9 replies to this topic

[kwmf]

Just following up from my last post since I finally got to spend about 2 continious hours in the air practicing.... I was able to get my newly acquired TKS lines as well as my vented B in the air

The lines from Theresa are very nice, I flew on 80' and 30' that day almost evenly, but with a bit more time on the 30's.

The vented was (as JB has told me) very smooth. I started with the full sail SLE (with 1/4" frame) for a while but switched to the vented B after about 20 minutes. The full sail was using a 4 wrap LE and 3 wrap verticals, the vented B was running full 4 wrap frame. What I found interesting, was that the LE on the vented seemed to flex noticably more than the full sail in the air. It's wasn't a scary flex, just that nice curve that I've seen in so many normal pictures.

Anyone got an explaination for the difference?

Aside from that, I spent most of my time practicing trying to hold the kite stationary and make it rise/fall or slide left/right in those positions. I was mostly in a normal LE up or a LE sideways orientation while doing this. My inverted stuff is still WAY to wobbly at the moment, but I can hold the position okay in the orientations I was working with. It's not nailed to the sky, but it's definately a hover and I can make it rise/fall/slide on command (just not accurately or precicely yet).

As the light was fading and the winds dropping off, I got to work the vented in lighter winds where I had to use more body movement to get it back up in the air. I was using this time to focus a lot on even line tension to keep the sail pressure. I was looking for this when the winds were up, but as they died it made it more critical so I focused on it more.

So far, so good with the progress .... it was a good day, I'm hoping for another one soon where I can spend hours in the air.

Thanks again for the help.
Steven

[stroke survivor]

That's the stuff!! Practice, practice, and more practice!! You get more accustomed to what the kite does, the more you fly! Any new info to report??

Edited by stroke victim, 07 July 2010 - 09:59 AM.

[kwmf]

Yeah, I'm now 4 Revs deep (SLE, B, B full vent and Indoor) with a Zen ALMOST ordered, a bunch of lines from Theresa (80, 50, 30, 20, 12, 8 and 5 all in 90# LPG and 12' in 50# for the indoor), a pile of rods (2, 3 and 4 wrap, SLE and race rods) with 2 sets of my most used rods and I'm working on indoor, street, solo and just starting to learn to fly in the same space as my girlfriend.

I'd say I'm just getting going with the indoor, halfway to basic competence for street (but I can do a catch and throw), doing okay with wind powered flight (nothing inverted yet) and getting better at low wind flying.

I think that about covers most of it

[Felix Mottram]

<snip>
I think that about covers most of it

The defining moment will be the inverted hover <grins>

Enjoy!

Felix

[kwmf]

The defining moment will be the inverted hover <grins>

The screwed up thing is in both street and indoor I can do an up and over including doing the low wind glide out for field recovery in a relatively straight line .... and yet the hover gets away from me real fast

The really screwed up thing is that if I try pause my glide away into a hover things go wrong, I can hold a 45 degree down hover (altho mostly to my left but I can do it to the right, just not as well) and I can reverse launch the kite.

I've got a few remedial drills I'm going to run with the help of my girlfriend to try stabilise my inverted hover as soon as I get a chance.

To add insult to injury (and make me very proud of her), my girlfriend accidentally did a perfect inverted slide from one side of the window to the other on 12' lines last weekend when I was actually trying to get her head around low wind ground recovery.

I'll get there eventually, unfortunately I have a day job that has me in an office instead of flying

[quaa714]

Yeah, I'm now 4 Revs deep (SLE, B, B full vent and Indoor) with a Zen ALMOST ordered, a bunch of lines from Theresa (80, 50, 30, 20, 12, 8 and 5 all in 90# LPG and 12' in 50# for the indoor), a pile of rods (2, 3 and 4 wrap, SLE and race rods) with 2 sets of my most used rods and I'm working on indoor, street, solo and just starting to learn to fly in the same space as my girlfriend.

I'
I think that about covers most of it

The bug has bit hard and deep with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Enjoy the ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kwmf]

And I still don't have any Pro series ... or a mid vent ... or a speed series ... or no snag handles .... or

[REVflyer]

with enough time at this activity you'll have more "stuff" than you can ever possibly use! We still laugh about all the times we only flew one model 'cause that's all we ever had. No hybred frames, funky modifications or cool custom stuff. It was just as much fun then, in fact even easier to enjoy ourselves, everyone was so helpful in the beginning, now I'm expected to share what little knowledge and skills I've acquired. I still look around to see if they are really talking to me!

[Scott_of_melnsct]

Per you question about the flex: Since the full vent has vents on the wings and not in the middle, the middle takes proportionally more load than the on the STD. That's why the vent flexes the way it does.

[kwmf]

This weekends progress involved polishing up my street skills - got my up and over-180-turn-up and over-repeat going much better as well as rounding the move off into more of a (sideways) figure 8 as well.

Sunday was gusty wind in the 8-16 mph area where I worked on flying for fun, different rotation point, hover orientations, slides, reverses, inverted hovers (still can't hold it), iQuad style handle inputs, found a grip that I fly better with and made my Rev walk for the first time

The wind and weather were but I flew it all the same - I'm working on the "Anytime, Anywhere" skills.