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Always good to have some SLK up in the air to get attention when playing with the steerables.

Was out yesterday. Way too variable wind. 2-8 m/s (avg 3.5 m/s) according the my wind meter at home (1km away).Here is a little video, most was shot with the camera tilted up, so was cut out. Added a little in the end. Not the best wind. Very variable, rather than gusty. Still on P400 verticals, so a bit heavier. https://youtu.be/tqKUPGPxn7k There are a couple more videos on youtube from other people. Here the later part of my session, with the Revalike. Wind picked uo a bit. The Revalike flies lighter, with a lighter pressure. (flying the standard Freilein T2 aka 2-wrap). Just so you can compare 2 with the same skillset. Wind was better for the Revalike than for the Transeye. https://youtu.be/zf5-N0mZ09A Still like the Transeye, but the Revolution style is a bit easier, and has a wider wind range, at least down. Flying backwards the Transeye wins hands down. Did not experiment with frames in either (apart from replacing the verticals), even though I have a set of P400 and P90. Seen Korvo of Korvokites tried playing the the Transeye some time back, and the conclusion was, that leading edge needs to be flexible, so 3-wrap center is OK, but the sides will get too stiff over 2-wrap.

Leaders are there to allow you to apply more or less brake to the quad. On a dualie it would be to equalize line length. You can add if you want. I have considered it to minimize tear and wear on the bridle. Any length will do of they are qual length.

Well, no video coming today. My SJCAM SJ5000+ decided it had not recorded anything, and recovery failed. Still waiting for stable firmware. Will see when I get time again to play with it. The Transeye certainly come sup next time if wind conditions allows.

Was out with the transeye today. In gusty winds. 6-25 mph. It was doing ok, even though it was weather for vented quads. Really like how it flies. Can race it back and forward at almost the same speed. Can fly it backwards all the way up to the top of the wind window. Can't do with the Rev. At a strong gust one vertical broke mid-air. Will post video within a day. Replaced with P400 and kept flying a bit. It was fun. Will start flying it some more. Now I consider a vented.

I checked my prices before writing. All are eu prices. EBay prices not that interesting. Rev makes money by selling new. A 5m foil is a good sized power/traction kite. And. The HQ Beamer one of the most popular. A 10m is another type with depower for jumping. Still not playing much with transeye. Needs better wind or vented. So have only had it out once after getting rev style.

As a beginner, often on a restricted budget, at least until he knows he will keep in the sport, getting multiple kites is not the way he want to go. He want to get the one kite, preferable cheap but good enough, that will cover 80% of conditions for him while learning, and determing if he will stay in the sport/hobby, and often he does not worry if the kite will last. He knows it will get beaten up, and will need replacement at some point. So he is looking for a kite that fulfills 3 points 1. Cheap or at least not expensive (all relative) 2. Will fly OK in his weather conditions 3. Must be good enough ™. No need to pay for too good, when you expect it to take abuse and be replaed. For me, I am convinced, that if I had gotten a Std sail Revolution, I would not have been as happy. Maybe they should be renamed. Semi-vent should be named standard as that is probably most usable for the majority of people living inland. Standard should be named low-wind/stable-wind, and vented should be higher-wind/gustier wind. Would help noobs get the right one as a starter. Or at least replace the standard name with full sail. It is not like with golf clubs, that Revolution is selling a set of kites SUL, std, semi-vent, vent, extra vent with a couple frames for some fixed price, and selling spare sails to top up when they get broken. This is how golf clubs are sold. Or maybe a smaller set, std, semi and full vent bundle. And compared to powerkites, I still find the Revs expensive. It is comparable to a 4-5 sqm HQ Beamer, Peter Lynn Hornet or Twister. And those larger foils has way more material, and requires significant more work effort to make, but of course they are made in China for the European companies. Still think Rev Kites should have a chinese manufacturer make a cheaper entry level kite, and possible sell under a different brand name. But of course it would compete against the EXP. Call it Quad Entry by Revolution. Use PC40 and make it semi-vent. Consider cheaper spars. Like I said, in Germany there are many competitors at a lower price range (dropkick, Mojo, Basic /BasIcarex etc). I see Revolution is missing out in this lower end market, and many are getting the alternatives. Elliot Dropkick and HQ Mojo are both €129 RTF on Amazon. Rev EXP is €199. You can get the baSic RTF (clone) for €179 std, €199 in vents, small vents, big vents. The Skyknife is more expensive at €299. (Rev B is €329). And chinese clones are only slightly cheaper at €115 + risk of taxes (which would make them more expensive than Dropkick / Mojo ). In EU there is not the same loyalty to US made, when there are german designed products at a lower price next to it. For non-tech stuff, germany has a better name than US stuff.

I was looking for an alternative, mostly to save money, also hoping somebody else improved the Rev design. So started with Freilein Transeye, which is more difficult to fly. Tried it a couple times. Should be better at flying backwards, but works in narrower wind range. Then I ordered the Freielin Windrider X std + vented from China (better looking than Revs), saving a little over the original. But I am happy for now, and they performs well (after getting better handles). Workmanship is great. Broke a couple spars (none flying), but they are cheaper. And has bought a set of Skyshark P90+P400 to get ligther + heavier spars. But future kite purchases will be the real stuff or licensed (Polo looks good, and the Shook has a good name). Since we have gusty winds here, I am glad I bought cheaper, and got the vented as well as the std. Would not have done if I went for the the original, and I would be struggling with the std. A friend also found the Revs too expensive, so he just bought an Elliott DropKick even though I told home to get the real thing, he has not had much luck with the dropkick yet. More alternative quads are appearing, at least in Europe (Basic, Mojo,SkyKnife, Mosquito) . I see this as something good. More people with quads will help drive innovation, and people will end up buyng the better models. Also surprised to see how the 3 new single-skin power kites are all European (Peter Lynn, Wolkenstürmer and Urban Kites). Seems like it is here things are happening. Borne Kites introduced its NASA style with depower this year. And only the Peak 2 is from a US company. So some areas of kiting seems to be doing well. Not sure with Revolution, but they do get more media exposure the last few years.

Will shorten the lines a bit. Guess I will lose 20 cm aka 8 inches. I can live with that. HQ will send me new sleeves. Kiting is fun, and a sport/hobby with many aspects. For me the Quads are for relaxing, and the dual-line and powerkites for power and excercise.

Was out again yesterday. Pretty variable and gusty wind. Had just been flying the HQ Symphony Pro 2.2 for a few minutes when a cloud with lots of hail dumped some of its load. Met another guy at the place where I kite. He was flying a Symphony Beach III 2.2, and he kept flying way higher in the wind window than me. I wanted the excercise, speed and pull at lower altitude. Lots of things happened today. First one of the included HQ 396 lbs lines broke inside the sleeve. Looks like the fibers where slowly pulled apart. Very fluffy line ending. So switched to my emergency 250 lbs 8-braid dynema fishing line set, and soft Climax straps. Lines worked fine, but the soft straps pulled themself a bit together, instead of keeping their width. So had to flatten them out once in a while. When I switched lines, I added a 10m tail for the looks, and for slowing the kite a bit. Later that session, when I bent to pick up the handles after having positioned the kite for launch, the kite just pulled the long plastic groundstake and flew like 100 meters. Even later, I by mistake switched left and right straps, and had a very short flight. Then I switched to my Rev-clone, and did some 15-20 minutes flying until next heavy clouds got too near. I quickly packed up, and while putting things in the bag, it started pouring down, and other people out walking in the area ran for their cars. I was in full goretex rain gear, geared for the weather. I had put it on more for stopping wind than for the rain. So an eventfull day out with mother nature.

Nice colors for this little one. Guess it wants to come to Europe

I fly mostly my vented. As soon as wind is good for it. So get something vented. Or a very cheap old rev and use soldering iron to put 50 holes in each side.

Children today have a short attention span. Want to be world champion at first attempt. So this thread is also started to help others get the right stuff to start on, rather than turning the kids away. Not sure what advice there is trying to teach children. Altitude awareness seems to one thing I need to work on, and more important, hand position, and teaching him how to move the hands back to neutral the kite can fly forward. Any other good advice ? Teach him to move one hand out another in to avoid the arms out to the sides ? For him it is all about having fun, making cool moves (the tail helps a lot), and less about getting good control. What are things to practice with a dual-line foil ? Flying 8, inverted-8, tight loops (and unwind again), larger circles, box ? Not sure how the speed is compared to my HQ Symphony Pro 2.2, if we can play follow the leader ? I have 2 pcs 10m tail, and one 30m tail to help adjust speed. But I almost got the feeling the 1.3 is faster than the 2.2. And I have a set of Dynema lines I can switch to. I guess flying together would be fun for him as well.

Gratulations.

Was out with my 7 y.o. son half an hour friday, he did not really fancy it, as my cheap 2m china kite has pulled him a bit on occations (and he was getting scared for straps), and the 1.4m china kite with crossed bridles more flies like a slightly controllable SLK than a 2-liner. So I had bought a HQ Symphony Beach 1.3 for him, and had a cheap 10m tail from China (< $3), which are actually good value for the money (and the only kite related thing I now buy from China apart from Dynema lines, lessons learned). This changed everything. At first we tried without the tail, and it was too fast. Then we added the tail, and it introduced a bit of drag slowing the kite down, but just as important, it makes the kite flying so much more interesting for my son. And he can see where the kite just was. He was all smiling. So this made all the difference. So be sure to start with a good kite, and a tail will add a lot to the flying. I was trying to tell him to use a neutral positition in front of his body, but he kept ending up with the arms spread wide, not being able to put more input into the kite. So he still has some practice to do. I do consider adding a piece of line between the 2 straps, to limit his movement, such that he can't spread his arms that wide. 20-25 inches. Will give him a wakeup call when he starts doing it. He don't want the video debriefing. In this session we had the usual variable wind, and a couple of time the kite collapsed, so it is important to tell him when it is not his fault. But it is part of it. Sometimes when we launched the kite w/tail also did not want to go that high in the wind window. I try to teach him to park at the top after launch. And if it stops halfway, no tight maneuvers.

Waiting for HQ to release the Toxic II power kite.

What are the difference of the different types of kite tails you can buy ? And when to use each type ? I have some cheap (<$3) 10m / 32ft flat 6 cm wide tails, sewn in the sides. Works very well on my SLKs, and also seems to be doing fine on my Symphony Pro 2.2. Looking for more, I can see that there are also icarex PC20 tails available ($5 for 5 meters), but I guess they are mostly for indoor kites. And there are tube tails that seems to be popular, but more expensive. I have also seen SLK kites with cheap plastic tails, but I guess this is mostly a cost issue ? And there are lengths from around 20 ft to 100 ft (Have one of those for my 10 ft delta). So what type of tails are best used on sport kites like the Symphony 2.2, or on framed stunt kites ?m And why ?

Did not get anything from the now closed cheap seller. My $12.50 2m China flame foil needs 10 kts to fly ok, and with Dynema it actually flies fine. Also had issues with side collapsing. But that is because it needs more wind. Bought a symphony beach III 1.3 for my son, and a slightly used Pro 2.2 for me for $50. 60 lbs Son can fly the 2m China kite up to 20 mph without getting pulled. So it does not have much pull power.

The chinese too good to be true deals were such. Got a refund from AliExpress. Bought a used Peter Lynn Hornet III 3.0m2 for 110 euros. My flying with the Revolution quad easily transferred to the power kite. It will generate some pull, and can make me sweat, but I am already planning for a larger and faster (HQ Toxic II).

I have my skydiving logbook (requirement), at 500 jumps the fun starts to go out of it. But computer stats helped a bit. Never thought about logging kite usage. Might be good to determine what to keep and what to sell. Apart from Revs (vented + std), I am starting with some HQ Symphonies and powerkites as well. SLK will not count.

I had issues the first few times. Never tried to fly it out. But switched to winding up the linesets one at a time. With my new PowerKite (Peter Lynn Hornet III, 3.0m2) I did a parapack after the first flight, and they cam out without any issues on my 2nd flight. But this is due to the much stiffer lines. They will not tangle if you just stuff them down in the bag in nice loops (but my Rev lines will use any chance). Also considered winding the lines while still connected to the Rev. That is, remove spars, roll up kite, collect lines/bridles in center, and use a winder, leaving 20 inches slack to work with. Then pack everything connected. But did not try that yet. I have 2 kites, one good set of handles. And I have not started using my 2nd lineset yet. For my PowerKite I do not need handles/lines for another kite.

Had issues as well, so now do one set at a time. Works every time. On my power kite with stiffer lines I just para pack. That is stuff the lines inside the bag.

I have a cheap kitebag from HQ for multiple kites, but my quad also cam in a nice bag where there is room for an extra set. Just wrap a rubber band around the extra set to keep them together. And as someone else said, keep them out of harms way. The 2 spars I destroyed was not from flying, but one became victim to a knee, and the other when handling the kite in a stupid way on the ground.

And remember, you do not need to replace the complete frame. You can replace the 2 sides of the leading edge and leave the center piece (faster and easier9, or the verticals. Some people are even using light conical skyshark tubes for the verticals. If you have some carbon tubes of the right size from you dualies, you can use them as well. The frame is where you do the tuning. Mix and match as long as it is symmetric. Got different Skyshark tubes myself to get something to play with. The camo colored and off-colored can often be had for a fair price if you look around. Unfortunately, I found out my China rev-style is slightly smaller than the original, so I will have to cut the tubes 4-5 cm shorter to use it there, rendering them useless for a real Rev, or have them stick out a lot and stretch the rubber bands. Another of the disadvantages of my attempt to go cheaper initially.

Just got a used Peter Lynn Hornet III 3.0 Power Kite. It smells like my parachute, and nothing like the chinese kites. Didn't know there was different smell to the materials. Just thought kites was supposed to smell different.