Date: Sun, 26 Mar 1995 23:50:52 -1000 From: oakden@vo1.ph.liv.ac.uk (Mark Oakden) Message-Id: Organization: The University of Liverpool Subject: First experience of flexi flying. Hi again... Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who answered my earlier queries re: flexifoils and Kite shops in the North of England. After considering the options, I decided to go for a pair of six-footers, with the intention of building up a larger stack over time. The easiest kite shop for me to get to that I could see in the list emailed to me was the Leading Edge Kite Company in Leeds, and a quick call on Saturday morning confirmed that they had six-foot flexis in stock, so off I set, to christen my Visa card. ;-) I chose two contrasting foils, ... an amazingly bright and jolly pink/yellow one and a cool all black number, along with all the fiddly bits, ... line (300 ft of 200 lb Dyneema and a sleeving kit); handles (very heavy duty flourescent plastic ones with rubber grip areas); a winder; an ultraflex spar, and some (dacron ?) line for making stacking lines from. Sunday saw me out in the park making up and sleeving my lines. I found that sleeving was just as easy as people often state in rec.kites, except that nobody seemed to mention how difficult it is to keep matches alight on a nice windy day. I managed to do my last piece of sleeving with *literally* my last match. Lines ready, I decided to start by putting up one foil. The launch was easy enough and soon I was making some swooping low passes, feeling the pull and *loving* the speed. After a while, I decided to put my train lines (tied earlier in the morning) to the test. I landed the foil at the edge of the wind window and attached the second foil. Again the launch was fairly easy. The serious fun began here :):) The pull was great and, flying level across the wind, about halfway up the window, I was able to slide along under their traction. Oodles of fun... I began to practice turning the kite back into the power region whilst still sliding, with varying degrees of success ( and, although I did manage to do _most_ of my sliding on my feet, ... if anybody does know where I can get kevlar reinforced, teflon coated bum-patches for my jeans ... ;) ) After my best slide, a passer-by commented "I though kite flying was supposed to be fun" ... if only he knew how much fun! I was very glad that the laws of physics provided the convenient overhead parking place for the kites as I needed frequent rests ... these things are pretty hard work! I eventually had to stop when the weather changed, but I'll be back! I'm hooked ... now I want a third kite for my stack... and my birthday approacheth :) Anyway, thanks again to all who gave me advice, addresses etc. Cheers, Mark Oakden. (who is, today, wondering what people thought of him whilst walking home, wet and windswept, grinning from ear to ear, saying "wow" every other word and with a rather suspicious looking muddy patch on the butt of his jeans ;-) ) P.S. How are you *meant* to land these things? I ended up steering it near the edge of the wind, easing it down till the tip touched the ground then releasing the tension in the upper line to get the kite/stack to flop over on its back. Can they be landed in the centre of the wind? (I already know how to crash them there if this helps ;-) ) -- oakden@dice2.desy.de -- I'm not politically incorrect, I'm just differently articulate. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Mon, 27 Mar 1995 22:36:44 -1000 From: andrew@tug.com (Andrew Beattie) Message-Id: Organization: /usr/lib/news/organisation Subject: Re: First experience of flexi flying. >P.S. How are you *meant* to land these things? I ended up steering >it near the edge of the wind, easing it down till the tip touched >the ground then releasing the tension in the upper line to get the >kite/stack to flop over on its back. Spot on. When you can get it to fall back like that it's ready for re-launch. It can be kinda tricky to get them to fall back instead of tripping forwards when other people are watching... >Can they be landed in the centre of the wind? Sure. Fly into the middle of the window, turn up sharply, run hard toward the kite, to stall it onto the ground. Easy to describe. Kinda hard to do in anything by the most gentle breeze. Andrew -- New to rec.kites? START HERE! | To: www@kfs.org send an email message like this->| Subject: service | http://www.kfs.org/kites/welcome/index.html echo '/Frank Kenisky/f:j' >> $HOME/News/rec/kites/KILL # *PLONK* = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =