iFlite Vented on Long Line

[West Australian]

This is about an Indoor Glider, Outdoors...

I found myself on the field in zero wind, I am not much of a zero wind flyer with anything other than Gliders.

I decided to try the iFlite Vented outdoors. I got out my little spool of about 5m of fine line and cast out about 3m of it.

I got a great fly playing with the open space, no walls, light fittings, furniture. It was awesome to have the space around me to try something new.

After a short while the Breeze picked up and I packed the iFlite away and went back on the Rev SUL.

The following day I was once again on the field in Zero wind.

This time I pulled out the roll of line I had cut the 5m from.

I stared playing with the iFlite on longer and longer line.

Getting out to 25-30m It was eating up the line and supporting it well on the glides.

Then Suddenly I noticed a bit of tension in the line, a Breeze... Not a wind, but a light breeze. Less than 1mph.

I let the iFlite float out in the breeze and pull more line with it. With some footwork and careful feeding of the line I got the little iFlite out on the full 110m.

I staked the end down and stood back, Ok, where did my kite go?

It was a cloudy day and I have a white iFlite....

The line I use is very thin 0.08mm (0.00315"). The line was not visible more than 10m away.

After some solid searching the kite could be found, but it was not easy.

It was surprisingly stable, it sat fairly still and maintained a slight tension on the line.

I am not sure how much breeze was up where it was, but there was nothing on the ground.

After a while someone started flying a R/C drone under the iFlite, so I decided to bring it in.

The Outdoor/Long line is a new aspect of the iFlite that I really enjoyed.

Thanks for reading my little story, comments appreciated.

WA

[SHBKF]

My furthest out flight in the last year was a Wala on 500 feet of line. It looked very small & very high reminding me of flying kites as a youngster out West. I would put up my small delta on two or three spools of line, sometimes losing sight of the kite until the wind would shift the kite so I could spot it again. The line would get heavy enough that you did not have to tie it off. The weight was enough to hold it for you. The kite would not go higher after too much line. It would just be further away. Thanks for stirring my memory of those early days. It was my first plastic kite & my first delta called "The Eye in the Sky". I got it as a premium for signing up new paper subscribers. I was a bicycle paper boy delivering the Deseret News in Brigham City, Utah. Made about fifty bucks a month delivering sixty papers each day. It was good money for a kid back in the sixties & a little more than my brother made each month as a private in the Army at that time.

[West Australian]

Great Story Dayhiker, thanks for sharing.

Kites can give us great memories.

Anyone else have a memory to share?

[bbailey49]

I would always tie kites to the seat post of my bicycle with about 10 feet of line and ride around and around our neighborhood keeping it flying as long as I could. I also remember attaching a second lineset to a cheap, single attachment point delta and being extremely frustrated when the stupid thing would not do any tricks when I pulled on the handles.

[West Australian]

Awesome Memory Bro, thanks for sharing.

It would be great to have a picture of you riding around, I don't suppose any exist?

[bbailey49]

None that I am aware of. Might make one with an old school feel on my present bike.

[West Australian]

That sounds great!

Give it a Black & white finish too.

[Mikefule]

Referring to the comment upthread about multiple spools and the line becoming too heavy.  Many years ago I flew my red delta from the top of a well known "pointy hill" (not really a mountain) called Thorpe Cloud (Dovedale, Derbyshire, UK) and I daisy chained a series of spools and lines.  The kite went very high indeed, and a long way down wind, until I reached the stage where the line was angling down from my hand into the valley, then back up to the kite from the next spool.