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Oh, the waiting


Greg Brouelette
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I bought the Kymera kite that Brigenlonger (I hope I didn't botch the name too badly) had for sale in the kite for sale/ WTB section of the forum. He sent it via 2nd day priority mail ( awesome). It was in Indianapolis on Friday night, and was in West Sacramento at 5:39 am yesterday morning. We just had a good size storm come through so I had high hopes for good winds and a new kite.

West Sacramento is just 45 miles away. The tracker says it's out for delivery. But alas, it didn't arrive yesterday. I'll have to wait patiently until after work tomorrow.

I tried to fly my ancient Fire Dart by Action Kites today. What a dog that kite is. I'm guessing that kites have change quite a bit since I bought the dart over 25 years ago.

I hope I'll find out tomorrow.

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It is pretty exciting to wait for a new kite to arrive anticipating flying it that day. Got to do that yesterday with I kite I bought through this forum. I too have an ancient kite that I still fly once in awhile to remind me of those days. I have also been able to acquire kites from days past that were beyond my reach when they were new. They're all good in their own way. Flew an out of production Prism Stylus 2, thanks Reef Runner, on Friday. The little foil had some lessons for me and showed me some breakthrough techniques that will influence my flying of all that come after. Look forward to hearing about your first impressions of your new kite. SHBKF

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It's Here! But why am I here at home instead of work? It's because my wife had a bought of Diverticulitis and we were in the emergency room at 3am this morning. So I'm staying home with her and trying to get some work done remotely.

Now I have to stare at this beautiful kite and the wind outside and wait some more. But that's fine. She's much more important to me.

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Well, the wife is doing better and she gave me some time to test the Kymera. It's amazing. The winds in my "local" field (15 miles away) are pretty sketchy, bit I was able to fly it immediately.

The kite lifted off in some pretty light winds and I was able to ffly patterns pretty easily. I even did,after a couple of tries, a barrel roll and recovered from it. I have NEVER done that trick with any kite before, but the Kymera did it on my first day.

I really like it. And the kite itself as well as the bag it comes in really say "quality". The only issue was that the tension loops at the end of the leading edge spar kept coming off. I found that wrapping the tension loop around itself helped a lot. I did,however, watch John B's video on how to assemble the kite and I'm glad I did because those tension loops are tricky.

So after one outing I love it. I can't see myself flying my old Fire Dart any more. The Kymera is just too nice.

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I really like it. And the kite itself as well as the bag it comes in really say "quality". The only issue was that the tension loops at the end of the leading edge spar kept coming off. I found that wrapping the tension loop around itself helped a lot. I did,however, watch John B's video on how to assemble the kite and I'm glad I did because those tension loops are tricky.

Glad your first flight was enjoyable!

I'm afraid I did overcomplicate the wingtip tensioning but as long as the leading edges are pulled really tight, you could swap the fasteners out for any other method that you've had good experience with. ;)

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I may have misnamed the trick I was able to do. It might more accurately be a "backflip". It's the trick where you fly the kite to the top of the wind window, bring the line handles almost to the ground and give the kite a snap. Then stand up and raise your arms as high as you can to give the kite as much slack as you can. The kite rolls backwards tail over nose until the lines are wrapped once around the kite and are sitting on the yoyo stoppers.

Then, after flying the kite a bit, I gave the kite some slack and it started to roll back, as it started to roll forward again I pulled the lines and rolled it 360 degrees forward which puts it back in the standard configuration with no lines wrapping anything.

Is that a barrel roll or a back flip?

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Sounds like you got the kite to roll up. That's the way I first learned that trick. It also means that you are able to do another trick... stop the kite while the nose is pointing away from you, and tug either the right or left line. The kite will spin on its back. Let it do a full revolution, and then pull on the lines just as the tail is pointed at you again. Fly away... That's the Lazy Susan.

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Sounds like you got the kite to roll up. That's the way I first learned that trick. It also means that you are able to do another trick... stop the kite while the nose is pointing away from you, and tug either the right or left line. The kite will spin on its back. Let it do a full revolution, and then pull on the lines just as the tail is pointed at you again. Fly away... That's the Lazy Susan.

Oh I need to try that.

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Awesome!!

When you're ready to try some funkier moves... :)

http://v2.2.kiteclique.com/tutorials/randygs/

Those are amazing. Right now I'm trying to get a consistent stall and the occasional side slide. Basics first, fly with intent. I heard somebody say that once. ;-) I've found a not so great field just 15 minutes form my house. but the winds are pretty light. However, I found a great field near my work (45 miles away) so I'm going to try a post-work-pre-commute flight time tomorrow.

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