Fractured Axel

Have had the Rev for a few months now - things improving slowly but the main difficulty I am having is reverse flight, more specifically reversing away from the ground vertically. Can manage a half decent dive stop and hold it in a hover but taking it that one step further and moving against gravity seems v.difficult. The kite feels quite twitchy and tends to spin despite my best efforts not to over control it. Horizontal reverse flight not so much of a problem.

I am still using the standard handles that came with the kite. My question is do extended handles make this manouver any easier, if not, any other ideas??

Extended handles help a lot for reversed flight.

It also helps to make your top pigtails longer, check out www.kitelife.com for some good articles on rev flying and setup.

The spinning is generally the result of making adjustments to the wrong wing, generally because controls are reversed and correction to the hand matching the wing is first instinct. The best way imo to learn proper control is doing extended figure 8's, slowing the kite down in the reverse position on each cross.

I'd definitely get hold of some extended handles. You will notice a big difference in the quality of the inputs and the feedback you get from the kite.

Also well worth checking that all 4 lines are of equal length and then adding the pigtails to the handles. You can then experiment with the degree of brake in the bottom lines that you fly with. Moving the attachment of the bottom line down the pigtail stopknots towards the handle (or moving the top line away from the handle) will effectively shorten the lower lines. This increases the kites desire to stop and reverse.

Try adjusting the lines to the point where the kite will only just take off (in forwards flight) from the ground. If you then roll the kite over and reverse takeoff it will zoom away and feel much more stable in reverse flight. When you have found that point you can lengthen the lower lines again by an inch or so to find the ideal balanced position.

Hope this is useful

Cheers guys.

Will do as advised and start making a few tweaks - the pigtails thing sounds v.straightforward. Will definitely invest in some new handles as well

Also when reversing, try and walk towards the Rev as well, only slowly, but this will take up the wind when it gets too twitchy.

Gary the Rev