Practicing at the Park

[JohnC]

Guess I created a quite a stir the other day while at Red Bud Park.  I had several people ask me about how does that kite work and a few kids ask me if I was a professional.  I admitted that I am not, but just a beginner and doing some much needed practice.  My wife was watching the little one on the playground and noticed that I had quite a few of the parents watching my 4D flying around in the clearing.    Fun times.  Hopefully one of those kids will look further into the hobby. 

[leen]

Nice experience. I had several like: "Aren't you a bit too old to play with kites?" or "Do you realize you are flying in a nature reserve?" 😉 And sometimes the mood changes from "Ohhhh" and "Ahhhhh" to "How hard can it be?" in a few minutes. Normally I avoid crowded places, but sometimes a nice moment presents itself, when a kid on the beach after watching a while asked me: "Where is the motor?" People are amazing. 

[Edmond Dragut]

trust me, with a 4 lines kites i had a guy who look at my performance 10-15 minutes before to come and ask me if is an old model because now everything is wireless. I was speechless 

[leen]

🤣 How wonderful. But who can blame them? I know people who never saw a 4-liner in their life. And when you get to talk to them they also think we are only preventing the kite from crashing and have no idea we are able to fly it wherever we like. But I love some reactions very much.

[JohnC]

On 3/9/2021 at 4:39 PM, Edmond Dragut said:

trust me, with a 4 lines kites i had a guy who look at my performance 10-15 minutes before to come and ask me if is an old model because now everything is wireless. I was speechless 

That's pretty funny, Edmond.  I guess several of the parents at the park where asking each other where the engine was.  My wife said you could not see the lines and when it seemed to hover, people where really wowed. 

The only draw back from the whole thing was that I had several dozen sand burrs stuck to the bottom of each shoe.  Thank goodness they didn't seem to penetrate the kite while on the ground. 

[JohnC]

On 3/9/2021 at 2:43 PM, leen said:

Nice experience. I had several like: "Aren't you a bit too old to play with kites?" or "Do you realize you are flying in a nature reserve?" 😉 And sometimes the mood changes from "Ohhhh" and "Ahhhhh" to "How hard can it be?" in a few minutes. Normally I avoid crowded places, but sometimes a nice moment presents itself, when a kid on the beach after watching a while asked me: "Where is the motor?" People are amazing. 

I have gotten the "Aren't you too old to be.." statement when telling people I like to play board games.  Cars, antique tractors, board games, or kites, I figure it's all the same- enjoyment. 

 

[leen]

The most important thing is that you enjoy what you are doing yourself John. 😉 Do what you like, not what other people like. Cheers mate.

[Exult]

On 3/9/2021 at 9:43 PM, leen said:

when a kid on the beach after watching a while asked me: "Where is the motor?"

Cheating children (not that you did) isn’t generally a good thing to do (except when it comes to the Tooth fairy, the Easter bunny and Santa Claus). I was instead thinking of a grown-up neighbour's reaction here a few months ago when I was out on the parking with the Rev Indoor. She asked:

”How is it being propelled?”

I thought and :

”It is electrically powered and is propelled by an ion drive (like e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-r-p2iHoDA ). You see the lines are not only lines. They are also thin insulated high voltages wires. Being high voltage only a very small cross section of the wires is required. Sewn into the trailing edge of this wing there are fine metal wires forming a simple more or less continuously distributed ionic thruster. High voltage generators, such as in bug-zaps, are nowadays very small so that they are nicely fitted into the handles.”

No I didn’t say this. I’m sure that it would only add to the perceived strangeness of this regular activity that the neighbours are already too polite to express anything about.

[leen]

Yes, there is a temptation is to say such a thing 😄, but I always prefer that they ask if they just comment. And often the thought behind such a question is not even that strange. I let the child I was talking about fly my kite (with my help of course) and he enjoyed it visibly. Isn't it wonderful, if you can convey this like this? Hopefully he will be just as interested in a few years and will also buy one or more kites.

[Exult]

47 minutes ago, leen said:

Yes, there is a temptation is to say such a thing 😄, but I always prefer that they ask if they just comment. And often the thought behind such a question is not even that strange. I let the child I was talking about fly my kite (with my help of course) and he enjoyed it visibly. Isn't it wonderful, if you can convey this like this? Hopefully he will be just as interested in a few years and will also buy one or more kites.

You are a kind fellow kiter. When it comes to lending kites out to beginners, I have only done it with DLKs (in light winds) and the Smithi Pro (being a foil) quad. When I comes to framed quads I think that I still have too little redundancy to lend them out to beginners.

[leen]

28 minutes ago, Exult said:

You are a kind fellow kiter.

Ha-ha, well, it was a light wind and I kept my hands holding his hands most of the time, but he did surprisingly good. I told him it was the same as riding his bike and that kinda ring a bell it seems. The joy on his face was priceless. The only kites I fly beside Revs, are a Nasa wing 250 and a C-quad 3.2 and those are no option for beginners.

[Edmond Dragut]

especially Nasa wing is not a joke. I have a 500 or 600 one not sure and i want to convert to one line this year if will work. the bridle is a bit  twitchy but i hope to find that sweet spot to make him stable