Stalls and Slides (Re: Help with snap stalls)
| Subject | Stalls and Slides (Re: Help with snap stalls) |
| From | abw@cre.canon.co.uk (Andy Wardley) |
| Date | Fri, 26 Sep 1997 10:10:20 GMT |
| Newsgroups | rec.kites |
Richard Beckett wrote:
> It takes a lot of practice, and I think that the type of kite you are
> using makes a difference. I was at a club trying to snap stall a BoT,
> which I can almost do now, but most people told me that you can't do
> it with one of those. [Flame suit on 8-)]
Oh yes you can... :-)
Admittedly, it's difficult because you have to make a very sharp but small hand movement. With a lot of practice, I can now Snap Stall a BoT and hold it for a good few seconds anywhere in the window. When you can master the
[ Snap Stall ]
it's time to perfect the
>>> Side Slide >>>
I can personally attest that the BoT will slide all the way from one side of the window to the other and then back again. Just don't ask me to do it on demand :-)
Light wind is much, much easier. Obvious, but worth saying. A makes it easier, or alternatively drop the nose back a little.
Some kites Stall and Slide well. These are generally the "heavy" and "laid back" feeling kites that I find a bit sluggish. As a general rule, if the kite seems to be a bit slow in accelerating, there's a good chance it will Stall and Slide well. A fast and responsive kite is too keen to get flying again to sit around and wait patiently in a Stall. Takes practice and training. Teach you kite the trick and let it know how much you love it.
I was flying a Magnus Opus at Berrow the other week. If you don't know the kite, it's big (10' wingspan), a good few years old, pretty heavy, but still a good laugh to fly once in a while. Although it was possible to get Axels and 540 Flat Spins out of it (graceless and requiring a lot of effort), the thing that it really excelled at was Stalls and Slides.
I started a slide at one edge of the window by the line of groynes in the beach. I then slid it down the line of groynes and continued to walk sideways, sliding the kite all the way down just a few feet off the groynes. The thing just went on, and on, and on, and on and I probably got a good minute's worth of slide that covered a few hundred feet.
Best slide I've ever seen or done but I couldn't do it with just any kite. Having said that, I probably wouldn't want to fly a Magnum Opus on a daily basis.
Horses for courses and all that.
Now a kite that I do like to fly is the Inner Space. In no wind and with my own modified bridle, I can match Mark Reed's feat of doing continuous 360 degree Side Slides. At Hackney a month or so ago, I did about 4 or 5 complete revolutions much to amazement of no-one at all. I seemed to have picked the only time when no-one was watching to do the best (well, second best if you count the Opus) slide of life.
Such is life. I enjoyed it, though.
A