Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1993 10:25:23 GMT From: andrew@tug.com (Andrew Beattie) Message-ID: Organization: Negligible. Subject: Re: Stories In article <1993Feb18.032352.47408@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> spaceman@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes: >Anyone have any good kite stories? Ok, spaceman, I'll bite My normal site is an ideal inland venue: acres of cut grass on a gentle slope just out of town (Basingstoke), facing the prevailing wind. Yesterday, (which was sunny and windy), I went to a less obvious site - the park in the middle of town with the boating lake and got out my REV I. The site isn't the best. It is just down wind of the centre of town, so you get turbulance from the offices and shops behind you, but there was enough wind that I could manage to keep flying. The boating lake is purpose built. It is between 12 and 18 inches deep with the bottom covered with sand. I practiced tip stands in the water (just like on the video). This wasn't difficult and it impressed the locals. Since the lake wasn't too deep, I could either rest the tip on the surface, or go down to rest on the bottom, before taking off again, with a splash. The kite would also take off readily from a standing ("W") position. I found, however, that if I dunked the whole of the vent into the water ("M") position, recovery was most difficult - it just doesn't want to fly if the air can't escape through the vent. Trying too hard simply stretched my already-stretched sail further. Several times I had to fish it out of the water after doing this :-(. I later developed a technique of slowly turning the kite up at one end, so that one end was much nearer me than the other, and sticking out of the water, which I could then turn into a tip drag, and get flying again. The new trick that I learned was doing an intentional tip-drag on the water. This is quite difficult, because the water produces quite a lot of drag, and if it pulls the kite round too far, you drop the vent into the drink, and you are in trouble, but it looks quite spectacular, when you get it right. If you want to try this, be prepared to loose or break lines, sails or sticks. I didn't, but it is a rough way to treat a kite. Other than that, I can reccommend it - playing over water adds a whole new level of risk :-) (I also had the risk that the area where I was standing was bounded by the lake in front of me, and a rather cold, dirty paddling pool, behind me :-) ) Andrew -- andrew@tug.com = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: 21 Feb 93 19:42:56 GMT From: jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu (Jeffrey C. Burka) Message-ID: <18606@umd5.umd.edu> Organization: University of Maryland at College Park Subject: Re: Stories In article andrew@tug.com (Andrew Beattie) writes: >If you want to try this, be prepared to loose or break lines, sails or sticks. >I didn't, but it is a rough way to treat a kite. Other than that, I can >reccommend it - playing over water adds a whole new level of risk :-) You want *risk*, trying flirting with waves. None of this wimpy boating lake stuff! ;-) One day out on the beach, with the wind running parallel to the shore line, I spent an hour or two doing inverted slides out across the water and then hovering inches above the breaking waves. I was close enough to the water that I could feel the spray from the waves as it hit the sail! And yes, I *do* have a picture of it...though the friend who took the picture is a pretty miserable photographer. What's scary to me now is that when I was playing around that day, I still wasn't particularly talented with the Rev, and while I could do great slides to the right, I hadn't yet gotten the hang of going from a hover to a slide-to-the-left. What this meant was that I could invert over the sand, slide out over the waves, and hover. But trying to reverse this didn't work all that well, and I came dangerously close to dunking the kite several times. And in case you hadn't guessed, a pounding surf is *not* friendly to ripstop and advantage. It was a stupid stunt to try pulling, but hell, I had fun. The kite looked so good, like it was kissing the waves. (sez he who's stuck indoors today due to large quantities of falling snow) Jeff -- |Jeffrey C. Burka | "Fairies are the perfect people to do this | |(suffering Bad Grammar) | sort of work. Biologically, their upper | |jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu | bodies are strong enough to wield a pickaxe...." | = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: 22 Feb 93 17:05:33 GMT From: jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu (Jeffrey C. Burka) Message-ID: <18627@umd5.umd.edu> Organization: University of Maryland at College Park Subject: Re: Rev sideways slide In article <1993Feb22.142840.10135@bnr.ca> pmanson@bnr.ca (Peter Manson) writes: >Ok, all you expert Rev fliers (Rev I if it matters), > >I've seen the "sideways slide" manoeuvre many times, but I don't know >how to do it. You know the one: the kite is facing downwards on a 45 >degree angle, and moving horizontally near the ground towards the side >of the higher wingtip. This is an inverted slide, and the kite doesn't need to be at a 45 degree angle--it can be parallel to the ground (it's very difficult, though, to do this if one end is lower than the other, and you're moving toward the *low* end). Basically, you hover upside down and then evenly pull back on the arm of the side you want the kite to move in (note: as the kite is upside down, if you want the kite to move to your right, this will mean pulling back your *left* hand). You need to be sensitive to the way the kite is acting, because you'll need to make minor corrections by rotating the pulled-back wrist. But it's a very easy (and effective) trick...in fact, it was the first real Rev trick I really picked up back in June '90. It's far simpler than a non-inverted slide (which takes far more balancing). Last year at SunFest, one of the stuntkite games was a quad-line limbo. I was about the 5th person in line, and amazed a number of the other contestants by going under the pole inverted. While I could have gotten through the first and maybe seconditeration with the kite right-side-up, I doubt that I could have gone beyond that without inverting the kite. (And no, I didn't win--First and second places went to Dave Arnold (who I believe placed 3rd in Eastern League OQB last year) and Paul DuGard (who taught me to fly the Rev...) The Hadzickis make a big deal about flying the Rev with yoru wrists and not with your arms. Everyone I know who flys a Rev well uses a combination of wrists and arms. Don't be afraid to experiment! Jeff -- |Jeffrey C. Burka | "Fairies are the perfect people to do this | |(suffering Bad Grammar) | sort of work. Biologically, their upper | |jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu | bodies are strong enough to wield a pickaxe...." |