Well that was a better day :)

[Greg Brouelette]

For the past two days we've had all sorts of wind, but we've also been going to family and friends houses for Thanksgiving.  Today, when I have time to fly, of course the wind died down, but there was still something blowing around.

I drove down the hill about 30 miles to the town of Rocklin and tried scouting out another park.  There was a lot of open area which wasn't assigned as a soccer field and there was some light, spotty wind.  I pulled out my new favorite kite the Prism 3D and got it up in the air.  Once again, the 3D saved the day.  Although there were times when the wind completely died there were still times when I could fly it for several minutes.  At one point I must have had the kite in the sky for 10 minutes or more.  I tried to learn to do stalls at the end of the wind window but the kite wants to pivot right and left.  I found that I really have to anticipate the kite's movement to stop that pivoting.  A couple of times I even got the kite to do a small side slide.

I was feeling confident so I decided to try a 360.  The wind was really low so I brought the kite down and turned it to the right and parallel to the ground.  I swung it around to the right and started walking backwards fast.   It was working great and I got it just  past the 180 degree mark where I'm actually facing into the wind (if there was any).  Of course, that's when the wind decides to pick up and knock the kite down.

I flew a couple more sessions until the wind just stopped utterly.  I wrapped up my lines and was putting the kite back in my new kite bag when, of course, the wind really starts to pick up AND it's coming from the opposite direction.  All day  it's been blowing from the mountains towards the ocean.  Now it's suddenly turned around and blowing back up the other direction.  It really does seem like the best way to make the wind come up is to put my kite away.   On the off change that the wind will stay strong I rigged up the newly repaired Kymera.  No sooner did I get the kite in the air than the offshore wind died and the super light onshore breeze came back.

I decided to wrap it up.  As I got to the car I realized that what I thought was 20 or 30 minutes of kite flying was actually 2 and a half hours.  That's probably the longest time I've flown since I got back into kiting a couple of months ago.   If I can just find a clear flying field with no trees on a reasonably windy day it's going to be a blast.

[RobB]

That's what I call ironic wind... I can't count the number of times that I've put the kite back in the bag, felt the ironic wind, gotten the kite back out only to have the wind fail as soon as I was ready to fly !

[jeepinjeepin]

All of that sounds familiar. 

[John Barresi]

I've had my days too.. But the benefit of time and practice allows you to overcome all things.

It's a process of faith and fortitude, keep rocking.

[SHBKF]

I had dicey conditions today while at the beach. I can deal with high tide. I can deal with no wind. Today I had both for a time & went to my inland mode of flying the 4D on five meter lines during puffs of light air. I did so many landings that I actually learned a little better technique to keep the kite nose from falling toward me. That alone was worth the effort. Later, when the tide went out, I had enough room to practice 360's a bit. Flew one session in decent air with the Sea Devil. My wife said the black kite looked like a bird flapping it's wings during some of the maneuvers. Those may have been half axels viewed from the side. But ahhh, the Zen, what a thrill to finally connect with the big wing. Fly it slow, it almost talks to you. Persistence is it's own reward. Think I'll head back out right now for a night session......SHBKF

[makatakam]

3 hours ago, SHBKF said:

I had dicey conditions today while at the beach. I can deal with high tide. I can deal with no wind. Today I had both for a time & went to my inland mode of flying the 4D on five meter lines during puffs of light air. I did so many landings that I actually learned a little better technique to keep the kite nose from falling toward me. That alone was worth the effort. Later, when the tide went out, I had enough room to practice 360's a bit. Flew one session in decent air with the Sea Devil. My wife said the black kite looked like a bird flapping it's wings during some of the maneuvers. Those may have been half axels viewed from the side. But ahhh, the Zen, what a thrill to finally connect with the big wing. Fly it slow, it almost talks to you. Persistence is it's own reward. Think I'll head back out right now for a night session......SHBKF

Yup, that Zen's gonna get you. Once you click with it, there's no going back. I've been hooked on super low wind for a few years now. Demands finesse, flying at your best. Teaches you things about sail loading that cannot be learned any other way. Great way to transition to indoor.

[Wayne Dowler]

Funny you mention indoor!! I find flying indoors - improves my outdoor flying more than outdoor helps my indoor skills! Something about the touch and feel you develop indoors, without the wind's help, that makes your outdoor flying better.

[Greg Brouelette]

4 hours ago, Wayne Dowler said:

Funny you mention indoor!! I find flying indoors - improves my outdoor flying more than outdoor helps my indoor skills! Something about the touch and feel you develop indoors, without the wind's help, that makes your outdoor flying better.

I can see how that would make sense.  While it's frustrating having to search to find any consistent wind or a non-tree lined flying area up here, once you get the kite in the air that sense of touch really comes back to you.  Even though I'm not doing impressive tricks in these light winds, I love the feel of dancing with the kite.  It really is such a subtle thing to control the kite. That's certainly something I'm experiencing with the 3D and light winds which I don't remember experiencing back when I use to fly in big winds in Huntington Beach or San Diego.

[Rudy64]

I don't get frustrated when the wind dies. I just throw out the boomerangs until the wind picks back up.