Captainbob

Nice site. I already downloaded the app and put it on my Android Phone.

I just started 3 weeks ago, and already have 3 kites, an HQ Symphony 1.9, a Revolution SLE an a Prism 4D. This is an addicting hobby, for sure. You will love it...

Here is what I like about that book, coming from my background as a pilot. The step by step and illustrated instructions of exactly what the handles do, and the aerodynamic illustrations of the sail in each illustration, immediately cleared up any confusion I had about what does what controlling the kite. Just like a good ground school before trying to solo an aircraft. When I had my first lengthy flying session today, I recalled alot of what I read yesterday and last night, and it made it really simple.

That is fine for the lower DSL which I had for years. That file should take about 9 seconds at that speed, then save it to your harddrive.

The problem with that is where I live, winds like today are a rarity. I think if I got a vented kite, it probably would get flown very rarely.. Right now, the afternoon will probably have be back flying the 4D, since the wind now is 4 mph.

Tried you method, and looked at this post to look for things that I may have been doing wrong, and it seems my problems are over. Last two times I set the Rev up, I had no problems with the lines, using the 4 line method on your tutorial... Thanks....

OK, today was a total success so far. Got to the field early this morning, and the winds were around 12 mph. Set up the SLE, rolled out the lines, and no tangles or knots at all. I did use 2 stakes rather than one, to stake the handles. Set up the kite, and used the launch method that was discussed in the chat room last night, and up I went. Got up to about 20 feet, kept it level, back down an landed. Kept doing this and getting higher and higher. Meanwhile the wind was also getting stronger, and at one point the Rev really took off and headed for the top of the wind window. I started to freak, and then thought, "Hey, this thing has a throttle, all I have to do is slow it down", and it slowed , stopped and I backed it down to the ground and landed. Did many takeoffs, hovers, and landing. When It would land leading edge down, because of a last minute gust, I would just flip the kite back leading edge up, using the brake one one side, and off I would go again. I love the re-launching capability of this kite, saves miles of walking back and forth. About 90% of my landings were smooth, and on both tips at the same time. I took a quick break, and used the Android App I got on my smartphone yesterday, to read the wind, and it was now measuring over 16 mph with some higher gusts. I was almost going to quit, but I decided instead to just practice low altitude hovering , and got to the point where I could keep it fairly level for sometimes a minute or more. I did a bit of forward flying back and forth, but stayed really up high for that. Got to work on sliding it towards the top wing, so that I don't lose altitude while going forward. Anyway, had a blast, and may be back out there after lunch, wind permitting.

Wow I have DSL, and it took about 5 seconds to download it, and I saved it on my harddrive as a PDF. You should have them check your DSL connection, something major wrong with it, it would seem. The file is only 8.9 megs. Even with a slow DSL connection at 1.6 mbs, that should take less than 10 seconds to load.

I bought some at the endorsement of someone on another forum. I I dipped the noses on a couple of my beater kites and dipped the handles on my workshop tools. Very versatile and very durable. I do think it added just a bit of weight, but that makes my kites a little more flippy. I'm ok with that. Although exercise caution to make sure you add it evenly on each side of the nose. Don't want it to get out of balance. Going to get some at Home Depot today, thanks.

http://www.gwtwforum.com/pdf/revbook.pdf

I was thinking about using some of that GE or Permatex RTV Silicone sealant , and putting a dab of it on the nose. Shouldn't affect the weight or balance, and when it dries it is like a rubber bumper. I already order a couple of spare T's.

Well today was the opposite from yesterday. Forecast was for dead calm. I walked the dog in the park this morning and could feel a slight breeze. Went home, got out my new Prism 4D and headed for the field, figuring this would be a good day to concentrate on that kite. After I set it up, the wind picked up a bit and I would guess it was around 3-9mph. It would die every once in awhile.and the 4D would flutter or glide to the ground, but then it would pick up and I could hear the lines humming as I flew across the wind window during a gust. I would guess that I got almost 2 hours of flying in, in short flights of from 1 minute to as long as 5 minutes at a time. It was a blast, and I really like the 4D. Made a few hard nose landings, and the 4D showed no damage. It seems to be built rather well for it's size and weight. As I flew the unplanned landings grew fewer and far between, and softer. Tomorrow they forecast much stronger winds, so I am going to try and get the Rev SLE up in the air. Hope I do as well with the Rev.

I like that www.wunderground.com site. Much better than what i was using , thanks.

Found this today on a Google search. Lots of good stuff. http://www.gwtwforum.com/pdf/revbook.pdf

LOL, and true.....

Enjoy your new Rev!!!!!

Got to the field this morning after equalizing the lines on my Rev SLE. Wind felt like it was around 8-10 mph. Got everything set up, and the wind just quit. I would prop the Rev up on the leading edge, with the wind coming from the East, and walk towards the handles, turn around and watch the wind blow the kite over because now the wind was coming from the west. Switch everything around after waiting for 5 minutes or so, and same thing happened in the opposite direction. Then dead calm. Wound up my lines, and fold up the kite, walking home, and the wind starts blowing again. Set it up again, same thing all over. Fold it up, and head for the house. After lunch Plan B.. Get out my 4D.. Get to the field after lunch and set up the 4D, and the wind starts blowing like crazy. plus 10 mph at least. Fold the 4D back up, back to the house ( now this is a 10 minute walk either way, cause I live next to the park, in fact I can see the field where I fly from my upstairs computer room as I type this post.) Get the Rev, back to the field, still blowing, set up the Rev, and the wind stops and starts changing direction again and then quits. I wait 15 minutes, and still no wind. Back to get the 4D again, after folding the Rev an winding the lines. Now I get back with the 4D, and there isn't enough wind to launch the 4D. Pack it back up and call it a day. Oh well, mucho practice setting up and folding up kites. Just pulled up www.caniflymykite.com and it says No winds 0.0 mph. Then I go to www.windfinder.com and see what is reporting and it says 9mph......... So far my confidence in windfinder.com on a scale from 1 to 10 is about a minus 4.

I just got off the phone with Prism. I spoke to the customer service person there and explained the question on where exactly do the bridle lines from the T connector, connect to on the Red and Blue leader lines. As was stated before, there are 3 knots on each of these leader lines. The 1st knot is the one where you connect your kite line to at the end of the leader. The second knot is in the middle of the leader, and the third knot is right next to the adjustment for fore and aft balance of the tow point as illustrated in the owners manual. The line from the T connectors, which ends in a larks head knot, is fastened "over" the middle knot on the leader. This will keep the larks head knot in one position, and it will not slide around or move as one is flying the 4D. Problem solved.

Well I had a chance to apply full brake today, when it was diving towards the ground at a good clip , and it quickly stopped about 2 feet before hitting the ground. Very cool !!!!

Spent hours with the Rev today. Kept having a problem with it turning to the right on launch. I figured it was just me, or a crosswind, or the Rev Gods , but I found l could correct it if I acted quickly enough to level it out during the launch. As I was packing up tonight I decided to check the equalization, so I removed the lines from the handles, staked them, and looked at the left and right top lines, and sure enough, one was at least 1/2"- 3/4" longer than the other. I had carefully checked this prior to flying it for the first time last week and they were spot on then, so this line must have stretched in just a few flights. Guess I will have to check the equalization more frequently. Then I tried to adjust it down at the field, and when I loosened the knot's, the lined pulled into the sleeving. ( of course). So back home, I got out the sleeving kit I bought, and it has the sleeving tool, so I fixed that, and will equalize all the lines tomorrow morning and try flying it again. So I learned a bunch of stuff today....

I guess as a newbie, I have a question for you Rev old timers. When learning, which is better at first , to practice launching from the inverted position, rolling the kite over prior to launch, and then launching straight up, or launching from inverted, going up inverted to say 10-20 feet, and then rolling upright, or placing the kite leading edge up while staked, with the brakes set to full on with the stake, and launching straight up.?

OK. first day of real learning on the SLE. Got down to the field and unrolled my carefully rolled up quad line, that I did the other day, and voila, it was almost tangle free. I did cheat a bit and used 2 stakes, about 5 feet apart to hook the handles to as I enrolled it, Now I set up the SLE, and that went very smooth. No problem connecting the leading edge pieces together, straightened out any bridle problems as I went along, and then hooked up my unrolled lines to the kite, leading edge down, and I was read to go. So far so good I then tried launching the kite , after I rolled it right side up, and I think the wind was around 8-10 mph at that point. Kite rolled right as it gained altitude, so I applied some left brake ( whoops, too much brake and now some right, whoops too much right etc..) and since I was never that high, it just landed. Hmmmm, overcontrol seems to be the buzzword here. Got to remember to tap the handles on the bottom to bring that wing down a bit, not yank the handle .. A few more launches, and I was able to wag the leading edge back and forth in shallow turns, and then I tried both brakes on a bit and descend to a landing fairly level. One time it got really windy, and I over controlled a bit, and was headed for the ground inverted, tried running forward and last minute braking, which slowed the "hard landing" a bit ( I wouldn't call it a crash , just a solid landing ) Anyway, I checked the kite, and good thing I did, because the end cap on one side of the leading edge had popped out. No other damage at all. Now the wind became the challenge again as it started dying down to around 3-5 mph. I would set the kite up for a launch, with the handles staked, and by the time I got back to the handles, no matter how I angled the kite, it had fallen over in the erratic winds. I kept at this for about a half hour because I was really anxious to get this thing back in the air and work on some hovering and shallow turns, but I finally gave up, and I was getting tired of walking back and forth from the kite to the handles . Might try again this afternoon if the wind picks back up which windfinder says it might. I carefully rolled the lines on the winder, being careful to avoid any twists or slack as I did, folded the kite, with zero problems, and can't wait till the next time I get this kite in the air.

Yes, in just a short time yesterday, I was already discovering some of the things that you mentioned. Moving forward, when the wind was stronger, backing up in the lulls, heading for the edge of the wind window in very strong gusts, running back when the sail starts to fold up and collapse.. It definetly isn't boring....

Finally got some flying time in today on my HQ 1.8. The wind was strong sometimes running well over 15-18 mph, and then it would suddenly drop to zero, and my Symphony 1.8 would just curl up and flutter to the ground, as it would drift in my direction. Then the wind started changing directions back and forth about 60 degrees which was interesting. Wind window kept moving around on me. I finally took a break after about and hour of flying, got some lunch, an when I came back to the field, for about another hour the wind was now pretty steady around 13-15 mph. That 1.8 can really pull, when a strong gust came along, and I had some pretty close calls when heading for the ground at sub-sonic speed , pulling out at the last second, but no crashes in over an hour. If the wind is lighter and steadier tomorrow, out comes the REV SLE, which stayed in the hangar today.

Here are some other 4D bridle setups I have found.