October Light Wind Flying with the Skyburner Solus...

[RobB]

 

Later the same day... When the wind dropped.

 

[SparkieRob]

Nice flying Rob. And the way that kite looks against the blue sky!


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[RobB]

6 hours ago, SparkieRob said:

Nice flying Rob. And the way that kite looks against the blue sky!


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Thanks, Rob. I was out trying to get some Virtual Freestyle footage. Funny that I though I would get that in the first outing... 

The strange thing about the Solus is that it looks yellow most of the time, but is actually flouresant green. I was really nervous when I ordered it, but it turned out better than I expected. I was trying to get a kite that can be seen against a dark sky, I had no idea that it would look good in bright sunshine, too.

[dmcneil]

Wish I could slide like that.


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[RobB]

On 10/31/2016 at 11:29 AM, dmcneil said:

Wish I could slide like that.
 

I'm still working on my slides. Every time out.

[dmcneil]

Any time I get out I work on slides a little. Such a graceful move. Nice counterpoint to all the spinning, flipping, and flopping.


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[RobB]

When I get frustrated with trying new tricks, I always settle back with some slides.

[jaydub200]

1 hour ago, RobB said:

When I get frustrated with trying new tricks, I always settle back with some slides.

When I get frustrated with side slides, I always settle back to doing other tricks.

I never have got the hang of doing slides and you do them without even thinking about it.  Grrrrrr.

[RobB]

The 'Slide' is the first 'trick' I learned, before I even knew about tricking kites. Before I saw any of the Dodd Gross or Prism videos. I had never thought to search Lycos for Sport Kites... I didn't know it was as big as it was, it was just something to occupy my  time at the beach, like playing frisbee. Once I saw my first Dodd video that came with a new kite I bought, all that changed. I spent a long time trying to learn every trick that's out there, but always returned to stalling & sliding once frustrations grew. 

Jon, I wonder how you hold the handles... whether you use over the wrist finger-tip on the leaders grip (Mark Reed) or the loose hand grasping the handles grip (Dodd Gross). The grip might be the difference, I find it hard to believe that you have trouble with the slide, I've seen video of you flying, you've obviously spent a lot of time on the lines. The Prism videos had some amazing looking slides in them, and I tried to emulate Mark Reed's way of flying when I was trying to learn all these tricks.

When sliding, I use my finger tips for micro adjustments to the steering line, and even find that tapping on that line helps for some reason, sometimes. I also recently found out that you can steer with either the leading or trailing line, whatever works. I never thought to notice until the discussion of slides came up in another thread.

[jaydub200]

Rob,

Thank you for your kind words.  There are only five videos out in the wild with me flying in them and I'm relieved to say you can't identify me by name on a couple of them.

I suspect (actually, I hope!) the one you are referring to was a Bryan Beasley vid from a Better Flying Day he had organised at Hinckley, which was the one time my flying on camera didn't 'freeze'.  My VF entry was more noticeable for someone being pulled over by the police in the background rather than my flying!

I use Tim Benson's knuckle duster and finger straps (see his web site) which are the perfect length for you to rest your index finger against the cord loop, so I don't think it is a sensitivity thing, just ineptness on my part,

Don't get me wrong, I can slide the kite, but it is only occasionally and always on a downward trajectory so even if I get it sliding I have to pull out before the kite hits the ground.

I will go so far as to say that I don't think I have ever felt in control of a slide.

Years ago when you were struggling with the JL, I wished I could jump on a plane to talk you through it and show you.  The side slide is another one where it would probably benefit me to spend some time with someone who can do the trick.

One of the guys in the Northern Monkey Kite Group in the UK is hot on slides, so perhaps I need to make an effort and go and fly with them again soon.

I do have some of Mark Reed's videos on the shelf somewhere, so in the meantime I'll have a look and see if I can pick some nuance I haven't spotted before.

I do think one of the issues with both the Prism and Dodd Gross videos is that the kites have moved on since and the size of hand movements tends to be exaggerated compared to what most modern trick kites require.

Always enjoy watching you fly, so keep the vids coming.

Jon

 

[Exult]

At 1:17 in the video you start with the nose almost pointing in the horisontal direction about two kite span widths from the ground. You then axel into a wing tip stand. That looks nice. Do you have any hints here? You just axel and walk forwards? At 1:27 you make another massively height dropping axle (although ending in the air instead of the ground), but seems to start from a spin stall with the nose pointing in the same direction as when ending the axel.

I find the yoyo wrap up and later "un-yoyo" starting at 4:17 is very clear. I'm not into yoyo stuff, but this is inspiring. During some future un-wrap (heading down, flaring and then pulling as you did here) I'll certainly avoid to go directly into a fade (as in the video) to avoid too much frustration.

On 10/27/2016 at 1:10 PM, RobB said:

The strange thing about the Solus is that it looks yellow most of the time, but is actually flouresant green. I was really nervous when I ordered it, but it turned out better than I expected. I was trying to get a kite that can be seen against a dark sky, I had no idea that it would look good in bright sunshine, too.

My thoughts are lead to a colorful beetle (and I don't mean the beginner Beetle kite here) with its inner wings extended or perhaps a colorful decorative moth.

[makatakam]

In order to hold a dual-line kite steady in one spot you must stall the kite, meaning dump all the pressure from the sail, and then control the amount of pressure to just enough to keep it in the air, or in the case of a tip-stand, the upper wing tilted back just enough to keep it neutral. In other words so it doesn't take off.

So, in order to keep it stalled, you either have to move downwind at just a bit less than the speed of the wind, or in very light wind just not power the sail up, or tip one wing back further than the other enough to spill just the right amount of wind from the sail to keep it from powering up.

Much easier said than done, as in my case. I know the dynamics of the moves involved, but I still can't do it because I don't devote enough time to practicing it. I'm into quads, and just don't spend the amount of time I should with the dual-line kites I have. And I have some relatively rare and awesome duals. I need more motivation than I've had so far.

[RobB]

1 hour ago, makatakam said:

In order to hold a dual-line kite steady in one spot you must stall the kite, meaning dump all the pressure from the sail, and then control the amount of pressure to just enough to keep it in the air, or in the case of a tip-stand, the upper wing tilted back just enough to keep it neutral. In other words so it doesn't take off.

So, in order to keep it stalled, you either have to move downwind at just a bit less than the speed of the wind, or in very light wind just not power the sail up, or tip one wing back further than the other enough to spill just the right amount of wind from the sail to keep it from powering up.

Much easier said than done, as in my case. I know the dynamics of the moves involved, but I still can't do it because I don't devote enough time to practicing it. I'm into quads, and just don't spend the amount of time I should with the dual-line kites I have. And I have some relatively rare and awesome duals. I need more motivation than I've had so far.

What will it take to motivate you ? Hovering a Rev is easy... albeit fun. Hovering a dual line kite is a challenge, even for a few seconds. But the reward when you get it ? Motivating...

I don't know, it keeps me going. I pledged to learn to fly like 'those guys in the videos', even if it took the rest of my life. I'll let you know how it's going along the way. Hopefully I have at least 20 years left, the process is slower than I thought at first.But, still having fun !

[dmcneil]

One of the techniques mentioned in the Prism video is backing the kite down from the top of the window while keeping it pointed straight up and steady. They say this will give you the touch to control a slide. I practice it when I am out. It can be harder than you think sometimes.


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[RobB]

5 minutes ago, dmcneil said:

One of the techniques mentioned in the Prism video is backing the kite down from the top of the window while keeping it pointed straight up and steady. They say this will give you the touch to control a slide. I practice it when I am out. It can be harder than you think sometimes.


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Yes, you can see that move at about 0:35. It's a small 'back down', but I think it's similar to what they were doing in the Prism video. That's something I've worked with, too. Lots of good things in those Prism videos, but it takes a lot of time to work through everything that they offer. I've been on a break from learning tricks, I've spent the last few seasons trying to fly better. Back to pattern flying, working on stalls, landings, etc.

[RobB]

11 hours ago, Exult said:

At 1:17 in the video you start with the nose almost pointing in the horisontal direction about two kite span widths from the ground. You then axel into a wing tip stand.

I have to say this up front, I don't think about my flying too much while I'm flying. I found that for me, trying to remember when to push, when to pop, the right does this while the left does that... just became a jumble in my mind & I would crash and become frustrated shortly. It took me a year to learn how to axel. Many months to learn other tricks. I am dyslexic, ADD, and OCD, so my mind is jumbled to begin with. 

  But, in looking at that, it was an axel with too much slack that landed in a lucky position. Hold it... Fly away like I meant to do that !

11 hours ago, Exult said:

At 1:27 you make another massively height dropping axle (although ending in the air instead of the ground), but seems to start from a spin stall with the nose pointing in the same direction as when ending the axel.

That was a 540 with a very short flare at the beginning. One thing that may not be evident is how little wind there was for a standard kite. At most, the wind was 5mph, probably lower. The Solus doesn't do flat 540s to begin with, and with the lack of wind, the kite tends to drop quickly when you throw a trick at it.

 

11 hours ago, Exult said:

I find the yoyo wrap up and later "un-yoyo" starting at 4:17 is very clear. I'm not into yoyo stuff, but this is inspiring. During some future un-wrap (heading down, flaring and then pulling as you did here) I'll certainly avoid to go directly into a fade (as in the video) to avoid too much frustration.

The roll-up take off, or lazy susan take off. The important thing is to get the nose of the kite to tip towards you, almost fall into the dreaded dead launch position. Sweep your arms back & immediately slack. When you unroll, be ready to slack at the end of the unroll. That will put you into a fade, hold that or quickly roll out, but if you don't slack, the whole thing will turn into a nose plant.