Jason Mockler Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Hi all, Well, today was the day... I played hooky from work, and took out the Mid Vent I had borrowed from a friend. I hooked up my brand new 90ft 90# lines to the 15" No Snags, and tested the line length on the lines I got from The Kite Shoppe...dead on!! (Thanks Theresa). So I was about to get the Rev out and hook up and the sprinklers came on... The breeze was a steady 12mph, it was about 98 degrees, so basically like a hair dryer blowing on you. Needless to say I channeled my inner child, and ran through the sprinklers for a while... AHHHHHH much better. Ok sprinklers off, time to get down to business. I got out the Mid Vent and hooked it up... after much trial and error with the lines... JB makes it look so damn easy on the video, I got it hooked up correctly. Personally I am good with some trial and error to reinforce the right way to do things. So I grab the handles and like a good student squeeze the right break, and whoomp the kite flips over into launch position. "Ok Jason, so far so good... how is this gonna go?" Only one way to find out... LAUNCH! The wind takes it all the way up, and i squeeze it back down a little, "ok this is cool, I can feel how I need to correct when it starts to wiggle left and right... small corrections"....WIND SHIFT... uh oh 180, crash! but, it was a good crash, I know what went wrong. Squeezed the right break and whoomp, ready to launch again... LAUNCH! Flying good now... forwards, backwards, aim right, aim left, move forward and backward... such an awesome time I loved every minute of it!! I even tried a little inverted hovering... I was not great at it, but, I had a blast, and now have a reference point for what everyone is talking about. Was a great session, and I can't wait to do it again... SOON! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonfish Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Congrats! Sounds like you got a good start. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Mockler Posted June 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Congrats! Sounds like you got a good start. Yes it was a little intimidating until I launched, and then it just made sense... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oapbillf Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Sounds like you was in control until it left the ground, that's what I did ! Now where have I heard that before !!! And as they say, if you don't crash you're not trying Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
makatakam Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Yes it was a little intimidating until I launched, and then it just made sense... Boom, boom, boom, and another one bites the dust. And another one gone, and another gone, and another one bites the dust. Welcome to the addiction. The fun increases exponentially. Watch the kite setup and line management videos until you're sick of watching, and then watch a couple more times. Setup or breakdown should take no more than 5 minutes, blindfolded. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Mockler Posted June 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Yes it was a little intimidating until I launched, and then it just made sense... Boom, boom, boom, and another one bites the dust. And another one gone, and another gone, and another one bites the dust. Welcome to the addiction. The fun increases exponentially. Watch the kite setup and line management videos until you're sick of watching, and then watch a couple more times. Setup or breakdown should take no more than 5 minutes, blindfolded. Ya I was being ultra paranoid of tangles... so I walked back and forth a lot making sure everything was good...which brings me to a question... Obviously your lines are identified for power and brake lines by different color sleeving... do you guys also mark lines for right and left in some way, to make sure they are going on on to the kite right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyclad01 Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Ya I was being ultra paranoid of tangles... so I walked back and forth a lot making sure everything was good...which brings me to a question... Obviously your lines are identified for power and brake lines by different color sleeving... do you guys also mark lines for right and left in some way, to make sure they are going on on to the kite right? The lineset that came my Rev EXP, one side (pair?) has a red stripe on the sleeving and thats how I identify my left from right lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Mockler Posted June 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 My dualies have that... Will have to rig something up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
makatakam Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Some people like to mark them as left and right, but it isn't necessary, as long as you larkshead the top to the bottom. That leaves each side connected to itself at both ends. When you set up, wiggle one handle. If the end of the kite that wiggles doesn't match the hand you're holding the handle in, switch hands. Watch the video! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Mockler Posted June 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 I'm sure I will get more accustomed to it... Right now just being extra cautious, worried about getting things tangled, that is all.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
makatakam Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 All those twists that appear to be there are not really there. Once you tighten the lines all except one, maybe two, will disappear, and what's left is pretty easy to undo by twisting the handles either in unison or individually -- trust me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Dowler Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 I do mark my lines top, bottom, left, right. My way of keeping it straight in my head that I've hooked things up right. But I've also had a stroke, so patterning things helps keep me straight. About the lines - Once you've found a method that works - DO IT THE SAME - EVERY TIME!!! Habit, whatever you want to call it, but get used to doing it the same - every time out. I go so far as to never ask or allow some else to wind up for me - if it's messed up, I'm to blame!! But seriously, John's method, once mastered, is darn near foolproof! One of the only differences in our ways, is that I use 2 stakes. That allows me to keep the sets separated as I wind or unwind, with each handle slightly apart. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparkieRob Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 So long as you keep your lines paired you can just swap handles. That is, left top and left bottom paired and same for right. Takes about a second to swap handles over if you get L/R mixed. If you get individual lines mixed, that's a real pain.Line Management Tutorial is absolute gold for this lesson.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mystainedskin Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 I see fear in alot of people when it comes to lines. I hook up..unroll..kite inverted.Giggle my right hand....does the left wing wiggle?..yes Launch and work the rest out in the air..cross throughs also. Once your twist are coming out,you can normally give one hand slack in a landed or flight position and see a cross through. Always remember....these kites fly with ALOT twist..even in multiples (exception..old crusty lines.) All you need is right and left. I only mark top lines , kite end ...no sleeving. If sleeved, tops one color..bottoms another. Lines stay on handles and sides are "paired" when disconnecting kite. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Mockler Posted June 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 I see fear in alot of people when it comes to lines. I hook up..unroll..kite inverted.Giggle my right hand....does the left wing wiggle?..yes Launch and work the rest out in the air..cross throughs also. Once your twist are coming out,you can normally give one hand slack in a landed or flight position and see a cross through. Always remember....these kites fly with ALOT twist..even in multiples (exception..old crusty lines.) All you need is right and left. I only mark top lines , kite end ...no sleeving. If sleeved, tops one color..bottoms another. Lines stay on handles and sides are "paired" when disconnecting kite. I used this technique today... The lies looked kind of twisted up, and I was like do I want the unhook, and work through it al... Nah... Launch, much easier to see what you are looking at once in the air... Landed it back down spun the handles, and saved like 15 minutes walking back and forth... 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Dowler Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Another trick to use - after running out the lines, take a pair of lines in each hand and separate your hands - WIDE! Most, if not all, the false twists will fall out and leave you with very little to take care of. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Mockler Posted June 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Today was a good follow up to yesterday... I really started throwing it around today... Doing dives and inverted stops... When I got to the field the wind was about 20mph... So was hard to be delicate... I would say I ended up on the ground a lot more today, but would say I had more success today too... Learning that I need longer leaders on my tops... Wrists got a workout...hahaha. Was a blast had to finally pack it in cause it was starting to get dark... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tmadz Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Nothing like losing track of all sense of time when flying. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Dowler Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Here's a link to this leader subject, over on the Rev forum. Pix and lots of comments. http://www.revkites.com/forum/topic/4409-my-leaders-your-thoughts/ 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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