Re: Flexfoil's Level 7
| Subject | Re: Flexfoil's Level 7 |
| From | abw@cre.canon.co.uk (Andy Wardley) |
| Date | Thu, 16 Apr 1998 12:05:53 GMT |
| Newsgroups | rec.kites |
David Greenhough <greeny@spirit.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> IMHO this is an understatement, perhaps wildly so! My first week with
> the SL7 is all heady stuff. Yes, it will do things you just cant
> believe Yes it will dead launch Yes it will fly 3D Yes it spins like a
> frizbee (slotmachine, 540, try stopping it!) But wow its a steep
> learning curve.
I'd like to think that it's a testament of some superb genetic flying skill that I found the Stranger Level 7 so easy to pick up, but in reality, it's probably just that I've flown too many kites with very strange bridles. :-)
The kite oversteers wildly but it's not too difficult to control. If you're pulling a tight left hand and then de-spin with a pull to the right, you'll find that nothing happens. The trick is to keep pulling hard on the right hand until the pressure starts kicking in and then start to equalise both hands. The spin should slow down the kite to the point where a hard pull equally on both lines will break the kite out into straight flight.
Alternatively, just pop it straight into a trick from the spin or execute a snap-stall like action to slap it out onto it's back or front, depending on the position of the kite at the time.
3D flying doesn't work very well in high winds or on long lines (which you need in high winds) so I haven't really played with that aspect much. I would recommend keeping the nose curvature down to start with so you don't get freaked by the bizarre behaviour you get at the edge of the window when the nose is bent up. For 3D (as and when I get to try it), I imagine a curved nose would be more fun.
The biggest problem that people seem to have is that the kite, when on a collision course with the ground, will fail to steer out of it and ends up face-planting the deck. There's no way out of this by normal turning so don't even bother. Just let a little slack into the line to de-power the kite and then pop it. If you don't like the way it's pointing, just pop it again... :-)
The other method is prevention, rather than cure:- pre-empt everything you do so that you don't end up pointing at the ground! Act early and don't ever-react and the kite will seem a lot better behaved.
The kite will do all sorts of weird stuff and opens up a whole realm of possibilities. However, it is hard work and you'll get nothing out of the kite unless you're prepared to put something in. Flying it at the end of a long, tiring day is not a good idea.
Above all, the kite is fun. That's what it's supposed to be. Andy designed the kite because it was something he wanted to play with. At some point it became a viable product and other people wanted to fly it (which he seems quite surprised and amused about). You know the rest.
A
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Wardley <abw@kfs.org> Signature regenerating. Please remain seated.
<abw@cre.canon.co.uk> For a good time: http://www.kfs.org/~abw/