RobB Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Hello, I have hit a ‘glass ceiling’ with my kite flying. I’ve learned to fly the simple moves (loops, stalls, landing, side slides) but I seem to not be progressing much past that. I’ll pull something off by accident, but most attempts to duplicate what I’ve seen in the videos, or read step by step instruction, results in either an ugly wobbly wobbly arms flailing near crash, or a full blown catastrophic crash & burn. I’ve broken countless pieces (I’m helping Goodwinds kites to reach record sales this year) and I’m convinced the videos are a ploy to get you to break your kites & buy more. How about the video that shows an E2 landing in the water and then taking back off ?!? That’s the easiest way to break a kite, go ahead, dip a wing in the water… I have 7 dual line stunters now, because I can’t wait for the parts to come for the last kite I broke. I guess the best flying kite I have is a Big Bang by New Tech, and I can see a definite difference between flying that kite and my first kite. I’ve seen that I can buy some kites for twice the price, are they twice the kite, or is it just a designer label thing ? They seem to have similar construction & dimensions. I don’t imagine that they break less. Four of the kites I have are made by New Tech, so I have a limited exposure to other manufacturers. I stuck with New Tech because they have been really good to me in the tech support department, and I have the Dodd Gross Flight School video. I am geographically isolated from other flyers, so going to a club meeting and watching others who are better isn’t an alternative. With that said, how best to progress ? Just stick with it, and one day it will just click ? Is there a better video than Flight School ? How about lines ? I use the lines that come with the kites, as is. Most are in the 100-150# range, 80- 100 feet long. Should I use longer lines ? Shorter ? lighter ? Does a good (pro) lineset make a huge difference ? Thanks for reading… -Rob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Barresi Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Rob... Really, truly, it sounds like you need to come out and hang with some other fliers for a weekend. We've got an event coming up in Westport (WA) next weekend, and it's not too terribly far from Seattle... Nothing beats spending time with other enthusiasts. The Westport event is both a kite festival and kite competition, but no one expects anyone to compete... Kiting is a social, laid back scene. You'd learn more in a single weekend than you would spending weeks on the forum. Any chance you can make it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobB Posted July 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Rob... Really, truly, it sounds like you need to come out and hang with some other fliers for a weekend. We've got an event coming up in Westport (WA) next weekend, and it's not too terribly far from Seattle... Nothing beats spending time with other enthusiasts. The Westport event is both a kite festival and kite competition, but no one expects anyone to compete... Kiting is a social, laid back scene. You'd learn more in a single weekend than you would spending weeks on the forum. Any chance you can make it? Hey John, Thank you very much for the invite, but it's a big trip for me. I have always wanted to see Seattle, I've only gotten as far nort as San Francisco on the west coast. I can take vacation for a few hours at a time, that's why kiting works great for me. I haven't had a real week long vacation since 1999. When I finally do take that time, I'll keep an eye on the event calendar when planning my destination. Thanks again... -Rob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Barresi Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 I just caught elsewhere that you're in Long Island... I'd read that bit about Goodwinds, and assumed you were in the Northwest. Sorry Rob! I'd agree with REVflyer, do what you can to look up some fliers in your area. The pay off will be huge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mousie Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 I have had the same problem.. not being around other flyers... you can really be held back.. but... even flying with one other person can help alot... John is probably wondering why I try to hit the beach on Friday afternoon before comps... it's because if I can get him to spend 5 or 10 minutes with me ... I have learned so much in that short amount of time, it's worth taking the friday off from work to get that.. hehe.. he teaches me a trick on friday.. and i tryyyyyyyy to throw it in my routine on Saturday.. doesn't always work, but its sure worth a try ... hugs John.. I owe ya! hugs mousie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windofchange Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Everyone had to learn at one time. Best advice I can give is to just stick with it. If possible, try to fly in lighter winds than in heavier winds. Lighter winds are much easier to learn some of the more advanced tricks than in strong winds. Lighter winds are usually easier on your kites as well, especially when the trick goes sour. As everyone here has mentioned, a half hour with someone next to you stepping you through the tricks will take months off of your learning curve. When I was learning the axle, I was doing everything perfectly correct.....just doing it at the wrong time in the wrong place in the window and it was baaad!!! Within 5 minutes with someone who knew what they were doing telling me when to do the axle, I was pulling off axle's left and right with no problem at all and it all "finally" started to click together. Other tricks started to flow and I finally began to connect with the kite and the wind. The kite you are flying does make a difference. Each kite seems to have its own personality and will do a couple of tricks exceptionally easy but may put up a fuss when doing others. New Tech produces some fine kites and should be perfectly fine for your progress. I wouldn't recommend purchasing a high dollar kite until you do get some of the more advanced tricks mastered. No reason to destroy a $300.00+ kite when your learning, especially when there are kites out there at a fraction of the cost that are capable of the same tricks. Once you do master the basics and are not pile driving the kite into the ground, one of the high dollar specialty kites will be a dream come true to fly...and in my case has made me look a lot better than I really am! (I absolutly love my Deepspace) Shorter lines will also let you feel the kite more directly and line quality makes a huge difference as well. Cheap lines are not nearly as strong as high quality lines and will give you a spongy type of feel. Think of it like putting balloon style garbage tires on a high performance F-1 racecar. Shorter lines will speed the kite up a bit, but it makes it so that you dont have to walk nearly as far when you need to stand your kite back up after a crash. Less time walking and more time flying is always good. I love Laser Pro Gold line or Shanti line. Both of those are 100% spectra with a very tight weave and almost zero stretch. Usually you will never need anything stronger than 150# spectra (depending on the kite of course). Most of the time I am flying on 90# 70-80 foot lines. If you are breaking 150# line then I can only assume that your lines were either damaged by a sharp rock or something, or that you are flying a very large kite with a lot of power, or that you are flying in very strong winds. If it is the strong winds option then tricking in those winds will be very difficult to do and that may be what is limiting your learning curve. There are a ton of pilots on this forum that are much better at flying than I am and would have tons more experience than I do on learning. These are just some of the things that I remember struggling with when I was learning and hope they help you out. Theres tons of experience on this forum so keep reading and know that the advice you get here will be spot on and very valuable. Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobB Posted July 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Everyone had to learn at one time. Best advice I can give is to just stick with it. If possible, try to fly in lighter winds than in heavier winds. Lighter winds are much easier to learn some of the more advanced tricks than in strong winds. Lighter winds are usually easier on your kites as well, especially when the trick goes sour.As everyone here has mentioned, a half hour with someone next to you stepping you through the tricks will take months off of your learning curve. When I was learning the axle, I was doing everything perfectly correct.....just doing it at the wrong time in the wrong place in the window and it was baaad!!! Within 5 minutes with someone who knew what they were doing telling me when to do the axle, I was pulling off axle's left and right with no problem at all and it all "finally" started to click together. Other tricks started to flow and I finally began to connect with the kite and the wind. The kite you are flying does make a difference. Each kite seems to have its own personality and will do a couple of tricks exceptionally easy but may put up a fuss when doing others. New Tech produces some fine kites and should be perfectly fine for your progress. I wouldn't recommend purchasing a high dollar kite until you do get some of the more advanced tricks mastered. No reason to destroy a $300.00+ kite when your learning, especially when there are kites out there at a fraction of the cost that are capable of the same tricks. Once you do master the basics and are not pile driving the kite into the ground, one of the high dollar specialty kites will be a dream come true to fly...and in my case has made me look a lot better than I really am! (I absolutly love my Deepspace) Shorter lines will also let you feel the kite more directly and line quality makes a huge difference as well. Cheap lines are not nearly as strong as high quality lines and will give you a spongy type of feel. Think of it like putting balloon style garbage tires on a high performance F-1 racecar. Shorter lines will speed the kite up a bit, but it makes it so that you dont have to walk nearly as far when you need to stand your kite back up after a crash. Less time walking and more time flying is always good. I love Laser Pro Gold line or Shanti line. Both of those are 100% spectra with a very tight weave and almost zero stretch. Usually you will never need anything stronger than 150# spectra (depending on the kite of course). Most of the time I am flying on 90# 70-80 foot lines. If you are breaking 150# line then I can only assume that your lines were either damaged by a sharp rock or something, or that you are flying a very large kite with a lot of power, or that you are flying in very strong winds. If it is the strong winds option then tricking in those winds will be very difficult to do and that may be what is limiting your learning curve. There are a ton of pilots on this forum that are much better at flying than I am and would have tons more experience than I do on learning. These are just some of the things that I remember struggling with when I was learning and hope they help you out. Theres tons of experience on this forum so keep reading and know that the advice you get here will be spot on and very valuable. Hope this helps! Hey Kent, Thanks for the answer back. I keep looking for others flying in my area, but there's not much more than kids with single line kites on the beaches by me. Rarely, I've come across an interested adult that asks a little bit about my kites, but that seems to be the extent of the interest around here. I'm going to try to get to the Niagara festival, so maybe I'll find some people up there to watch. I broke a line by crossing lines with a friend that was flying one of my other kites. Two beginners trying to team fly... I'm going to start playing with the lengths of my lines, I have a lot of factory linesets, so I'll try cutting some down to 50-60 ft. I don't know if a $50 lineset will benifit me that much, yet. Your description of doing the wrong thing at the right time is exactly where I'm at. I've been trying pancake landings lately, and they look like lawn darts so far... So I break a kite, get out another, and work on stuff I can do so I don't go home all bummed out. Take care... ~Rob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Barresi Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Rob, have you looked into any of the instructional videos out there? FYI - Your Acrobatx should go out via Priority Mail early next week... It comes with lines and straps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobB Posted July 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Hey John... I've almost worn out my Dodd Gross Flight School video. Other than that, I have a store of computerized video. The only thing about the videos is that you can only see the trick in 2D. Or maybe the camera isn't looking where you would be if you were there. I've been told to take my laptop to the flying field, so I can watch, pause, and fly. Didn't get it, watch again... I don't have that kind of fly time usually. I grab a break from work, fly a little. I've got it to the point that all I need is 1/2 hour to set up, fly, and break down. That gives me ~15+ minutes of fly time. I usually get only a couple hours to get down to the beach at night before dark. If there's wind... I am really stoked about the Acrobatix, I've heard nothing but good about it. Thank You, ~Rob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbabbman Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Rob, have you looked into any of the instructional videos out there? speaking of videos.... I'm in the Chicago area and there doesn't seem to be much kite activity on the West side of Aurora... (or good winds, for that matter) I'm a quad flier and while I have actually been able to figure quite a few things on my own, I'd love to have something to help me along.. I have several of the Rev videos (the power blast video is the best of the lot), but I was wondering if there was something else (other than other fliers) to help me along. Any suggestions of good quad videos that I should consider getting? Or maybe some online videos that would help me along. I've watched most of the videos on the Kitelife site. I keep forgetting to ask Kent about this when I have him on the phone... Let me know, thanks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Barresi Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Aside from the standard Rev video that comes with the kites, the only other one I know of is the "advanced revolution" on www.kiteconnection.com. http://www.kiteconnection.com/cgi-bin/shop...21&user_id= It doesn't cover the really advanced stuff, but a lot more than the standard Rev video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Barresi Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Oh, also... On the dual line side of things, RandyG has some EXCELLENT "slack line" trick tutorials on his site... Fairly advanced stuff. http://sportkiteflyer.spaces.msn.com/ Look along the right side of his page. Don't forget to practice corners, landings and such... The basics are important too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbabbman Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Don't forget to practice corners, landings and such... The basics are important too. I spend most of my time on the basics as I understand how important they are to anything beyond them. It's frustrating at times though as I'm fighting the crappy winds here more than I'm fighting the learning curve... As I've said to others... if I can learn to fly in crummy winds, I should be able to fly good in good ones... Then again, maybe I should stop buying kites and buy tickets to good wind places...lol Thanks John.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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