Reved

I'm not sure how the ETA is calculated. This is the results from the 10th, after 2 days of sailing. 1944 miles remaining. It shows Aero 8+ days behind. With Synthias estimated finish at Aug 7th. I can't figure it out either. She's going to send some pics which I'll post when they arrive.

The first place boat, Por Favor was in sight, but Aero ended up in second. It's Margarita Mai Tai time!

The race is going to be close. Last report had them 1.5 hrs behind the first place boat with 52 miles to go. The 225 miles they did yesterday has put first place within reach. They should be finished shortly. Go Aero!

Aero is now in second place. But still 5 hours 19 minutes behind the other Hobie 33. Good race!

I was going to put this in the power kiting section. My sister is running in the Pacific Cup sailboat race from San Francisco to Hawaii. It started on the 8th for their boat. Here's what she wrote. Hey there, Just a quick note to say that I'm doing that crazy sailin' to Hawaii thing, AGAIN. But not alone, and not on my boat. I'm going with 2 other fellows, very experienced sailors, on a Hobie 33 named AERO. We start Tuesday July 8th at 11:45 PDT and we hope to finish in around 11 days plus or minus a few hours. You can follow our progress on the race web site: pacificcup.com Aloha & mahalo I put her daily report in a spreadsheet so I could better track her progress. It shows the date, how many miles to the finish line, how many miles they sailed that day, their speed, what place they are in, for the different groups. And how far back they are from the first place boat in their division. They ran into light winds leaving the golden gate and ended up 8+ days behind. Apparently they found the wind they were looking for and have been gaining ground each day. Last report had them 6 hrs 3 minutes 3 seconds behind first with 641 miles to go. One thing my sis knows is how to trim a sail to get that extra 1/2 knot or 1 knot more speed out of the boat. And she's driving on this trip. A few years ago she single handed a 28' Hawkfarm to Hawaii and took first in her division and second overall. They should reach Hawaii in a few days. Anyways, I thought you power kiters would be interested in this. From the skippers wife : Date: Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 7:28 PM Subject: Day 10 - Gnarly night at sea To: As we all witnessed via the tracker, Aero was screaming along all day yesterday and into the night. Flying the BIG kite in high winds and surfing the waves is exhausting. As the night wore on, the shifts changed to one hour on / one hour off. The crew were sleeping in their coats, barely dropping into the bunks. The night was pitch black. Sailing in these conditions brings a new meaning to sailing by touch and instinct. You can't read the swells. There were many wipeouts, or round ups, when the spinnaker fills with too much air driving the boat up which completely fills the sail. The rudder has no steerage at this point as the boat is getting pinned down by too much wind in the sails. To get out of a wipeout you need to release the wind pressure by popping the vang and letting the sails spill the wind. Well, the reaching strut finally cried "uncle" and broke. The reaching strut is a short pole attached to the mast on one end and spinnaker sheet on the other. It helps keep the full shape of the sail, and prevents a collapsing pocket. At that point, Aero cried "Uncle" too. They pulled down the Big Kite, put up the Genoa, and settled down. Speeds were a bit slower, but crew was able to sleep and repair shot nerves. New plan of attack: continue to sail BIG kite during the day, switch to medium kite at night. While more conservative, it will pay off in better boat handling and less costly mistakes. Also, there is only one back up reaching strut. Joe estimates that nightly speed may slow a bit, but he feels Aero will hit land Tuesday. ( I will go on record and say sometime Monday-11:59 pm still counts.) The crew are all happy, and continue to have fun in the challenging conditions. The Half Way party yesterday was very memorable. Synthia decorated the boat with streamers ( if I heard correctly). Each had a capful of rum. Gifts were exchanged. Joe's favorite was from Synthia. She soaked wash cloths in lavender oil and water, then chilled with those first aid ice packs. Joe said he never felt anything better. (You can tell she has done this before!) Keep a watch on the tracker as we are rumored to go live sometime this afternoon. Take care and be safe little Aero! D

This is the only B2 I have, so I've got no comparison. The bridle that came with it measured ~.036". And the B Pro and SLE bridle measures ~.051".

Flying the B2 in 20-30+ really tested the limits of the linesets and showed the weak points. I'm always flying std quads in wind that I shouldn't. I broke rods on my 1.5 B's several times. An addiction to speed at this stage of learning.

I sent him an adaptor to change from 2.5mm to 3.5mm socket for his second headset. It caused problems. I had the wires all tied together. Will that cause a problem?

OK I looked CLOSELY at shot five. My playground is not that nice. Now I'm jelly

The bridle on my B2 is a thinner line than the 1.5s. One day when flying in crazy wind, the lines slipped thru the knots in the sleeving on my home made 100' 50# Skybond lineset. It got all scrunched up and came very close to slipping over the tiny B2 bridle knot. I switched to a heavier bridle and smaller sleeving on the linesets.

You got a nice playground. I'd be jealous if mine wasn't nice also. Great shots!

I wish I didn't have so many std quads or I would buy this beauty.

Twice when changing kites, I put the larks head on a little fast. Instead of having the LH before the bridle knot, I ended up putting it over the bridle knot. Sort of half on each side of the knot. It slipped off right away. Now I go I bit slower.

The first reviews are back from Terry and he says the circuit works. Happy dance But there is a static issue with the music. The 1/8 plug I used in the first cable was cut off from some other device that was in my Pops garage. I'm hoping it was faulty plug and a new one will fix the static. I ordered a Midland’s GXT1000 radio and a Ety Com headset, so I could do some testing at my place. The cable has 3 connections. 1/8" (3.5mm) MONO plug, for the Ipod or cell phone. 3/32" (2.5mm) MONO plug for the radio (walkie talkie). 3/32" STEREO socket for the mic/headset. We are also going to test a 1/8" STEREO socket for different mic/headsets. The mic/headset, that you purchase, HAS to have a 3 conductor plug. A lot of the new mics have 4 conductor plugs. I have a question for you electrical engineers, The capacitor on the schematic is a 4.7uF. At Frys Electronics, they had all kinds of 4.7uF capacitors, but different voltages. 16V 25V 50V & 100V I'm just guessing to use the smallest 16V one on the left. Any advice would be appreciated. I bought a whole bunch of different colored heat shrink tubing and parts for production, as soon as the testing is complete.

I'm not sure there is a link on his website. That's why I included the phone numbers. It might be easier to order custom lengths over the phone. I usually call with my order, and he lets me know when it is in, and I pick it up when I'm near his area. Ordering any length you want keeps the waste to a minimum. Less $ spent.

I've purchased 50# and 100# in 1000' lengths from Tom at Highline Kites in Berkeley. Those two cost me about $100 to a $110 each. Not sure. I made linesets from 30' to 120' with those weights. I recently purchased 1250' of 175# SB to make some linesets for the Supersonic and the Blast. $158 + tax. 1250' will make a 75' 100' and 120' quad set with a little extra for the leaders. You can order any length you want. Info@Highlinekites.com Office 510-235-5483 10am to 5pm pacific time Cell 510-610-KITE or 5483

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181427391975?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 I got the handles on ebay to use on a stack with 175# Skybond line. I haven't made those linesets yet. They just happened to be on the 100' 50# lines, I don't know why. The handles are 2.25" longer than the 13" no snag handles. I guess I should call them 15" handles. The linesets I made myself. I use better knots now

I use SB 100' 50# on my B2 std in 18-25 mph winds with higher gusts into 30mph last Wednesday. I thought the 90# LPG was weighing the little kite down the day before in slightly lighter winds. With 14" handles I was able to control all that speed with very nice precision. It's almost as fast as the Supersonic but with a 1/4 of the pull. I had little scrunchies at the end of each line where the line slipped thru the knots in the sleeving. That day was the most fun I ever had on a quad.

I had MS on 4 of my quads and found all those extra lines to be a bit of a nuisance. Plus I kept losing the sticks in the bushes or the wat er, not sure. Today in light winds, which is rare in my area, I noticed more wing flap and bow tying of the wing. Every time it happened I could see where I screwed up somehow. The MS used to cover up those screw ups. Now I find I have to be a little better, a little more aware and careful of what I'm doing. It's a nice change after a 100+ hours behind the handles. I don't do a lot of reverse flying yet so I can't comment on that advantage. Inverted hovers were learned with a tip from makatakam "Another good way to get your inverted hover rock-steady is to fly to the top of the window, turn over and fly down to the ground very, very, very, very, very slowly, or as slowly as possible without wobbling, trying to go slower each time you repeat. If you just do the above 100 times, you should have a steady hover down pat." and perfected with practice, practice. ....

Try to develop a routine that you can do exactly the same, every time, and most of your troubles will disappear. That being said, I still wonder how those darn twists got there sometimes. I recently helped 2 guys with their brand new EXPs. The first thing I noticed was the top and bottom pigtails were the same length on the handles. Top should be a couple of inches or so longer. When I changed them It felt much better and the guys liked it better also. Be a student of JBs "how to" videos and it will help a ton. It was tough for me in the beginning. No wind. Too much wind. Too many people around. Keep trying. After about 10 hours or so things will start clicking.

I just got a B2 the other day and I thought the 90# lines were weighing it down. So I changed to 50# and I felt I had much more control of the little guy. I noticed if I got too far off to one side of the wind window in the beginning, it would just dive down like a knife. Keep at it.

Thanks for the heads up on those capacitors Brian. Much appreciated. It turns out that I bought non polarized capacitors already. This project gave me the opportunity to work with my dad. Electrical engineering was his profession and he said he hasn't built a circuit board in ages. We had fun! I need to know how long the wires should be. What pocket are you putting the ipod and the radio in? That will let me know where to cut them. I still need to trim down the circuit board and wrap it up with heat shrink or something.

windpowersports.com When ever I visit them on the cell phone all I get is this. I've tried mobile and desktop view and no luck. Anyone else have this problem? samsung s3