Any stunt kite fliers?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I recently purchased the “Twister” dual-line stunt kite from the Go Fly a Kite company. I’ve read before that they make good kites.

Anyway, I have spent much of both yesterday and today trying to fly this damn thing. Now, I think wind conditions may be playing a big role. The wind isn’t really consistent, just sort of gusty. I’m also flying in the middle of a clearing (its pretty big though) which is surrounded by trees and buildings. I’m having a hard time believeing that this is the problem though; I suspect a good kite flyer would have no trouble flying here (of course, I’m not an expert kite flyer - maybe perfect wind conditions are in fact necessary?).

Similarly, how does one find the centre of the “wind window”? It always felt like the wind was blowing in whatever random direction it felt like blowing in.

I would launch the kite by laying it on its back with the lines fulling extended, and then by pulling, pull it up on the its stand-offs and lift it into the air. This worked - when the wind felt like co-operating. However, 99% of the time it would immediately swing to the left or right and smash into the ground. This was very frustrating! Why is this happening!?

Every now and then it would actually launch and take to the sky, with a nice, solid pull. It felt really good. But again there were problems. Firstly, it needed constant corrective inputs on my part. It wouldn’t fly straight - I had to be constantly pulling it left and right it keep it up - is this normal? It also kept “letting the wind out” as the term goes. Is there a way to prevent/minimize this?

I never had a successful landing. It would either crash, or just let out the wind and flutter back down. My longest flight was maybe 20 seconds. Oh, and I cracked a spar, so now I can’t fly at all :mad:

Please help. Those few seconds of successfull flying was very satisfying. I want more! (hopefully I can get a replacement spar).

2

I’ve got an old Skynosaur stunt kite I bought a decade or so ago, and before that I modified an old single line kite to take two. And I’ve flown a variety of other two-stringers.

It’s hard to diagnose your problem without actually trying your kite, but I’ll give two possibilities. First, it sounds like you might have had some really turbulent air. I would suggest finding a really big open field somewhere on a day with a nice steady wind, and try again. Constant corrective inputs might be necessary, depending on the kite design - and likely as a beginner you were overcorrecting, and then having to compensate, and so on. Practice will make things steadier. It’s helpful to have a friend around to retrieve crashes and relaunch. I don’t find it difficult to let my kite climb straight up and just hang more or less motionless at the peak of its range.

It’s also at least possible that the kite design is a bit off. My nephew recently got a kite and was having trouble with it, and asked me for assistance. It turned out that the thing would sort of stall - it would kinda nose forward and become uncontrollable, and from what I could tell the harness attachment points were in the wrong place, which is what was leading to the behaviour. Unfortunately I wasn’t expert enough to successfully modify the harness in the field, though I think I know how it needed to be changed. However, the difficulties you describe sound more like generic beginner problems combined with turbulent wind than a design issue.

Ordinarily one can tell where the centre of the “wind shadow” (interesting way of putting it) is by the range of sky your kite can fly in. As you move off to the side, eventually the kite will start to stall out, and you either swing it back into the wind, or lose control and crash. Once you have that boundary determined on either side, locating the centre is pretty simple.

As for landings, crashes are more common than intentional landings, even for relatively experienced flyers. Mostly because one rarely attempts intentional landings, and (in my case at least) it’s rather common to try to push the limits on how low one pulls out of a dive, etc.

I should think you’d be able to get replacement spars without too much difficulty, even if it ends up being a generic fiberglass tube from a hobby shop that you cut to length.

3

Is the kite you’re talking about?

First thing to be aware of: Stunt kites are extremely sensitive.

A lot of your problems may just be that you are new to it and aren’t used to its sensitivity. E.g., when I was working at the kite shop, the first time I went out with a stunt kite so that my boss could teach me how to fly, I had it in the air for about a minute before I broke the center spar. It was going in a circle so quickly that I simply had no idea what direction it was going to be pointing in when I straightened out the lines. I pulled it out of the spin with it pointing straight down and wham!…dead kite.

To launch the kite, do the following: Get a long screwdriver. Drive it into the ground where you will be standing to launch the kite. Put the handles over the screwdriver (you may have to hold them down and put the screwdriver through them). Walk down wind and stand the kite up, but leaning backwards, so that it is pointing at the sky while being pressed into the ground by the wind. Grab the handles and launch it that way. Take a step back and yank from full extension to having your hands down at your sides. You have to make sure you do this evenly or it will trun and crash. After pulling, you have to step back so that you don’t give the line any slack! If you do, then the kite will stall right off the ground. Never run backwards with a kite like Charlie Brown.

You should make sure that your lines are perfectly even. Indoors, take the kite by the clippie-dealies that the line attaches to, and hold it suspended by those. The rigging on the right and the left should be perfectly symmetrical. IIRC, the nose should be just a bit higher than the tail. IIRC, hanging this way the plane of the kite should be about five degrees above horizontal, with the nose higher than the tail. You may wish to google for this fact before doing anything rash.

Now, take a step back and pull. The kite should fly for a brief moment as you pull. Now is your chance. If it pulls right, adjust one of the clippie-dealies forward or rearward and repeat the experiment. Repeat and repeat until it is right: It flies for a moment and it does so straight. The kite should come close to being correctly tuned at the factory.

Note also that by “perfectly,” I mean “as close as you can reasonably get.”

For wind interruption, the rule of thumb is that for any vertical obstacle, the wind will be disrupted for a horizontal length equal to seven times the height of the obstacle. If such obstacles abound, the experienced flyer will go elsewhere, even if it means a coffee shop to read a book. Alternatively, he might pull out a fighter kite which can be put much higher into the air above the disruptions.

It sounds like your problems mainly rest on two things: Bad location and inexperience. You will be best served if you can find a place where the upwind geography is free of any obstacles for quite a long way. Seriously. Experienced kite flyers find out where those areas are and don’t fly where they aren’t.

Second thing, is wait for a day with good solid wind. Not too fast, but if I linked to the correct kite, then you’ll want to wait for winds of at least ten to fifteen mph just so that you can learn.

Finally, go out and practice. If your indoor exercise suggests that the kite’ll fly straight, and if your lines are straight, then it may be nothing more than not being experienced. I can tell you that flying in a straight line takes constant small adjustments, especially when you’re new, IIRC.

p.s. Don’t worry about landing it. Just get it close to the ground and run really fast toward it.

4

Yes js_africanus, that is precisely the kite I have.

Thank you all for the advice (and I hope to hear from others!). I will check out the kite balancing (it looks to be okay, but I’ll investigate closer). Hopefully I can find a better flying location.

And more importantly, hopefully I’ll find a replacement spar! :smack:

5

I started flying stunt kits just a few years ago, and I will second the the stunt kites are very sensitive statement.

The best way that I can describe stunt kites opposed to “normal” kites is that there is no rest for the flier, no balance point where you can just relax and watch it fly. You must pilot it constantly. It will always be turning to the left, or the right. or (if your lines are exact enough) climbing until it stalls.

6

Yeah. You can bring it up to its zenith where it doesn’t pull, but you still have to fly it lest the wind drops or you accidently pull one way or the other.

Trigonal Planar, you got a good kite and will have a lot of fun with it once you get it going. Before you decide to get another kite, though, ask for suggestions. (If you did and I missed the thread, then sorry about that!) I no longer have my Revolution (long story), but I found it to be much more fun. They’re not for everybody, though, and lots of experienced flyers will tell you that the Revs are not as fun as the two line kits.

Additionally, I absolutely love my Grand Masters. I haven’t flown in a while, but they are a blast. IMO, they, fighter kites generally, but the Grandmaster specifically, are by far the best bang-for-the-buck kite you can possibly buy. These cheap, flimsy kites move with amazing speed and agility, and take a lot of abuse. When I was learing my first one, I had a water tower down wind. I kept slamming the kite into the tower at full speed with no discernable harm. I was even able to back it up to and rest flat against the watertower without tearing—these kites are made of something like a single sheet of tissue paper laminated on a gossamer sheet of mylar. And when they do tear, you can fix 'em with Scotch tape!

This is not to suggest that you should feel buyer’s remorse. You’re going to have a lot of fun with your kite!

7

I’ve been flying stunts for 20+ years and yes they are very sensitive. I started with hyperkites (do they still make those?) and I carry a Beetle with me at all times. I usually fly for about 30 minutes and rest for 10-15 in between, shorter flights with the North Shore Radical because of the extra pull. :smiley: I’m still looking for a Synergy, I got to fly one at the Kite Festival several years ago but I haven’t been able to track one down. Of course at $420 I haven’t been looking that hard either :slight_smile:

Enjoy!