Kitelife

Cody, Sari, Katrina... So awesome flying with y'all, well done!

100 kites is cloudy as it is, the more it's cross-examined, the better off we'll be in the long run.

WAY oversimplified, but putting the kites aside for a moment (different set of references - as outlined in earlier images)... I rounded up a bunch of plastic parachute men for an example of an 8x10 grid on the ground so that we can get a good idea at what we're looking for in terms of body positioning on the ground.

It's NEVER exact, but in theory, if everyone has their thinking cap on (see video below), the caller uses using an open tempo of commands and we have 3-4 wranglers on the ground to help guide folks into place, we should be in fairly decent shape.

Another cross-post...

Re-posting this for a quick mental exercise, please visualize these calls when looking at the image below... NOTE - for US mega flies, we traditionally count from left to right and top to bottom to find numerical values in the formation.

How quickly can you find:

Odd columns?
Even rows?

Fourth column?

==

"ODD COLUMNS RISE, EVEN COLUMNS DROP, AND... NOW!" (vertical threads)

"THREADING BACK THROUGH, AND... NOW!" (all the way through)

"THREADING BACK THROUGH, AND... NOW!" (all the way through)

"BACK TO GRID, AND... NOW!" (up or down, back to your position)

==

"ODD ROWS FACE RIGHT, EVEN ROWS FACE LEFT, AND... NOW!"

"TO THE EDGES ON A STRAIGHT LINE, AND... GO!"

"UP TURN 180, AND... NOW!"

"THREADING THROUGH, LOOK FOR THE HOLES, AND... GO!"

"UP TURN 180, AND... NOW!"

"BACK TO GRID, LOOK FOR THE HOLES, GO!"

TIPS: 

1 - Know your correct altitude (don't rise or drop too much), based on where you are in the grid, get a feeling for flying a straight line across the window, staying more or less at that same altitude on each pass.

2 - When flying through, look for the kites sharing your row in front or behind you, 10 kites across, be a part of that line, watch it peripherally while in motion.

==

"CENTER 4 KITES FACE OUT TO BALL, AND... NOW!"

"NEXT RING OF KITES TO BALL, AND... NOW!" (2nd ring from center)

"NEXT RING OF KITES TO BALL, AND... NOW!" (3rd ring from center)

"NEXT RING OF KITES TO BALL, AND... NOW!" (4th ring from center)

"NEXT RING OF KITES TO BALL, AND... NOW!" (outer ring)

"BURSTING ONE RING AT A TIME, OUTER RING IS ONE, INNER RING IS FIVE..."

"ONE! ... TWO! ... THREE! ... FOUR! ... FIVE!"

"SLOWLY BACK TO BALLS, NOW!"

==

Again, we'll drill a lot but I wanted to share some visuals - I hope they're of use to you! (y)