Captainbob

Monk.

I had very briefly thought about getting a full vent Rev, when I bought my mid vent, and am very glad I didn't. I think in the last 5 months, I might have been able to fly a full vent, maybe once, if that much, due to the winds in my area.

With the Mid vent, on the ground the wind was around 6 mph. at altitude around 12-14 mph. This is pretty typical in Atlanta. Today I flew for about 2 hours, in another field, and ground was around 4-6 and probably around 14+ at 30+ feet, judging by the way the dualie I was flying, was reacting. Winds have been fantastic for days, which is unusual for me, but it looks like tomorrow, it goes back to the normal low winds, where the Niknak and Freestylist UL will get all the flying time. Btw, on the Facebook Revolution Video page, I posted the B series Midvent video, and I got a "like" from JB... .. That made my day.....

Made one more video of my Rev B Midvent which I don't get to fly very much due to winds .

Probably. but I think the Freestylist just handles better, maybe because it is larger. I just like larger kites.

I decided a couple of weeks ago to try shooting some HD videos using the camera on my smartphone, since it is capable of shooting HD 1080p definition with an 8 mpixel camera. Some phones have much more than that now, since my is a Nexus 4 which is almost 2 years old in it's design. In order to do this, I purchased an inexpensive tripod that would hold the phone, from Amazon for about $17, and a camera clamp mount to hold the phone for another $14 or so. I experimented with this rig this week, and brought it to the field this morning. The major problem I had was trying to see the screen in the very bright sunlight on the field, even with the brightness set on max. I may bring a towel or something next time, to drape over the phone while I set it in place to capture the area where I intended to fly. This morning, all I could do was to try and have the bottom of the view, on the ground, and get as high as I could by angling the phone up with the tripod. It took me a minute or two, to guestimate where it should be aimed. I started the camera and took a couple of videos. The hardest thing was trying to figure out where I could fly and not fly out of the range of the camera, but I think I was pretty lucky in figuring this out, because I managed to keep the kite inside the camera view for almost all of the flight. I was concentrating more on positioning the kite more than flying it, so my flying was kind of sedate, but what I was trying to accomplish as fare as staying in view worked pretty well. This video is of my Rev SLE with magic sticks, and the second is the Freestylist UL. The wind was around 3-5 mph on the ground at the time I made these videos.

There is a difference between a nut and a knot.

Guess Devin likes the Freestylist UL too. http://www.gwtwforum.com/index.php?topic=11353.msg100710#msg100710

Round & round... as I have said, I have flown my Zephyr in those low winds. I know other people who can, too. This was a constant topic of debate when the Z first came out, too. I was actually questioning the lower wind range at the time, but after I followed the advice of more experienced fliers (remove the weight, the upper spreader, adjust the knots towards the nose, and fly on 50' lines (which were included with the original Z)) I was able to fly mine in SUL winds. It took effort, but all light wind flying does. No, the kite is not an SUL by any stretch, but it isn't claimed to be. You are not going to be able to just stand there & get the Z to fly in 1 mph winds. It is a light standard or UL (pretty much the same thing) that is robust enough to survive beginner or intermediate abuse. Unlike a true SUL kite. the Zephyr is easily trickable, and can also be flown in double digit winds without exploding. Difference between a real UL kite like my new Freestylist UL and the present day Zephyr is like the difference between a standard sail Rev and a Mid Vent Rev. Where the Freestylist flies without effort, with weight in, spreader in, 65' 90# lines, the Zephyr struggles to stay aloft with the weight out, bridal adjusted 3/4" above the low wind knot ( per Mark Reed) and front spreader removed in the exact same wind. ( flew them back to back last week) The wind specs on the Freestylist UL are 2-12 mph. Zephyr wind specs, are 1-17mph... Prism needs to take a look at the Freestylist UL, and either change the advertised specs on the Zephyr to something more realistic, or fix it so it flies in that range. I think a more realistic range for the Zephyr would be 3 or 4 to 17. By the way, I have googled this topic and read many forum posts on the Zephyr, and it is almost always referred to by other people that have flown it as a "light standard kite" .

If you read the comments, the NYPD copter was chasing the drone, not the other way round. So who is to blame there? [ my 'aitch" key just died this morning. I have to cut'n'paste every h from somewhere else on the page. Arrgh! ] The police were chasing the drone, because the drone flyer was doing something potentially catastrophic to anyone flying in that airspace, not to mention the danger to someone getting hit by the drone. If a drone is dangerous to a helicopter, and a drone is dangerous to people on the ground, then how can the NYPD pilot justify risking the 'copter by bringing it close to a drone while the 'copter is over said crowd? Supposedly he was arrested for flying too close to the copter. I read the report of the arrest, and it is pretty clear to me that the drone was breaking multiple laws, including flying at 2,000 feet in FAA controlled airspace. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/nyregion/two-men-arrested-after-drone-flies-near-new-york-police-helicopter.html?_r=0

If you read the comments, the NYPD copter was chasing the drone, not the other way round. So who is to blame there? [ my 'aitch" key just died this morning. I have to cut'n'paste every h from somewhere else on the page. Arrgh! ] The police were chasing the drone, because the drone flyer was doing something potentially catastrophic to anyone flying in that airspace, not to mention the danger to someone getting hit by the drone.

Been waiting for your impressions. Great looking kite, too. Bill I was blown away flying this kite today, just as I was when I first flew my Niknak after weeks and weeks on the 4D. It flies itself, basically. You just have to think about what you want it to do, and it does it....

First of all, I think when you get to fly a Widow NG, you will really be surprised, and many very experienced fliers that have flown the Widow maker and the Widow NG have been surprised on how well the Widow NG flies, especially factoring in the cost. Now on the Zephyr, I have read post after post after post, that clearly state that the Zephyr is not an SUL or even a UL, it is a light standard, period. Haven't read one post yet, that raved about it's low wind performance. The difference, for me, between flying the Zephyr and flying the Freestylist UL, is like the difference in driving a Corvette compared to a Lincoln Navigator. The Zephyr feels heavy flying, and it also feels heavy just carrying it in the bag. Not sure what it weighs, because it seems that Prism doesn't want that shown on their website, but I'm betting it weighs alot more than other low wind kites. . The other issue with the Zephyr is the trailing edge flutter which acts like a speed brake any time the wind picks up, which I think is part of the problem. As soon as the kite achieves some decent speed, the TE starts buzzing, and the kite slows down. No, I haven't set the leech line, because of the reported problems with trailing edge wear, and the leech line ripping through the TE if the leech line is used. I have asked on the Prism facebook page about using the leech line, and received no response at all from anyone, users, or the company. I have read quite a few posts from people in the UK, where if you claim a product can do something , and it can't, you can get into legal trouble. They are all surprised that Prism hasn't been called out on their 1-17MPH claim, which is obviously not true.

I spent the better part of his afternoon "trying" to fly my Prism Zephyr in the low winds at the field today. Every Time it launches and then slides back to the ground, I get a bit more bugged with the wind range on the Prism site for the Zephyr of 1-17 mph. Despite numerous playing with bridle adjustments, removing weight, removing front spreader, the only thing that will make this kite fly reliably in less than about 3-4 mph, in my opinion, is a hovercraft strapped to it's back. Anyway, I finally gave up, packed up, and walked back to my home, and leaning against the front door is a triangular box from Skyburner.. It has to be the Freestylist UL, I have been waiting for. I quickly unboxed it, and took it out of the bag it was in, which is a rugged canvas type bag like my Widow NG came in. I assembled it, which was a piece of cake. Wing tension is the one knot type, quick and easy, and even a separate instruction sheet on how to do the tension properly is included. First thing I noticed is that it has the same Quick bridle adjustment setup that my Widow NG has, which makes tuning the bridle out in the field for different wind conditions a piece of cake, since you can easily change bridle settings and if you don't like the new one, return to the previous setting in seconds. The Freestylist looks great, and is very well made, and it is in my favorite color which I ordered, "red". Ok enough of that, back out to the field . Now the wind specs for this kite are 2-12 mph. So now I am anxious to see how it is going to compare to the Zephyr I just finished struggling with. I set the kite up, hooked up a set of 90# 100 ft lines, propped it up for launch and took a quick pre-launch photo. The wind now was varying around 2-4 mph. I pulled the lines back, and the Freestylist shot straight off the ground like a rocket!!!! No babying it, no having to run back, it just took off and flew straight up like it was on rails. Spins, stalls, slides, dives, you name it, it just kept flying. Fly a straight line, as straight as an arrow, perfect square turns, nice slides from the edge of the window. I flew it for about 20 minutes straight, and it just floated and flew, floated and flew. No struggling, or having to run around the field to keep it up. This kite is a blast. I was thinking about when I got my Niknak, and the fact that my Prism 4D has been in the hangar ever since. Now I am wondering what I am going to do with the Zephyr, which I initially bought because of the "1 mph-17 mph" spec, now that I have the Freestylist UL , which I can already see is faster, much smoother, and doesn't need near as much wind as the Zephyr to fly smoothly. Once the wind reaches the top of the Freestylist UL range of around 10-12 mph, the Widow NG which I also love to fly will come out. After I landed, I realized that there was a handwritten note on top of the instruction sheet from Jon T that said he had placed a 10 gram weight in the tail, and I should remove it for "very light wind flying". All this time, that I was flying it, the weight was still in the tail, I had forgotten to remove it. My instant impression of this kite, is that it is like a giant Niknak as far as it's wind capability, but I have a feeling that it is much more trickable than the Niknak. Since I am not into tricks, this is just speculation on my part, but for precision type flying, from what I have seen so far, this kite is a winner.

You might be better off giving Skyburner a call rather than waiting for an email. They always answer the phone during normal business hours. I don't have a Widow Maker, but the lower priced version, the Widow NG, and haven't any of the problems that you are describing, so it sounds like something is amiss. Did you remove the tail weight? On my Widow NG, there is a Fast Bridal adjustment which is shown in the NG owners manual. Maybe the Widowmaker bridle setup is similar, and I move mine to the closest knot to the kite frame, and it still spins on a dime. WidowNG018.pdf

"What is the science of wind direction?" hmmm Guess the OP's question was posted in the wrong forum.

If you really want to study this topic, this is where most pilots get their info from for taking their written test. https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/pilot_handbook/media/PHAK%20-%20Chapter%2011.pdf

It's one of the reason I've sold much of my quadcopter stuff. They are getting way too much bad press. More restrictions are sure to follow. Besides as a pilot I don't need my job threatened because I've done something stupid while using one. I've backed waaaay off on their use. More money for kites! Bill I flew from Ft Lauderdale to Pahokee back in the 80's, and was going to do a touch and go. I touched down, and started my takeoff roll, and I heard on the unicomm someone announcing that they were landing on a very short closed cross runway in about the middle of the long runway I was taking off on. I couldn't see any aircraft approaching, so I quickly decided to abort my takeoff and set back down and slam on the brakes on the 172 I was flying, figuring that this would get me stopped before I hit the cross runway. Lots of burning rubber smell and skidding of tires and I came to a halt about 50 feet from the short runway, and a RC aircraft with about a 6 foot wingspan flew across the runway I was on and landed on the closed runway. I looked to my right, and there was the idiot holding a RC radio and wearing a headset, flying this aircraft and talking on a radio that he had tuned to Unicomm freq. I taxied over to where he was standing and threatened to pick up his model and beat him over the head with it. If my wife at the time, hadn't been there, I probably would have done it. Taxied back, and began my takeoff, and of course, now the tires on my Rental 172 are making a thump-thump-thump sound as I took off. Nice flat spots etched into the tires.... He got off easy. I'm sure that you could have made major trouble for him. Bill True, but this airport is in the middle of nowhere, and I would have had to stay around for hours to have anything done, so I just chalked it up to experience.

It's one of the reason I've sold much of my quadcopter stuff. They are getting way too much bad press. More restrictions are sure to follow. Besides as a pilot I don't need my job threatened because I've done something stupid while using one. I've backed waaaay off on their use. More money for kites! Bill I flew from Ft Lauderdale to Pahokee back in the 80's, and was going to do a touch and go. I touched down, and started my takeoff roll, and I heard on the unicomm someone announcing that they were landing on a very short closed cross runway in about the middle of the long runway I was taking off on. I couldn't see any aircraft approaching, so I quickly decided to abort my takeoff and set back down and slam on the brakes on the 172 I was flying, figuring that this would get me stopped before I hit the cross runway. Lots of burning rubber smell and skidding of tires and I came to a halt about 50 feet from the short runway, and a RC aircraft with about a 6 foot wingspan flew across the runway I was on and landed on the closed runway. I looked to my right, and there was the idiot holding a RC radio and wearing a headset, flying this aircraft and talking on a radio that he had tuned to Unicomm freq. I taxied over to where he was standing and threatened to pick up his model and beat him over the head with it. If my wife at the time, hadn't been there, I probably would have done it. Taxied back, and began my takeoff, and of course, now the tires on my Rental 172 are making a thump-thump-thump sound as I took off. Nice flat spots etched into the tires....

I thought this was interesting, and surprised it took this long to be recognized as a problem. Flying an RC aircraft or Drone, or kite for that matter, within 5 miles of an airport, for instance, is a federal offense. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/11/drones-arrests_n_5575371.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000042

If you analyzed the temperature over the land versus the temp over the water, at any given time of the day which are called local winds, plus the large air masses ( global winds) that are moving due to the prevailing wind flow, the the wind direction at any given point could be predicted. That is what meteorologists and the computer models do, nothing more. Science is science, it doesn't change from day to day. The bottom line is cooler air is at a higher pressure, than warmer air, and air flows from high pressure to low pressure, always. The difference in air pressure causes the isobar lines, and the greater the difference, the closer the isobar lines are and the stronger the wind is. That's why pilots are so concerned about warm and cold fronts which are a predictor for stronger winds and or storm conditions. It is something we live with every time we plan a flight. http://www.theweatherprediction.com/kid_weather_questions/wind.html http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/wind/what-causes-wind I also think you are confusing local winds such as land breeze and sea breezes, with prevailing winds. If you have a strong prevailing wind, which is like a strong ocean current, the sea and land breezes in comparison, are like a boat going with or against the ocean current. Say a prevailing wind is southwesterly, which it would be in the outer banks from June to July, and it is 13 knots, you would need quite a strong sea breeze generated by land-water temp differential, to buck that 13 knot wind, which is pretty unlikely. If the prevailing wind, was very low, say 2-4 knots, then the sea breeze would be noticed if it was strong enough to buck that 2-4 knot PW. In Miami, the prevailing wind strength was usually on the low side, so the land and sea breezes were very noticeable and observable.

Gotta go with Rob on this one............. CB, it may be like that in theory (and even in Georgia), but on the North Carolina coast (the Outer Banks), the prevailing winds in the summer are out of the Southwest (blowing from the hot land to the water), and in the winter, they are out of the Northeast (blowing from the cold water to land). Now there are days here and there, that this may not be 100% true, due to other weather related factors, but overall, that's how it is, no matter what's warming or what's cooling. And no, I'm not a weatherman, or meteorologist, but as a rule of thumb, during the hot summer months, beach flying "S _ C K S" here in NC, because the wind is coming off of the land, bouncing over the cottages & dunes, and everything else, so it's bumpy. When it reverses, for whatever reason, and comes off of the water, it's smooth as a baby's butt........... Just thought I'd check that out, right now, so here's the current "skinny", from Nags Head, NC, via the Weather Channel ! Nags Head.JPG Well the original question from the OP wanted to know the "science of wind direction". What I stated, was the scientific principle for wind directions regarding wind blowing from cooler areas to warmer ares, which is illustrated perfectly in land and sea breezes. I studied this when preparing for my written test for my pilots license years ago, and used it many times since. Prevailing winds have nothing to do with land and sea breezes. I lived right on the beach in Miami Florida for 10 years, and land and sea breezes were a fact of life. http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/edu/k12/.breezes