12 replies to this topic

[Martyjuggles]

Wow!! What a great day i'm totally stoked after a great day's flying. Spent a couple of hours this morning until the tide came in and again this afternoon flying in lovely consistent winds and playing with my new 15" handles.

What follows is a description of what was a revelation for me and has made my slow centre pivot/ clock turns super smooth and solid today - i could already do them but this has helped tidy them up. Mostly it was just becoming more conscious of the technique i think i was applying sub-consciously anyway. It may be obvious and clear to many of you but for me it's REALLY helped.

So, first of i was playing with push turn - where you 'push' the brake line forward on the opposite wing to turn, instead of pulling on the brake, left hand push to turn right. - This makes the kite turn on it's central axis in a REALLY tidy, slow and controlled way.

BUT!....

Once you get to 6 o'clock and the kite is inverted the opposite appears to be true, so from an inverted hover i found i had to use the standard 'pull' turn to maintain the central axis and get it back round to 12 o'clock. IF it tried to use the push turn i found it pivotting more around the wing tip (more on that later).

SO...

to get tidy clock turns what i discovered i was doing was :
Kite at 12 o'clock push left hand brake to turn kite right to 3
Hover, adjust downwards slide etc
Push turn left brake to 6 o'clock
Hover
Pull turn right brake to 9 o'clock
Hover, adjust downwards slide etc
Pull turn right hand brake to 12 o'clock

Now that's a very involved description but it's made my clock turns SOOO much neater being conscious of how those different types of turns work. Also it helps heaps for making facet turns neat and ultimately a super slow spin.

THEN....

Having realised i could get i tip pivot from doing the opposite i started playing with that.

Using a pull turn on the right brake causes the kite to pivot around the right hand wing tip, so long as you apply consistent brake with the left - if you then hover inverted for a moment...
.... before doing a push turn on the left brake to continue the pivot around the same wing tip (now the one on the left as you're inverted).

ONCE AGAIN...

This might be stating the bleedin' obvious for some of you and i'm certain i'm making numerous micro adjustments along the way too, but experimenting with the way these different turns works has given me a HUGE sense of where the wing tips will be as i make a turn so i've been able to do really controlled turns a foot off the ground without catching a wing tip.

What a great day - more fun tomorrow!

Marty

[Dean750]

Great discription. I can relate to how you feel. Thats what I felt like October 12th at Lincoln City. The control switch over from my Rev 1 to my new B finally clicked. Wowing yourself feels pretty good.

Keep it up, it gets better.

Dean

[bartman]

Congrats! I'm not sure about anything you are referring to yet for turns (I can do one kind of turn which is the basic), but it seems to be a weekend for success stories so celebrate with the rest of us!

Bart

[big bri]

KEWL Marty

Nice discription to read.


BRIAN...

[Martyjuggles]

Congrats! I'm not sure about anything you are referring to yet for turns (I can do one kind of turn which is the basic), but it seems to be a weekend for success stories so celebrate with the rest of us!

Bart

Yep definitely a good weekend! Sounds like you're well and truly bitten now Bart.

If you want some clairty on what i'm banging on about, next time you're out try this; Fly the kite up about 20 ft and hover upright - now instead of rolling your thumb back to turn, just try keeping your thumb where it is and 'push' the bottom of the handle in - this effectively slackens the brake but keeps tension the same on the top line.

You will find the kite does something slightly different with this type of turn and it might help you understand my description above.

NOTE: pushing the bottom right line in will cause the kite to turn left. But in a more centred way than by rolling your left thumb back.

Enjoy!!

Marty

[bartman]

Yeah, I'm pretty pumped right now that is for sure.

So I normally turn by rotating my left or right thumb OUT on the side I want to turn. You say, hold the thumb steady and push in the brake on the opposite side from the turn. Okay, I should be able to remember this long enough to try without having to take an instruction sheet along. Looking like today won't be the day though. Huge, tear the kite apart, winds coming. Perhaps in a sheltered park the wind will be slowed enough...

Bart

[Martyjuggles]

Yeah, I'm pretty pumped right now that is for sure.

So I normally turn by rotating my left or right thumb OUT on the side I want to turn. You say, hold the thumb steady and push in the brake on the opposite side from the turn. Okay, I should be able to remember this long enough to try without having to take an instruction sheet along. Looking like today won't be the day though. Huge, tear the kite apart, winds coming. Perhaps in a sheltered park the wind will be slowed enough...

Bart

Same here! (winds i mean) managed to snatch the handle out of my hand when i was flying my supersonic earlier!!

Yep you got it, basically what you're doing is pushing the right hand wind forward to turn left instead of reversing the left hand wing, or vice versa.

Marty

[Sailor99]

Oh, I get what you are saying now! I thought you were talking about the difference between pushing the thumbs forward or back, and getting very confused by your description. Now it all makes sense and you are correct that pulling the wing that is going to move to the top or from the bottom and turning that wing helps with clockwork. Even better is doing just what you say AND applying the opposite turn with the other hand. Then just before you get to the new hover position reverse the turning of BOTH hands to stop the turn just as you arrive at the correct position. That way you will get snappier turns, although the coordination is tough. Getting the timing into muscle memory is the key again.

[Martyjuggles]

Oh, I get what you are saying now! I thought you were talking about the difference between pushing the thumbs forward or back, and getting very confused by your description. Now it all makes sense and you are correct that pulling the wing that is going to move to the top or from the bottom and turning that wing helps with clockwork. Even better is doing just what you say AND applying the opposite turn with the other hand. Then just before you get to the new hover position reverse the turning of BOTH hands to stop the turn just as you arrive at the correct position. That way you will get snappier turns, although the coordination is tough. Getting the timing into muscle memory is the key again.

Yep it's definitely about the muscle memory 'cos now i've figured out how those two types of turns behave i don't even need to think about what i'm doing, just what i want the kite to do - it just really helped to me to conceptualise it.

When i want snappy turns i do as you suggest and apply oppositve controls to both handles but the method i outlined seems to work best for me to get really controlled slow spins.

I am SO loving this at the moment!!!

[Jonesey]

Yep it's definitely about the muscle memory 'cos now i've figured out how those two types of turns behave i don't even need to think about what i'm doing, just what i want the kite to do - it just really helped to me to conceptualise it.

When i want snappy turns i do as you suggest and apply oppositve controls to both handles but the method i outlined seems to work best for me to get really controlled slow spins.

I am SO loving this at the moment!!!

Ahh yes the force is with you young Jedi ...

The thing I find hardest is not being 'asymmetric' .... that is doing all the correcting and instigation of moves etc with one hand .... you know that tendency to do Bicycle's clockwise more often then anti... hover facing right rather the right etc..

You never stop learning in this game ... great isn't it!

[Martyjuggles]

Ahh yes the force is with you young Jedi ...

The thing I find hardest is not being 'asymmetric' .... that is doing all the correcting and instigation of moves etc with one hand .... you know that tendency to do Bicycle's clockwise more often then anti... hover facing right rather the right etc..

You never stop learning in this game ... great isn't it!

Yeah i know what you mean about the assymetric bit - i hope that my juggling tendencies are encouraging me to learn everything from both sides!

;o)

[bartman]

Same here! (winds i mean) managed to snatch the handle out of my hand when i was flying my supersonic earlier!!

I was going to attempt it with both the 2 and 3 wraps in the, but then came to my senses and decided to avoid a destroyed kite. The wind is just nuts here today even in the sheltered areas.

I guess I have did similar turns to what you describe, but I've done it with one thumb forward and one back to do a really quick spin. I never actually thought about a snap turn this way. It's on my list for the next available flying day for sure.

Bart

[Felix Mottram]

<snip>

You never stop learning in this game ... great isn't it!

Yes!

It was very wet on Blackheath yesterday. Walked out onto the field and then decided that the Goose shit and the distinct lack of a real breeze meant that I could not justify the effort.

Eldest son, ATM, has not had a lot of luck in the last few weeks, no wind, no wind, no show and now - rain and no wind. He is however, still enthusiastic despite not being able to go to Tokyo Bay next month.

Felix