A kid walks up to me...

[Reved]

And says "hey mister, can I try that"

I'm at Berkeley Cesar Chaves park. It's blowing 10-15 with gusts. The JB pro full vent is in the air and I have about 25 hours total flying time on quads.

I remember a story about someone not letting someone try their kite when asked.

Didn't want to be that guy. So I turn around and he is about 8 I'm guessing. And I told him to hold out his two index fingers. And I hook the already flying kite handles in his fingers. He got an idea of the pull and a little steering for about 10 seconds.

Then I showed him how to hold the handles, how to launch, how to flip over a kite that's inverted, and in 2 minutes he was launching and landing and holding a hover.

Yelling for his folks "hey Mom, Dad! Look what I can do"

They drove away asking how much a starter package costs.

Then the wind picked up to 25 with gusts and things were starting to get out of control.

I thought back to JB line video and wished for heavier line. Luckily Tom's kite truck was right there and he had 175# 250# &350# 100' line sets.

I picked the 250# and was flying again for a while doing much better until I tried to do a spin and it bowtied and broke a ferrule.

Good day of flying

[Reef Runner]

Great story ! Sorry about the "bow-tie ending, though ! At least the kid went home happy

[makatakam]

A kid walks up to me and says, "Hey, mister, can I try that?".

I answer, "Sure, if you have $300.00 in your pocket! -- ok, ok, don't get riled, just kidding, kid." Then I show him/her how to do it, but only after they understand it's not a 5-dollar toy. I have had the kite break several times while showing others how to fly, but only because my modifications to the kite make it more fragile than factory issue. But I still get everyone of them to grin that silly grin. Greatly satisfying..... and it makes me smile.

You can't fly a kite without smiling.

[Paul LaMasters]

A thirty dollar solution can prevent this set of circumstances from probably even happening again,

.... if you're man enough

[Reef Runner]

A thirty dollar solution can prevent this set of circumstances from probably even happening again,

.... if you're man enough

Paul - Are you talking about carrying a "learner kite", for the kid, or are you referring to a modification to the Rev ?

[Captainbob]

A thirty dollar solution can prevent this set of circumstances from probably even happening again,

.... if you're man enough

Paul - Are you talking about carrying a "learner kite", for the kid, or are you referring to a modification to the Rev ?

I'm betting Paul is referring to a set of Magic Sticks which would have kept the Rev from doing a bowtie and breaking a ferrule.

[Tmadz]

Makatakam has modified his rev's to shed every gram of weight. My first go on a Rev was trying his. Of course I popped a couple of his connectors and it freaked me out. Almost put me off Rev's until one of the other fliers showed me that Rev's are extremely sturdy.

I wouldn't have an issue letting a kid try mine. I always keep my EXP with me now JIC.

[Reved]

A thirty dollar solution can prevent this set of circumstances from probably even happening again,

.... if you're man enough

I have a kickstand on my SLE standard after reading the latest threads on the subject.

Did I mention that in "2 minutes" he had control of the kite that took me hours to do. He had a couple of crashes on the lawn that didn't really concern me at all. And one time when he was going to have a hard crash, the kid ran forward to soften to blow before I could say anything.

The movie "Searching for Bobby Fisher" came to mind and I looked closely at this kid who barely came up to my navel, And thought, he looks at bit like a young JB.

[Captainbob]

A thirty dollar solution can prevent this set of circumstances from probably even happening again,

.... if you're man enough

I have a kickstand on my SLE standard after reading the latest threads on the subject. After seeing how simple they are, I bought the materials from Tom's kite truck to make 3 more sets for some of my other quads. I just haven't made then yet.

Did I mention that in "2 minutes" he had control of the kite that took me hours to do. He had a couple of crashes on the lawn that didn't really concern me at all. And one time when he was going to have a hard crash, the kid ran forward to soften to blow before I could say anything.

The movie "Searching for Bobby Fisher" came to mind and I looked closely at this kid who barely came up to my navel, And thought, he looks at bit like a young JB.

Hopefully the kid can talk his parents into getting him a Rev for his birthday.

[Reved]

I remember that the ferrule broke when I was practicing my inverted hover, not during a spin. I found that I had more control of the inverted hover if I move the kite way over to the right side of the wind window. Any inv hovers attempted downwind or on the left side would just go out of control quickly.

I spent the last 4 days practicing 4 hours a day learning how to fly. It was a rocky/sandy beach on the Russian River. From 10am to 6pm it would blow steadily 10-15 mph. Learning was pretty easy in those conditions. Water starts were fun. Any attempts at inv hovers usually ended with crashes. The leading edge was showing signs of abuse so I opted to practice inv hovers on a sandy beach or lawn.

[Captainbob]

I remember that the ferrule broke when I was practicing my inverted hover, not during a spin. I found that I had more control of the inverted hover if I move the kite way over to the right side of the wind window. Any inv hovers attempted downwind or on the left side would just go out of control quickly. 

 

I  spent the last 4 days practicing 4 hours a day learning how to fly. It was a rocky/sandy beach on the Russian River. From 10am to 6pm it would blow steadily 10-15 mph. Learning was pretty easy in those conditions. Water starts were fun. Any attempts at inv hovers usually ended with crashes. The leading edge was showing signs of abuse so I opted to practice inv hovers on a sandy beach or lawn. 

Once I put Magic Sticks on one of my Revs, inverted hovers were a piece of cake. I quickly ordered a second set, and if I get another Rev, will order a 3rd set at the same time.

[Wayne Dowler]

Whether or not you use sticks - here's a simple exercise for inverted hovers. Land LE down, get everything adjusted for comfort and control, then take a step or two backwards as you rise up off the ground. Try holding a balanced position as long as you can. As soon as it falls apart, step forward as much as you did backwards. Gradually, you should find yourself holding that hover for longer periods, as you work on it! For fun, turn it into a slide, then hover, and repeat! Turns a boring exercise into a new skill set!

[Reved]

Whether or not you use sticks - here's a simple exercise for inverted hovers. Land LE down, get everything adjusted for comfort and control, then take a step or two backwards as you rise up off the ground. Try holding a balanced position as long as you can. As soon as it falls apart, step forward as much as you did backwards. Gradually, you should find yourself holding that hover for longer periods, as you work on it! For fun, turn it into a slide, then hover, and repeat! Turns a boring exercise into a new skill set!

Thanks Wayne, I will try that.

The second day at the river, I put up 4 SLKs and practiced flying or hovering around them. Sometimes I would catch a tail or line from one of the other kites and they would start spinning. The trick was to reverse the spin and get out of it.

[Wayne Dowler]

Be careful - most SLK line won't play nice with a Rev's lines!! Made of 2 completely different materials! Most of the time the Rev line goes first, not a great proposition, considering their cost!!

[Captainbob]

Here is what helped me to get the inverted hover down. Whether the Rev is LE up or down, the control input needed to keep the kite level is exactly the same. In other words, if the right side of the LE starts to drop, that means that the kite is starting to rotate clockwise. To stop that rotation and bring the leading edge level again, a bit of forward thumb on the left side will cause it to rotate CCW, bringing it back to level again, regardless of it's LE orientation. Once I got that figured out, keeping it level in an inverted hover was simple, since whether or not it was inverted, didn't matter.

[Reved]

I remember when you made that discovery during your learning. I even took a screen shot so I could refer to it.

[makatakam]

Another good way to get your inverted hover rock-steady is to fly to the top of the window, turn over and fly down to the ground very, very, very, very, very slowly, or as slowly as possible without wobbling, trying to go slower each time you repeat. If you just do the above 100 times, you should have a steady hover down pat.

[Reved]

That is how I land it these days. I didn't think of just repeating the move. Good to know. Thanks

[MGower]

another one is to not look at the whole kite but just the centre it will speed up your responses making it easier to control