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kitepilot
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I have the desire to fly a train of kites but the unwillingness to purchase two more Beetles. So, I am now the proud owner of a Trlby Triple stack – red, black, and yellow.

Tried to fly them last weekend in light winds and was totally unsuccessful. The flight lines included are stretchy Dacron, and 190’ lines seem excessive. Felt foolish while dragging them across the flying field trying a self-launch, hopping around trying to pop them off the short grass must have been quite a sight! :blushing: OK, my questions:

1) What is the optimum wind to fly a Trlby Triple Train with 45’ tails?

2) What do you recommend for line material, length, and weight?

3) Is it possible to self-launch a triple? How?

4) Will the Duraply sails melt in the trunk of my car on the way to the flying field?

5) Should I give up on Stacks and fly a Cody? :lol:

Thanks for your advice. Kitepilot

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:blushing: ooooo right up my alley

woohooooooooooooooooooooo.

ok.. nice to meet ya first of all, and dont you dare give up on those trilbys... I need a cohort!!!!!!! And its about time someone else joined me .

First off.. winds need to be close to 14 on up... otherwise.. dont bother.. fly your beetle in lighter winds.

And dont feel wierd about dragging em.. I have done it many a time, ask cody lol.. You can self launch with no problem. Set up your lines and stake em.

then attach the stack and place the first kite with its leading edge in the sand.. yup.. upside down. Follow the rest of the stack in the same position, with the bridle lines taunt but not tight in between each kite. You may want to tip them back a bit and put a little sand at the bottom of each to hold em..

Make sure your tails(my favorite part) are all untangled and are coming off the same side on all the kites. I have a picture if that would help.

OK. Go to your lines. Remember that what ever leading edge is in the sand, you are going to pull the opposite line, in other words... your gonna take the shortest route up... so pull the line that has the leading edge OUT of the sand. In a good wind, one good strong pull will launch em. I had the pleasure of flying Doug LaRocks stack of twenty five, and I launched them the same way. Awsome experience .

As far as line goes, I flew on 80 lb spectra for years, but have since moved to 150 lb. ( am flying a 6 stack now in higher winds).

No, they will not melt lol ..... I have had my original set for 25 years now.. and yeah .. they look it... but they have survived alot!!! As my first kitemaking project, I just got done sewing my six stack in ripstop. I love em.

Also, when you get the hang of the 45 foot tails... on a good strong wind day, try 100 foot tails.. sigh.. awsomeeeeeeeeee..

Are you going to be at wskif this year? I would be happy to help you if you want, or we could do team trilbys??? woohoooooooooooo..

I like that.. Team trilby... hmmm has a nice ring to it...

Have fun, and good luck.. from a true trilby lover at heart..

nothing like a little tail.. winks.

mousieo

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Thanks for your advice, trilbymoussie. I launch my Stack by setting them up to drive the nose down into the ground. That will get it up. Have been trying, but San Diego just hasn’t had much over 8mph winds for the last two weeks. Even the ocean was quiet by the time I got there with the Trlbys. Glad you told me. Wouldn’t EVER have thought of that on my own! How can you get that picture to me?

The kite store owner warned me not to leave the tails in direct sunlight inside the compartment of the car, several customers had come back to return melted tails. That explains the melting issue with me.

I’ll follow your advice on the rest of the stuff, too. Can’t argue with twenty-five years experience! Is the ripstop lighter than duraply? Flown that new set yet? I’ll tell you about mine if you’ll tell me about yours! Thanks, you’ve been a lot of help! kitepilot

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oooo HEY THERE BOSLEY!

Anytime and I do mean that.. ANYTIME you need a pilot for that stack.. I am willingggggg .. omg thats gorgeous.

Sorry Guys, I have been busy working on a new Kite. (not telling till wskif)

Ok.. Trilby tails. heres What I do. For years now, and dont giggle cause I do mean years, my trilby stack (the plastic one) has lived in a black garbage bag. When I move it anywhere, I usually keep it in the trunk out of sun, or in my jeep cherokee in the back.. No problems so far and I have lived in southern CAl and here in central Oregon. Thats NOT to say it cant happen with the tails melting on you, but maybe the black bag saved me .

Anyway. I dont use a winder for the tails, but i do slip knot them all the way down to the ends. Ellen Pardee is a master at this and showed me and it works very well.

First get all the kites laying down stacked on each other.

Start at the kite end of the tail and make a loop(use all the tails as though they are one) .

Reach thru the loop and grab the tails close to the loop.

Pull them thru the first loop only enough to make another loop.

Reach thru the second loop, and grab the tails near it again, and pull that thru to make a third loop. etc till you reach the end of the tails.

It looks a bit like a giant braid, then I just loop it figure eight style and throw a Large Pony tail band on it. It wont hang up in the plastic tail material .. Yeah yeah, I know.. its not fancy but its practical! lol

It works for pretty much anything you need to keep untangled.

When you need to take the tails out. Simply get your kites layed down in a stack again, wieght em so they dont decide to make your life miserable for the next hour(thats happened to me a few times lmao ).

Then take the hair band off, and lay out the *braid*.

Simply free the very end of the tails then pull gently.

This pulls the loops back out one at a time and you can either shake em a bit to make sure they arent twisted too much around each other as you let them out, or just undo all the loops and then lay the tails to full length. In a good wind, gently shaking them will stretch them out as you go.

Kitepilot, As far as the ripstop set of trilbys goes? Its the best stack I have flown so far. It flys as responsive as the four stack of plastic. In fact, I have to be careful not to loop it too tight, as I will catch a tail up on the kite itself lol... I can usually take the stack to one side of the window(the area where the wind is strongest) and let it begin to stall.. as it does... run forword a step or two and it will sometimes unhook the tail. Not always, but hey. Worth a try if your alone and it does that. Note that I am using the regular plastic trilby tails on this stack. I didnt have time to build tails too before Lincoln City, but it is my plan to make ripstop ones. I think they will slide off a line alot easier if I hook em. Hope this helps.

OK John... how the heck do I post my trilby pics here???? eeeek...

hugs mousieo

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My Webpage

ok .. gona try this picture thingy.. eeek

hmm so far so good.. ok

that first pic is the stack belonging to Doug and Linda LaRock. Wonderful peaple. Please Keep Doug in your prayers for a complete recovery from his kiting accident.

Ok, this next pic is me flying Doug's stack, ok.. well it almost flying me. I launched it, by myself, but you can see the marks in the sand in front of us where I landed when Doug finally decided he didnt want to loose his stack lol.. He grabbed the second set of wrist bands, thank goodness and down we went .. thrill of a lifetime.

Hugs to you both Doug and Linda.

trilby pics

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:unsure: Ok sorry I am a dork lol. I linked you to my kite shots. but enjoy, there is a pic of the stack up in the air thats nice too... and a pic of Rick Browns cody war kite( the Lady Blue) . Some from last years wskif too. eek..

I will master this geek stuff yet!!!!

hugs mousie

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Thanks for sharing the pics, Trilbymoussie! Found them all quite entertaining (even saved the "What part of shut up didn't you understand?" to e-mail to my little sister!) Where's the beach? How did Doug have a kite accident? Is Doug's handle CLTKiter? I like the Codys, have checked out Rick's site and have been saving my quarters for one of my own. Will you post pictures of your ripstop Trlby's on your photo site?

I’m about to send my hard earned money to John for membership to KiteLife. Think he’ll put a Mirage Stack up for raffle?

The running slipknot. How clever. I learned that knot in the Navy. Forgot it as soon as I became a civilian. It’ll work great to manage my three tails until I get the stack home. You Are full of good information!

This thread is the only thing I've seen online about how to fly Trlbys. Yet they're advertised online as the most popular dual line kites around. Never saw them at the flying field before! Know of any Trlby websites? Found an impressive video clip of a world record stack of 104 Trlbys at http://jaysworks.com/kites/index.html.

Still trying to get my stack into the air. Once got them off the ground, but the 8-10mph winds just weren't enough. They stalled out at five feet up and wouldn't go up again. Even tried without the three tails. Going to try the beach again later today.

OK, I've talked enough. Any more and my lady will think I'm flirting :unsure: ! Thanks for all the info! kitepilot

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I got it up! I got it up! Drove by the big American flag at the community park and saw it was sticking about straight out! Just happened to have my Trlby Triple Stack in the trunk (since I’ve been assured it shouldn’t melt in there), pulled it out, and GOT IT UP!!! Without any assistance, not even from Viagra, I might add!

A Cute Story. A four and five year old brother and sister were watching the stack fly, laughing and running off with a holler whenever I looped the kites in their direction. Their Mom eventually came by and told them it was time to leave, to wave ‘bye’ to the triple stack. “Bye Mr. Kite!” the little boy yelled as he waved. I wiggle-waggled the Trlbys with a push/pull on the lines. The tyke ran off to his Mommy exclaiming, “The kite waved to me, Mommy!” It’s such a satisfying feeling to put a big smile on the face of a little kid! It was almost as big as my own!!! Just had to share this good news. kitepilot

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:o omggggggggggggggggggggg YOU JUST GAVE ME GOOSEBUMPS!!!!!!!

I am so glad! There is just nothing like it huh? . hugs .. I am really happy for you.

That is so sweet. Kids are so awsome. They remind us how simple and wonderful life is sometimes. I had a similair experience about a year ago.

I was flying the trilbys at lincoln City, during the fall fest. I was south of the main beach and doing my thing... the mp3 player on, and pretty oblivious to anything else. Suddenly a young boy of about 10 came running up to me.... eyes all lit up, and a huge smile. He stood there, not saying a word, just watching the trilbys swirl about. I turned off the music and said hi to him. He was smiling at me, but not saying a word, still watching the kites, totally taken by them.

There was no one with him, and no one about that looked like they were searching for him.

I held out the lines and asked him if he wanted to try it. (the kites were still up) and he dove in between my arms so fast he almost knocked me over. I had him in front of me, my hands in the loops, but his hands on them too.. and we just started flying, looping and ground sweeping. All the while, me chatting away explaining how to turn etc. He was still not saying a word. I finally asked him. Do you like them?..

He softly answered me. *I am flying, I am flying*.

We continiued to fly the trilbys for a few more minutes before I noticed a woman standing not to far off watching. I glanced at her and smiled and she walked up quietly.

She introduced herself... I cant remember her name now, only that this was Mom and her son's name was Andy. She cont to watch Andy loop the trilbys, I was just holding the loops at that point.

Andy was smiling so big, and he suddenly saw Mom there, and began to say, to her, *I am flying Mom, Look, I am flying*.. His speech was a bit broken, but he was so excited I figured it was that. Lord knows I have done it flying kites. Gotten so lost and *Up there* that nothing else really flows except that.

His mom was watching him, and took some pictures of him flying , and his smile.

Suddenly, without warning, Andy dropped the lines and ran off towards the kites. Lucky for me I was attatched to them. His mom looked at me, and thanked me with tears in her eyes, and then said to me.

"Andy is my only son. He is severely autistic and hardly ever speaks, or shows emotion. Thank you.. so much."

As she walked off to catch up with Andy who was now running down the beach, she left me standing there, with my heart melting, and my eyes filled with tears.

Sometimes we find bridges to places we dont even know are there......

Ty to Mnkyboy, who captured this moment for me.

Andy

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STOP! You're making me cry!! Kids can be so darned cute. I think it's a defense mechanism so that they'll live long enough to become teenagers. After that, they're hopeless, aren't they? :blink:

When does a stack become a train? IMO three Trlbys make a stack, four and more become a train. Am I close?

My biggest problem with flying the Trlby Trio (besides the lack of 14mph winds) was the bridle. Once I moved the towline up 1/4" the launch was much easier. (There's that bridle adjustment thing again, John!) Had another good flying session yesterday, even My Lady had fun with them. She loves the sound of the Duraply sails in the wind! :o kitepilot

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:o AHHHHH the age old question, what is a stack of kites and what is a train of kites? As far as I have ever heard stunt kites are always flown in stacks, single line kites are flown in trains! However, you can fly a stack of Codys so the rule does not always apply for single line kites! I guess when you have a special kite like a Cody you have to expect that the rules may be broken but when you are flying something else the rules do apply :blink:
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I haven't flown Trlbys in ages. Used to have a 6 "stack" :devil: , but can't for the life of me remember what I did with it. Anyways, ya'll started talking about flying stacks and making people cry or feeling good.

I used to fly down at Kualoa Park on the Windward side of Oahu with 3 other fellows. We did some team flying with 12 stacks of Hyperkites with 45' tails on the ocean side of the park with Chinaman's Hat in the background. We attracted a lot of tourists doing the circle island thang back then.

One fine morning, we were up with 4 12 stacks and getting into the "zone". You know, soul flying or...kite nirvana. That point where everything is just...you know you just can't do anything wrong. We had Suzanne Cianni's Velocity of Love on the Bose and this pair of tourists came up and stood behind us. Our sessions usually lasted a good 20 minutes and this was even longer and these 2 ladies just stood there the whole time.

After we landed, they both came up to us to thank us for the show. Both were just sobbing. They said they'd not seen and heard anything so beautiful since arriving in the islands and we had just set that straight. :blink:

Gosh I miss those days. :w00t: Yeah, and I'm really starting to miss that stack of Trlbys too. :o

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Enjoyed your story, spenuki. A feelgood story that didn't get tears all over my keyboard!! :blink: Kite flying in Hawaii!!!! I'll trade ya my Trlby Stack for a week long stayover at YOUR house!

Thanks for the definitions of stack and train, codykiteguy. That sets my mind straight.

BTW, Cody kite does sound a lot better than Cowdery kite, doesn't it. :o

kitepilot

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