Captainbob

Tybee Island Kite Flying Festival Tybee Island Kite Flying Festival at the North Beach parking lot entrance @ Museum and beach area! Come out and fly a kite to support and create awareness about Parkinson’s and other movement disorders. April 27, 2014 11 Am http://tybeeisland.com/events/tybee-island-kite-flying-festival-2/

Sorry to hear that. Don't play around till your arm heals. You don't want to make it worse.

I think you are right on the edge of " better not fly today, it's way to windy". Wait for a day with something around 12-16 mph, and you probably will not have any problem at all. Stake your lines down on one end, and then go to the other end, they should be equal in length. If not, you will have to adjust the leaders. You want them exactly the same, or as close as you can get them. This tutorial is for a quad kite, but the principal is exactly the same. ( Follow the instructions for the top lines)

I'm sure one of the experts can help you, but in the mean time, when you set the kite up before flying, do the lines on the bridal look balanced, in other words the same on the left side and the right side, from the point where you fly lines attach? It should be symmetrical, on both sides, otherwise the kite will pull to one side or the other. Also check you line lengths, and make sure they are both the same, otherwise the kite will constantly turn or spin in one direction as you launch. If all this is OK, then maybe you need a day with lower and consistent winds, to practice flying straight and turning. 17-20 mph is a pretty high wind for a beginner to learn on. Hands close together, and small corrections. While these flying tops are for a delta kite, may apply to the foil kites like you have. The kite you have should be easier or as easy as most delta kites, just keep at it. http://prismkites.com/lounge-training.php

There was light wind at my local field today, so I got out the Rev 1.5 Std, and flew it a couple of hours. I tried the things I did Sunday on the B mid vent with the magic sticks installed, and it was like night and day. Kept flipping the wing while trying to fly in reverse, while I had no problem with reverse flying this past Sunday with the magic sticks, at a much faster speed by the way. Same thing with inverted hover, easy with the magic sticks, more difficult without. Walking back and forth to the kite, staking, etc... thanks but no thanks. When I got back to the house, I called Flying Smiles Kites, and ordered another 16" kit for my standard Rev. While I was on the phone, Eliot gave me a good tip that he said Cath had told him about. When finished flying, and taking the magic sticks off, to keep from losing one of them, just place them on the leading edge, under one of the bungee cords, before rolling up the Rev. Keeps them securely in place , and they won't fall out or get lost. I said this in my review, but I think it is worth repeating, since several people have asked me about it. Is setting up and folding up the Rev slowed down at all when you have Magic Sticks? The quick answer is yes, about 2 seconds to insert and or remove each magic stick. That's it, you pull up the fitting with the spider on it, insert the stick, insert the other end into the fitting on the vertical, and done. About the same time and difficulty as putting in one of the vertical rods. Same with disassembling it, but in reverse. For rolling up the kite I use the same method I have always used, but when you roll it up, you will have the Magic Stick "bridle lines" partially on the outside of the kite as it is rolled up. This causes no difficulty in rolling it up, and it slides in the kite sleeve with no problem. I figured the extra 5 or 6 seconds that this adds to setting up the Rev, is well worth it, when I consider the huge amount of time I used to spend walking back and forth, back and forth, between the kite and the staked handles, resetting the kite up.

Good question.

Wow, those are some nice looking Revs.....

I figured that would get a stir...I am not saying your wrong by using them..or that it is wrong in any way....if it works for you..by all means fly them. Like mentioned...another "flavor". Ask Paul... he will be happy to tell you how long he was dead set against them....as an accomplished pilot with several thousands of hours flying..now he uses them. What happened?Did he get abducted and cloned? NO....his "flavor" changed..... Never rule out something cause it doesn't work for you today. The goal with the comment was to explore the kite completely..not just say...oh I can back up now, these are the best thing since sliced bread. Fly on! Magic sticks or not! Keep exploring....and don't forget to take them off after awhile and see what they have done for you..have your skills improved or declined through the use of said "elixer" ? Variety is the spice of life.... Well it works for me, so I guess that's a positive outcome. That is the reason that I wrote the review.

Here is my review. http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/5914-magic-sticks-review/

I found that the tendency to flip a wing on reverse or a fast spin was almost zero with the sticks, versus before I installed the sticks. The difference was immediate and very noticeable to me. The other thing I noticed is the frame lost some of his "rubbery" feeling in gusty winds, which I had plenty of yesterday. Much stiffer feeling.

Yeah, but I'll be there in a month............. Cath & Eliot will let you "fly before you buy" ! If I get a half day, free, I'll go up to Corolla, and check them out. If you have flown Revs for quite awhile, I would suspect It would probably take more than an hour or two to totally check out the Magic Sticks. Like making a change in handles or bridle or frame. The only way I would disagree, is that flying with the sticks, which will be on both my Revs by the end of this week, will be the way they are flown by me from now on. No reason to remove them and fly without them that I can rationalize ( already have 20+ hours without them) . When I practiced landing a Cessna, I had some pilots tell me that slipping on short final was the only way to do it, and other pilots told me to crab on final, and kick out the crab just before touchdown using opposite rudder. I chose the second method after trying both methods , and for the 25 years that I actively flew, the crab method is the way I landed from then on each and every time time. My landings were great, in fact I had two instructors that said I landed the aircraft as well as they did, so why change? Different strokes for different folks as the expression goes.

I feel the same way. Not looking for a degree in flying a Rev, just to fly it fairly well and have some relaxing fun.

Hell Bob, it's all beyond my abilities ! He lost me when he started talking about flying with someone, and slack-line tricks ! Tricks ? Heck, I'm just a cruiser, not a trickster. Sheesh.................. But all kidding aside, Paul, thanks for the very good explanation........... Main trick I have mastered is bringing my Revs home in one piece after a flying session.... I would like to try that floating thing, but not sure how to do that either.

I can't find anything on this roll up landing that you mentioned, and how to do it ( Probably way beyond my abilities at this point), An explanation would be great.

I started a new Thread with the Review. Here it is. http://kitelife.com/forum/topic/5914-magic-sticks-review/?p=43765

I flew my Rev B mid-vent today on my new Magic Sticks which I put on last evening. As I mentioned on another thread, I decided to get the Magic Sticks and give them a try for a few basic reasons. Number one, I was tired of walking back and forth from the handles to the kite, every time the kite would fall over due to wind shifts, which are the norm rather than the exception where I live. If the wind is coming from the west, and suddenly shifts to the East, the Rev will fall flat on it's face. I have used the methods of relaunching, when it is flat on the ground, but sometimes, walking to the kite is a quicker solution, especially if the wind has died down totally. The second reason, is the ability to use a lighter frame, since the Magic Sticks distribute the wind load more evenly over the frame. I have read many posts, where using the Magic Sticks enables fliers to use a lighter frame set in certain wind condition, than they would normally be able to use without the Magic Sticks. I have a 3 wrap in my B and Race Rods in my SLE Std, so this feature appealed to me too. The third thing that peeked my interest, was reverse flying and inverted hovering which is supposed to be easier with the Magic Sticks. Keep in mind that my total time flying a Rev, is probably around 20-25 hours at most, due to days and days of poor wind conditions since I got my first Rev the beginning of last month. I ordered the Magic Sticks Kit from Flying Smiles Kites a couple of days ago. http://www.flyingsmileskites.com/wordpress/2013/06/22/magic-stick-for-revs/ Eliot Shook very patiently explained on the phone how the Magic Sticks worked, how easy they were to install, and how it affected the setup and breakdown of the Rev. I originally ordered the 12" kit, but after reading that the 16" is probably a better option because it allows you to do a rolling launch ( I have no idea what that is or how to do it at this point) , so I switched the order, and got the 16" kit instead. I received it a couple of days later. The kit consists of 2 16" rods, a bag with some APA fittings which slide onto the vertical tubes of the Rev, and some color coded lines, two spiders which are fittings that have 4 leader lines coming off each one with two knots on each line, and some patches to place on the sail behind the place where the rods ends ( APA fittings) would contact the sail, for protection of the sail,. An instruction sheet clearly explains how to attach the lines to the vertical rod end fittings, top and bottom, the leading edge fittings, and a line that goes from one spider to the other. The spider sits on top of the rods, and the bottom of the rods slides into the APA fitting which is mounted on the verticals. When setting up or breaking down the Rev, all that is necessary is to place the two Magic Stick Rods, between the spiders and the APA fittings, which takes about 2 seconds for each rod. That's it, nothing else to do once everything is attached to the Rev, which is only done once. It says in the instruction sheet that " The lines should be tight, without introducing and bending to the kite frame". I found that many of the lines, I attached to the inside knot on the spider to get the proper tension. Once adjusted, the tension is spread between the tops of the verticals, the bottoms of the verticals, the ends of the leading edge, and the line that couples the left Magic Stick Rod to the Right Magic Stick rod, so in effect, every end point of the frame is connected to every other end point. As I could see, any force applied to one of the edges, would transfer in part to the rest of the kite frame , since they are now all connected. It looks like the line ( I am not a line expert) is probably about 50# , so if one line were to become damaged, it would be very easy to make a replacement. Now to the field today. Winds were about 12-15 mph with gusts to about 20-22 mph. I have a B series Mid Vent. I set the kite up, inserted the magic sticks, and stood the kite up on it's leading edge. I then unwound my kite lines, and connected them to the bridle. The handles, 80 feet away, were laying on the ground. I walked to the handles, checked for proper hookup and launched the kite. While I was doing this the wind was around 15 mph. Kite launched, and I flew it around a bit. I immediately noticed, when doing some figure 8's, that the even if I input a hard down to initiate a turn, there was no tendency for the sail to bow tie. It just tracked right around. Flew back and forth for about 10 minutes, and even though the wind was very gusty, I also noticed that the 3 wrap frame seemed stiffer than normal. Leading edge seemed to be stiffer. Now I tried some landings and relaunches, LE down, LE up, each time no problem landing and relaunching. After landing, I could put the handles down, and the kite just sat there. A couple of times, a really big gust came along, and I was getting some direction switches in the wind, and the kite would fall over on it's face. When this happened, I would have to walk to the kite to set it up, but it never fell over backwards. If it was on the LE, and fell over on it's face, a simple relaunch was doable, as shown on JB's video. So my normal, back and forth walks to the kite, were probably cut down today by 95%. I flew my Rev today almost 4 hours. Now the hard stuff, inverted hover and reverse flight. I took off , went to the top of the window, did a 180, and slowly lowered the kite to the ground. It was a piece of cake. Even though the wind was erratic, I had no trouble with the inverted hover and control. Then I launched inverted , and climbed to the top of the window, easy again. Much easier than without the Magic Sticks. OK, now the thing that I have not even tried yet on the Rev, reverse flight. I launched, flew from right to the left in the window using forward flight, and then used reverse Flight to fly back back to the left side. Zero problems, I couldn't believe it, and this was the first time I tried it. Now I have read about people that have flown for months and were still working on reverse flight, and it was easy. Now I guess some would say, " Well yeah, but could you do that without the Magic Sticks? " My reply is, maybe not, but who cares. I can do it now, and that's what counts. OK, now the cons to the Magic Sticks and I have only one. When you put the handles down on the ground, without a stake with a big colored knob on the top, and walk to the kite, when you turn around, you can't see where the handles are if the grass is tall. Couple of times, I had to look around a bit before I finally figured out where I had placed the handles which were lying in the 3 inch tall grass. I did one more test today , I went to my car a hundred or so feet away, and left the kite on the field standing up on it's trailing edge, turned 90 degrees to the wind direction to see what would happen. Eventually, it fell over on it's face, and just stayed there, until I walked back, and set it up again for the next launch. I am ordering another kit for my SLE Std kite tomorrow. Ready to launch, sitting on the Magic Sticks. Notice the lines just laying on the ground, and the sail under pressure from the wind. Side view of magic Sticks attached to Rev B.

One word the Miracle sticks after 11/2 hours flying...AWESOME. Will write a review of them tonight.Busy now flying in reverse across the window in 14 gust to 18..Smooth as silk. Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

The additional time it takes to set up and tear down the Rev with the sticks is a total of about 5 seconds.( About the same time it takes to put your LE end caps on) . A big improvement in time saved over spending hours walking back and forth to the kite to set it up again, after it falls over. You don't land and lean it up on the sticks. You just land, and it rocks back on the sticks either LE up or down, which ever way you land. With it sitting on the sticks, there is no way the kite can launch itself either LE up or down, since any wind is pushing it towards the ground. The second important feature to me as I already stated, is the distribution of load on the frame. I'll get a chance to try that today, because the wind forecast is for fairly high and gusty winds.

I will be flying with my Magic sticks for the first time today, I will let you know how it goes. The setup was really easy. The main reason I ordered them is I live in an area where the wind is low many days and very erratic. Wind shifts of 180 degrees , with lulls in between, are quite often. Walking back and forth to the Rev, to set it up for launch after it falls over, happens so often, I probably have walked miles doing this. The idea of setting the kite up, and it stands there until launch, and not having to stake the kite between launches, is worth the price of admission to me. The other issue, is that gusty winds are another issue I run into. The Magic Sticks spread the load more evenly on the frame, so that you can actually frame lighter, than without them, according to people that use the Magic Sticks. I'm thinking that my 3 wrap should be OK for my B series mid-vent (with the Magic Sticks), for most of the winds I encounter in my area. http://magicquadsticks.com/Welcome.html http://www.flyingsmileskites.com/wordpress/2013/06/22/magic-stick-for-revs/ http://www.revkites.com/forum/topic/23-quad-sticks/?p=82265

Well that is what I had today, so I guess I had it set correctly.

Hadn't tried that. I was gripping the handles at the top of the foam, since I read in the beginning that was the proper place. I guess, if I moved my hands down more towards the center of the foam, that would give me the possibility of more forward. Anyway, will try that tomorrow. Test flying my magic sticks tomorrow too.

Following the procedure for adjusting the leader length, so that you can just reliably launch, I notice that once I set this according to the tutorials, then for forward flight, I have to hold my thumbs back pretty far, otherwise forward flight stops. Is this normal for a proper setup, or do I have too much brake in my adjustment?

Got my Magic Sticks today from Flying Smiles Kites. I ordered the 16" set. Comes with all the lines that are color coded and easy to figure out how to attach them. The fitting that the sticks go into have a spider with 4 pigtails coming out, and each pigtail has 2 knows already on them, so tensioning the lines is very easy. Entire setup, taking my time, took about 15 minutes at the most, probably less. I had already flowin this morning for 4 hours, and now it is raining, so test flying the sticks will have to wait till tomorrow. Packing the kite up is really easy, just pull out the 2 sticks, and fold up as usual. You just have the extra lines , which look like a thin bridle, on the back of the kite. Very well designed and the kit by Flying Smiles is very professionally done. http://www.flyingsmileskites.com/wordpress/2013/06/22/magic-stick-for-revs/

The most important tutorials, that I can reccommend, at this point are: 1. Line Management http://kitelife.com/forum/videos/view-41-rev-tutorial-line-management/ 2. Assembly & Disassembly http://kitelife.com/forum/videos/view-40-rev-tutorial-assembly-and-disassembly/ 3. Basic Launch & Control http://kitelife.com/forum/videos/view-281-basic-launch-and-control/ Watch the "Line Management" tutorial over and over, until you are tired of it, and then watch it a few more times. You've got to know that, or your second trip out, will be a disaster. Line worry's shouldn't take up your time - flying should......... ps...............just ask CaptainBob about that ! Also: Rev Tutorial – Larks Head Knot Download | YouTube Rev Tutorial – Changing Frames Download | YouTube Rev Tutorial – Line Equalizing Download | YouTube Rev Tutorial – Line Weight & Length Download | YouTube Rev Tutorial – Wind Window Download | YouTube Rev Tutorial – Figure 8 Download | YouTube Rev Tutorial – Flat Relaunch Download | YouTube Rev Tutorial – Basic Hovers Download | YouTube Rev Tutorial – 180 w/ Positive Drive Download | YouTube Rev Tutorial – Rollover Landing Download | YouTube Rev Tutorial – Body, Posture and Grip *** Download Rev Tutorial – Tuning Theory I *** Download Rev Tutorial – Kite Walk *** Download Rev Tutorial – Side Slide *** Download Rev Tutorial – Inverted Hover *** Download Rev Tutorial – Reverse Flight *** Download Rev Tutorial – Bicycle Rotation *** That should keep you busy BTW, after much experimentation, I am now officially the master of the 2 line holder method of setup and tear down . Haven't had one tangle, or hiccup using 2 holders, in almost 3 weeks. My motto is, " If it ain't broke, don't fix it......

Watch all the tutorials you can, until you have them memorized, then watch them some more.