the chair so it didn't leave the campsite.

Just returned from the first flight of my recently acquired Quantum Pro Variable Vented in 19 mph wind at Surfside Beach South Carolina. It was the only kite flying this evening & one of the few dualies that would I would have enough confidence in to attempt to fly in a steady beach wind of that strength. I had all four vents wide open. The trailing edge was humming & the lines were whining. Was also pulling a new 3" x 75' Prism tube tail for the first time. Wind was blowing out of the South straight up the beach at high tide. The very narrow beach meant I had to land straight down wind. Because of the precision on the full size kite I was able to come in low across the waves, attempt a snap stall, run at the kite & land it. I had been in the sky for about thirty minutes & was concerned that I could not land it with no way to fly off to the side & stall it. A lesser kite would not have made such a nice approach & landing with a flier of my limited ability. What a kite! Thank you Rob.

Ahhh! Livin the KiteLife!

Had a few hours this afternoon. Headed to a underdeveloped subdivision that I fly at not too far from home. Wind forecast was for light and variable winds. Not encouraging but I had a chance to fly. Took some big Revs, some dualies & of course some light wind kites. Well the Zero G saved the day, again. It is a great feeling to have the ZG with me knowing that if even the little 4D won't fly the ZG will be happy to float around.

PM sent on Nebula set, they're mine! Well, hope so anyway.

Great pictures again by the glider guys. I can see I am really missing out especially when I see the indoor flight pictures. Only had the nerve to fly at work a few times & that was in the parking lots when no one was around. The office flying has got to be an ultimate statement of commitment to kites & their fun. Rock on, Rock on!

I am not highly experienced but I am not surprised. There is a lot to be said for time on the lines. All kites that you fly teach you a bit more about the wind. I would say you flew better because you are more one with the wind. I don't have a great deal of natural ability & each improvement is hard won. But I have come a long way thus far & each flight of each kite has added to my experience. Just fly something any time you can.

As the Spring winds continue I find myself looking forward to some calm evenings during May, I must be getting eccentric. Plan on gliding right along with you. Twilight morning here now, birds chirping & dead calm. Guess that dang wind will start blowing soon.

Wind is roaring this morning, flood watch, storm watch, wind chimes in trouble. Time to buy 0.18 mm line on the way to work for no wind gliding. That should equalize the ironic wind factor. Love my light wind/no wind kites. They allow me to fly in the evening calm after the winds blow all day while I am working. I am starting to really connect with my little Zero G after enough time in the air & some help from my friends in KiteLife. Thank you Western Australian! Keep em in the air.

Never gave this topic much thought, you know, Know Eye Deer. So today I was asked to fly with a three year old who had received a small kite for his birthday. It was a no wind day. Small field of a back yard was pretty much glider only. So flew the Zero G, no handle of course. The new kite for the young man was a round flat lady bug on a wand. Kid power worked well for the youngster. I also got to try my first wand flying. Did some pretty cool figure eights that impressed the five year old girl that was present. Then we climbed the steps & tossed both kites into glides for a bit. As I walked around the house I found a little bit of a wind tunnel between houses. Got out the 4D & the shortest line set which did not have straps attached. I thought hmmm, who needs handles? The 18' lines had nice soft sleeves that made great mini handles for the light pulling kite. It had a great feel that way. In fact I am now going to remove the finger straps from the other line set in that kite's case. Who'd a thunk it?

That looks great & nice granite too.

I have repaired my 4D nose twice. The first time was a quick few stitches to get flying again & the second was after a few more encounters with asphalt in various mall parking lots. I will describe the second repair which has held up for quite some time now. Maybe I am a little easier on my kite now too. It is probably my most flown dualie. First I had to decide that it did not matter what it looked like as I am not a seamstress it just needed to be practical. The nose is very light material & easy to pierce with a medium size sewing needle. I used a thimble to force it through the layers. I threaded my needle with black polyester thread that happened to be in the sewing basket. It was a common weight like you would use to sew on a button. If you don't have black just use a black Sharpie to color it when you're done sewing. I used the thread doubled to get twice as much thread with each stitch. After removing the spine I sewed the hole closed with little looping stitches through the single layer leaving the pocket open in it's original shape as best I could. Then I started adding stitches through whole nose to build up the fabric. I added some mass to the nose but probably no more than had been rubbed off. Before I put the spine back into the pocket I put an extra vinyl end cap on it to make it larger. That way it would not be so likely to poke through so easily again. After my sewing was done I then painted the nose with black Plasti Dip to further reinforce the fabric & new threads. This is what I came up with. It is not professional or clever but it worked. From the end of the lines it looks perfect. I have since done a much more extensive repair on a used HQ Shadow & a Wala. There are some real experts on this forum who undoubtedly have much more experience & sound advice. Here's a picture of the repaired nose on the HQ Shadow. The spine tip came through on this one too. Also shown is a trailing edge repair to the the Shadow using exotic ultra high molecular weight polyethylene tape. Tape & Plasti Dip can be ordered from McMaster Carr. They also have a huge selection of vinyl end caps.

I received a dual set of Blueberry lines as a gift from a kind vendor after a purchase of several kites. I like having older equipment as it pleases me to enjoy the heritage of our KiteLife. The lines fly just fine & it amuses me when my hand is slightly blue after winding up the lines. It's all good when you love kites. edit: Did not even realize it was Berry Blue, Know Eye Deer & so on...

Very interesting topic to read. I fly solo out in the sticks (SHBKF) where there are very few spectators. People at work the next day will say they heard someone was flying a kite & figured it must have been me. Had a few people park their cars to watch but only one ever spoke with me, "Can you keep it in the air so I can get a picture?" she said. I was trying to do some slack line trick practice. Looked like crashing to her & she was correct no doubt. My dad once said wasn't the point to get the kite up high? But the little kids get it, you can tell by the smiles. Keep em in the air, Solo Hill Billie Kite Flailer

Missed it twice, not my Karma again, but no problem, fly it with a big smile on a day the wind is honkin. Best wishes

Welcome to KiteLife, it's a great place to exchange thoughts about any kites you're interested in. I too am new to the Dark Side. Even sixteen months in I still have much to learn but the journey is what I always enjoy. Join us in the chat room. We'd love to hear from you.

This is my story of my first serious kite. There is a good chance I'll be corrected on some of this. And I am reaching back through thirty years of memories too. In the eighties I walked into a little store called Kitty Hawk Kites to buy my first high dollar kite. In those days I was making $4.50 an hour in food service & did not have a big budget. After a bit of time the helpful sales guy saw me eyeing the two line stunt kites hanging from the ceiling. Not knowing much, Know Eye Deer, I asked many questions. But really I was shopping to a price point, less than a hundred bucks. I settled on a kite that was a bit smaller because it seemed like kites were sort of priced like pizzas, larger was more. The salesman said that I had picked out a three quarter sail, a 72" wide delta. The full sail was 96" wide & cost was over my budget. He said I should be able to fly it with no problems. I made the purchase of $79.99 plus tax & was no doubt beaming ear to ear. As I turned to leave he said, "You're going to need some lines too, aren't you?" My smile faded as I knew I was not trading down on the new kite & now was faced with more cost. My first encounter with the cost of quality lines stripped me of all available cash. Shanti Skybond Kevlar lines, a spare spool of line, Sky Claw handles & winder were what I bought. I overspent the budget by 50%, a trend that would continue to this day. So what's this have to do with why I fly kites? The first day was monumental. So we're at the Outer Banks of North Carolina, probably one of the best places in the world to fly a kite. We have a small pamphlet that tells how to fly our new kite. No one to advise us plus we were the do it your self people anyway. The beach was wide, the sand was soft & the wind was honkin along, at least twenty out of the North. I assessed it as a good day to fly the new kite & I was eager to get it in the air. Unwound the standard length 150' line set & had my wife hold the kite while I took hold of the handles. Launching from the ground was going to wait until I got in a flight or two. Ground stake, never heard of that either. So my wife bravely holds the kite & gives it an upward toss stepping back at the same time. Up I go about ten feet & 180 back into the sand, over & over. Hmmm, a bit trickier than I was expecting. Finally she says, "Maybe I can do it." Well she did on about the third try. To this day she claims she taught me how to fly kites. She flew around in the strong wind laughing & scudding down the beach. She figured out that flying to the side of the window reduced the pull & finally handed off the lines to me when the kite was up high. I was flying. After several, well many crashes, we had started to get the hang of it. We left some long furrows in the beach that day when we got used to the power of the 3/4 sail. I did not know I should have started on a lighter wind day. The kite survived & is still flown from time to time. Except now it's with a little tear in my eye. Kites can give you so much.

I must say those are some impressive numbers. Guess you've been flying for a bit longer than me. I really think your user name is a great one. It's kind of Old Testament. "And the Hyzakites dwelt in the land of good winds blessed by great prosperity for many generations."