RobB

Don't sell your Berkeley short. If you ever want to part with it, let me know. No, don't get me wrong, I really like the Berk Rev. Especially because I've never seen another with the same pattern & colors. I could see adding a String Art Rev to the collection, though... If I change my mind down the road, you've got dibs I guess !

Nice looking Nirvana, Dave. I've always wanted to fly one of those. You just don't see them on the used market much anymore...

Well, the first weekend of Kite Month is over. Even though we had a dreary day, my family went out to have our annual Easter Kite Fly. The winds swirled around (a full 360* wind shift while we were there) and ranged from nothing to over 20mph. A little rain and a lot of grey... Only one Ghost Delta came out to fly today, it's the first time that I've seen this kite unhappy with the winds... My daughter likes flying this little kite, it doesn't pull too hard & stays stapled to the sky ! The Mesh Delta sporting a long tail to help it deal with the winds... This kite needed some air, it's been hanging in our house for over a decade and never been flown once. Had to blow the dust off, and it did its best with its neon colors to brighten the grey sky ! Off-Shore wind at this point...

Holy Cr@p, Ralph... I hope your arms are still attached ! That thing looks insane !

Dave, that's exactly how I started. After a few months of trying, I got maybe 10 feet off the ground before I panic & land. I know others here can fly one handed, it must have taken A LOT of practice !

It's not uncommon to wear through the wingtip lashing. Especially if you're landing or tip-stabbing on sand. Those little rubber caps help some, but they wear through & pop off all the time, too. Replacing the wingtip lashings is a pretty easy repair, nothing to be concerned about. I keep my kites 'long' always. I only release the wingtip lashings on the curved leading edge kites. Take a look at this post... http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/4320-should-i-be-breaking-down-the-leading-edge/

Andy Wardley's Stoked in the Park (Google that if you haven't seen them) videos were a big inspiration to me, too. When they were new and I was watching them in awe, I told myself that I really wanted to learn how to fly like that, even if it took the rest of my life ! Around that time, I picked up a Dodd Gross kite that came packaged with his Flight School video. I think I just about wore that video out, I played it so many times. It was an awesome moment in my KiteLife a few years ago, I got to hang out with him in person and fly kites with him for an afternoon. I would say I learned most of the basic tricks from his video(s). Another big influence were Mama74 flight studies videos. Search for DPmama74 on uToob... He makes it look so easy ! And of course, JB's Sea Devil promo videos convinced me that I needed to get a Sea Devil (or 3) and learn to fly like that. I think you can find that video right here in the video archives. I really watched just about every kite video I could find to see how others were flying & maybe pick up some tips for myself. I so rarely run into others that fly sport kites, videos are probably 99% of my exposure to kiting.

I don't know who declared April as Kite Month, but I'm more than happy to go along with it. Not too hot, not too cold... and plenty of wind ! The last few years have brought some great flying in April, let's hope this year follows suit. I'd like to kick this thread off with my first flight of Kite Month, April 3rd... When I got to the beach, it was a little wet & grey. Not too sure if there's going to be any flying today... Luckily, the rain & mist let up, and I was able to get a quick session in before it got too dark & the rain started up again. I've been working a little on my one-handed flying. I still get really uncomfortable if the kite gets too high up, but I can keep it off the ground for a little longer without crashing now. I'd like to invite the rest of you to post your Kite Month activities, it will be really interesting to see what you all are up to !

Wow, I love those String Art Revs ! They didn't have anything like that when I got my Berkeley. I'm such a sucker for those rainbow kites !

Thanks, Mark, I don't know about 'control', it is so easy for the SS to get away from you. The winds in this video were around 10mph. You suggestion of giving the kite complete slack sounds like a recipe for disaster with me flying. I have yet to figure out how to do any tricks with a Rev, and there's nothing worse in my book than having to untangle 4 lines. It is a ton of fun, similar to the rush of flying a Micron !

I did get a little video of the SuperSonic as well. This is the first flight, so I have to say, it's something to get used to. Never flew anything like this before... It's a really tight, stiff wing, and responds to the slightest inputs. I was flying on 80' lines, which made it seem small compared to what I'm used to flying on these lines, the Zen. Talk about polar opposites !

There's more kiting action down by you Nick... the kiting scene up North is just about dead... there hasn't been an event at Liberty State Park in a couple of years, and the Riis park festival died almost 10 years ago. I keep hoping the interest will come back.

Yes, I agree strongly, this Wind Meter will help to dial in your senses, confirm your guess, etc. Mine is always in my bag, but rarely gets used these days. I do pull it out once in a while to settle that little argument in my head... Other than using it to measure windspeed while you're flying, it's fun to find out how hard you can blow, or to hold it out the window of a moving car... or super fun to take to the beach during a bad storm. The best I ever recorded with mine was 47mph. If the wind's higher than that, the beach isn't really a good place to be ! I've heard a lot of people asking about them, but didn't realize most people actually had them. Good for the people who are 'IN', and I appologize to the rest of you Karma fans for not having a better idea this time. My meter on top of the Karma Meter... mine is about 5 years old, hard to tell even though it's had a rough life rolled up in a bag full of sand. I kept the protective plastic on the screen, I think that helped. When the battery dies, RadioShack has new ones for a couple of bucks... And... drumroll... the winner is... Congratulations, Joanna ! I know you'll use this... Enjoy !

Well... today's the day ! I'll do the drawing after work and find out who the lucky winner is. There's still time to get in...

Vimeo is good if your videos aren't too long. One advantage to Vimeo is that they don't check the videos for copyrighted music, which often gets stripped on uToob. As far as the GoPro... it's a cheap camera that does most things pretty good. The accessories could equal the price of the camera, though. A good professional photographer told me that if you have a DSLR, use that to shoot video. The videos does come out pretty good, but if you need a wide-angle lens for your DSLR, that could run more than a GoPro. I don't know anything about modern cell phones, as my cell phone is made by AARP. Yeah, a flip-phone ! I use Power Director Pro as my video editor. I got it free through work, learned it, and resist learning other software because it's just too time consuming. The PDP can do way more fancy things than I need, anyway.

Well, there's still snow on the ground (6 new inches last night), so I guess today's session qualifies in this thread still. So much for spring ? I got to fly the SuperSonic on this brisk sunny day. What a trip this kite is ! It's like it has a turbo... takes a while to spool up and then Vooom ! DON'T BLINK ! I'm surprised how stiff it is, and it oversteers like a RWD V8 muscle car in the snow ! A real handful... This one's going to take some work to get used to... Thank you, Mark, for the great Karma prize ! I flew a couple of duallies (only broke one) and kept the Ultrafoil 15 anchored nearby as a colorful windsock. Sunday Funday... it was a great warm-up for Kite Month (starts next week !)

Ahhhh.... the old-keeping-the-kite-in-the-frame conundrum ! It took me over a year of trying to keep the kite in the frame for the Virtual Freestyle contest. You need to keep the kite in the frame for the whole duration of the video (1-1.5 minutes). Yeah, that sounds easy until you try it ! I usually just toss the GoPro on the beach, somewhere near where I am flying, and hope for the best. I also like to use a monopod stuck in the sand when the sand's not too frozen, getting the camera off the ground helps it focus on the flying, not the foreground. The wide angle lens on the GP helps, but you have to fly close to the camera, otherwise the kite just gets too tiny. BTW, Bill, I like that mid-vent with the white stripe. With the background, it's hard to tell which is the vent panel and which is the solid panel.

Wow, that was freakin' cool ! It really bent my brain to figure out where & how the kites & pilots were... especially liked when they walked past the camera !

Last time I looked, there was a Firestorm for sale over at the other place... for a good price, but not that good...

Are you looking for a soft kite, or a kite with sticks ?

I adjusted my Zephyr with the AOA knots all the way towards the nose, and left the spine weight in the case. I felt that the weight made the kite fly funny. I found that the kite flew best across the wind range setup that way. Once the wind goes over 10mph, put it away and fly your Hypnotist...

I learned most of what I know from watching Martin's videos, so it figures that my movements would emulate his. I do my fair share of stumbling & flailing, mostly due to the instinctual desire to keep the kite in the air.

After thinking about it, I would say I fly the same way... if I'm flying figures, my hands go more in front of me, almost as if I'm watching them out of the corner of my eye. But when tricking, they go to a more neutral position at my sides, so I'm equally ready to throw some slack or pull back.

I give a +1 to the inner-tube rubber band solution, I've done that on certain kites (maybe under John's advice way-back-when). But I am surprised that a Benson kite would have that trouble. I don't have a Deep Space, but my Geminis certainly don't have that problem. Some kites need the standoffs angled slightly towards the center T to make sure the spreaders stay in place, but it's rare that a kite should need the rubber band solution.

I started my son out on the 4d, because it's little like he was. A larger kite would've flown away with him when he started flying dual-lines !