First Flights with New York Minute

[Nick Russell]

Monday we bought a pair of full sail New York Minutes and we took them for their first flights on the beach at Long Beach, WA today. The wind was in the 7-12 MPH range and I was very pleased with my NYM. It handled very well, though I think I need a l lesson on where to adjust my lines on the knots on the leaders on the handles. I had the top ones on the third from the outside on top and on the outermost knot of two on the bottom. I can't say at this point that I liked flying it as much as the full vent B series I recently acquired.

My wife has been flying the EXP I won last year on a Karma raffle here. She said her NYM was so much smoother and more responsive that it was like night and day. After a couple of hours the wind slacked off, but the kites still flew well for another 30 minutes or so. Overall, the NYMs seem to have been a good investment.

[Wayne Dowler]

Line connection points really depend on the leaders you have. Are they the stock "B" style leader about 6" long? Too short. Most make new ones much longer. Try using the inside knot at the bottoms and try a bit farther out on top. A good field test is to move them out and try launching. Too easy to launch - move them farther out. Too difficult - move them in.

Look on the Rev forum under tuning/setup, there's a thread with pix on leaders

http://www.revkites.com/forum/topic/4409-my-leaders-your-thoughts/

See if that helps!

[makatakam]

You can take the double-strand stock leader, untie all the knots, and retie them to form a single strand. Tie the knots about 5/8" to 3/4" apart. Doesn't have to be perfect, but left and right should be matched in spacing and overall length. Use the entire length of what you have, with the loop about an inch or two long; just enough to make the connection. That's the tops. The bottoms can be about 2 or 3 inches and only need two knots. The tops you will eventually trim just beyond the knot where you cannot launch the kite anymore. When the wind is howling, you may be able to use this one. The difference in overall length between top and bottom lines should be about 7.5 inches, but each flyer has his/her own preference. My top leaders are 14" long, and the bottoms are 6", giving me an 8" difference. The longer leaders give you something to grab that won't cut your fingers when doing slack-line tricks like catch and throw.

Your mileage will vary, and eventually you will settle into a range that works well for your style.