Fractured Axel

Infinitive · Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:20 pm

I was out flying today, superb winds, tons of sun, best session of my life (again). So I was messing about, and decided to tie two sets of lines end to end, so instead of my usual 80ft I had an astronomical 160ft. And it was the best idea ever! Even with the weight of the lines and a big knot in the middle, the feeling of flying with such a high and wide window is AMAZING! The kite was so high! I thought tricks would be very difficult, but it isn't that much different. The kite is a bit dampened by the lines, but for certain tricks I found that helped - cascades were really smooth with the dampened pops, usually my cascades are a bit harsh and mechanical, but on long lines they looked great. Did I mention how high you can get the kite to go? REALLY HIGH!

So I'm off to buy some new lines, perhaps not 160ft, but certainly 130ft. My lines are 70kg, which really were too heavy. Do you reckon 40 or 50kg will survive massive wind days? (I'm still amazed I haven't snapped a line yet after a year flying (6 months per lineset, 15 hours a week flying), is 70kg overkill?)

timbo · Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:18 pm

Sounds like a really cool idea, I'll make up a set of long lines myself for the days I want a 'different' kind of play. stick with 70, I flew my DS on 50s for a while, and kept breaking them, the down time was sooo annoying

Infinitive · Fri Jun 30, 2006 10:57 pm

hmmm 50kgs breaking on a DS.... so a f.85 would have them easily.

Last thing I want to do is get some big expensive lines which I break immediately. When lines break, do they unravel and become useless, or do they break cleanly and you can make shorter sets out of them?

Yes I know I am tempting fate.

misterbleepy · Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:01 pm

yes you can make shorter sets...

I have a set of 80kg 40 metre lines - maybe I should give the DS a go on them? (but I'd probably need binoculars to see it :lol:

)

misterbleepy · Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:03 pm

I did fly my Baby Tram on 17 metre lines a couple of evenings ago - now that did look small...

Infinitive · Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:06 pm

Ah but that was the pleasure I discovered today, having a kite so far away you can barely see it, you just feel it.

40 metres is the way forward. As the French discovered years ago.

misterbleepy · Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:14 pm

of course you could compensate for the reduced apparent size by increasing the actual size of your kite by, say, 15% - then you could give it a new name to reflect it's new size - e.g. Fury 1.0 :lol:

Jest_of_EVE · Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:40 pm

I dare you to do a 360 :lol:

Mark

Keithgrif · Sat Jul 01, 2006 5:26 am

Done, done and done :-)

You young whippersnapper trick fliers have just rediscovered the joys of 'real' flying like what us STACK precision fliers do. I rarely fly on anything less than 40m. You need the length to give you the size of window to do all that cool straight line stuff

Infinitive · Sat Jul 01, 2006 5:58 pm

Increasing an 85% size kite by 15% would result in a 97.75% kite...

I'm a young whippersnapper and I am deeply impressed by long strings and straight lines. It's the getting the kite really high which floats my boat. And having tons of time to fall if things go wrong. If you are having problems with lawn darts, make your lines longer!

I recall reading an ABW thing where he was saying "if you can trick on 100ft lines then you really know how to trick"... thus I never considered flying on anything more than 20 metres, thinking it was the realm of the seriously experienced. POPPYCOCK I SAY.

Any further opinion: 50kg too light?

Jest_of_EVE · Sat Jul 01, 2006 11:01 pm

100ft minimum, unless you're at Portsmouth Kite Festival, then you'll need 15ft for safety :lol:

Mark

Miles F · Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:05 am

A'int dat d'truth. Even 15ft sounds optimistic for Pompey and it won't stop the world and his wife walking over, under or inbetween your lines

Having learnt on 100ft lines and gravitated to shorter sets I'm enjoying 25m+ most now. This however is naturally limited by the park where I fly, much bigger and there a'int enough space around other folk.

misterbleepy · Sun Jul 02, 2006 9:24 am

Infinitive wrote:
Increasing an 85% size kite by 15% would result in a 97.75% kite...

I'm a young whippersnapper...

...who's too good at maths

Bodyflight · Sun Jul 02, 2006 11:15 am

Sometimes its easier to learn something on short lines, so you can get nice direct input and really see the kite & where the lines are going. But some things are much easier on long lines - mainly because you can start trying higher in the air, so it takes longer for the kite to get right down to the ground and crash out if you f**k up.
Mutexes and duplexes and things like that are a good example, you can fit in soooo many flics, flacs and spins without having to worry about getting lift to keep the kite stationary in the window.

Long(ish) lines are great!

ObijuanKenobe · Mon Jul 03, 2006 8:01 am

This is a nice thread. I too find flying on long lines the only way to go. I have a 35m set that I nearly always use, and if I have the space I have a 45m set that is just ridiculous. I haven't ever tricked on shorter, so I not sure at this point if I could...as my reactions won't be quick enough.

If you have means (the wind and kite), I highly recommend going for the XXL window. You can occupy the same airspace as a Cesna.

jjayc

Fractured Axel

The revelation of long line flying.

The revelation of long line flying.