Kite flying…

Anyone fly a kite?

Bought a parafoil and a stunt kite. Around 1.2 meters wide. Basic strings and handles.

My questions are:

How accurate do the flying lines length need to be to each other in order not to crash?

Wind: I have a nearby playing field surrounded by trees. Is it best to be in the middle of the field? Or is there a better place to be?

Are bigger parafoils better than small ones? I paid £10 for the one I have. Would a £20/bigger area be better for flying in lighter winds?

I’ve not flown the stunt kite yet. I don’t want break the frame on the first attempt!

I’m no expert, but my two delta type stunt kites. about 5 and 6 foot each, need the lines to be spot on.  Anything more than 1cm difference is noticeable when trying to move the kite slowly and accurately.

Are the lines with your kite(s) on reels? If so it’s difficult to achieve equal line lengths with these.

Mid range and above stunt kites come with fixed equal length lines (typically 25m or so).

I’m not familiar with parafoils but smaller dual line deltas typically require more wind than bigger ones.

I kitesurf but don’t fly kites on land or foils. Lines need to be exact though they do stretch. In terms of flying location, definitely away from stands of trees, anything which creates turbulence basically. Beaches are obviously ideal but doesn’t help if you’re two hours to the coast like me.

This is an “it depends” question.  A £10 kite is going to behave very differently from a £200 kite.  I’d hazard for what you’ve got there line length isn’t going to be overly critical.  I have a mid-high end stunt kite (a Rev) and it’s too much for me, it’s proper tippy-tappy fingertip-sensitive work to fly and I can’t control if for very long.  Anything more than a light breeze and I’m all over the place with it.

If it’s a foil which develops traction/lift then you’re only ever going to be moving in one primary direction so you want to be at the back of the field.  Again though, at that price point it’s unlikely to be giving you much trouble.

As for the stunt kite, I’m assuming a 2-line delta?  Unless it’s completely made out of cheese you’d have to try pretty hard to break it due to acute deceleration trauma.

In any case: one way to find out. ?

The lines I have are fixed length, attached to strap type handles.  About 30m long at a guess?  Put a stick in the ground and tie them off the same distance away with the same tension.

Thanks for the replies. I will aim for better line length accuracy next time and watch a few more videos.

I will persevere. The kites are going to be a permanent future in the car boot so they should get used if it is windy.

Lines need to be close but bear in mind your arms control them. I’ve got a Flexifoil BigBuzz which is 6ft and dual lines and is a lot of fun in light winds. Top of a hill works for me or an empty Normandy beach.

Big kites are a handful so if it’s easy fun flying you’re after then stay smaller imho.

Lines should be exactly the same length. Keep your arms together like riding a bike. Small push-pull movements. A 1.2m kite will turn fast, so keep the movements to a minimum. Bigger kites manoeuvre slower and a 1.8 will be easier to fly and not pull too hard.

have everything from single line deltas (including some BIG ones), to four-line Revolution (my favourite).

HQ make great kites to start off. The sparless foils are excellent. They come with lines that have always been perfect. Pay about £70 for one and keep it to hand. Cheap ones will fly ok, but the lines will stretch as you can’t have dynema Kevlar lines for that price.

As for location, you need to be at least 10 tree heights downwind from trees to avoid turbulence and a generally poor experience. For a 1.2 foil, a nice steady wind, where the small tree branches are moving gently, is all you need. Be sure that there are no people in front of you and in the window of flight. If it is sparless like the HQ Symphony, you can bang it into the ground fine. A really hard vent down impact can rarely pop a cell but it’s unusual. A small bag in the car with kites i always present, but some of mine (like the five stack delta) is a bit too large to travel everywhere:-)

OP – I would definitely recommend a stake for your lines, here’s one I made from a golf ball and a tent peg…

View post on imgur.com

Back in the day you bought your string in one enormous length and had a fun five minutes in the street finding the middle by halving it with a mate. Fit all the hardware and roll them up together on a plastic drum attached to a cordless screwdriver.

My dad’s trick when flying big kites was to put one foot behind the car wheel, he didn’t point this out to 7 year old me and the 6’ tall kite he handed me the handles of lifted me clean out of the car park and into the Woodbury Common gorse.

I used to fly a lot with friends. I have a big 4m firebee power kite. It’s really sensitive to line length, particularly the brake lines. It also doesn’t like drag on the brake lines so I made some bridles out of plastic curtain pole rings to carry the brake lines on the power lines.

A couple of things will make life a load easier for you: 1. flexifoil make kite killers for any power kite. These are like surfboard leashes but connect to the brake lines through the handles. Theory being the kite overpowers you, you let go and the brakes come on depowering the kite. Whatever you do DO NOT connect them to the power lines by mistake! 2. Get a carabina and a dog tie down ground screw. Use it to moor the kite to the ground by the brake lines while you do faffage (detangling, packing, shooing away inquisitive cows). 3. Get an outdoor extension lead cable storage thingy. Fastidiously wrap the lines away on this, handles first to prevent future unpacking nightmares.

Another thing to watch for is a depowered, moored kite suddenly entering full power state in reverse. Bad things can happen.

You can burst cells in a kite by crashing it. Practice landing on its side.

Flying figures of 8 and then suddenly heading across wind is joyous. A 4m foil with a good gust can get you really quite high in the air. Mine has no qualms at all about picking all 105kg of me up and flinging me 4 or 5m off the ground.

Thanks for all the extra advice. I will concentrate on the line length. I hadn’t thought about the stretch in the lines being a factor so I’ll see how I progress with the current set up then look into alternative options.

It seems like it could be a cheap hobby and I’m lucky enough to live near a few parks with a decent amount of open space.

OP – I would definitely recommend a stake for your lines, here’s one I made from a golf ball and a tent peg…

That’s identical to mine, right down to the colour.

he handed me the handles of lifted me clean out of the car park and into the Woodbury Common gorse.

After getting cocky with a Blade, I too learned the hard way what kite killers were for.

Mine has no qualms at all about picking all 105kg of me up and flinging me 4 or 5m off the ground.

It seems like it could be a cheap hobby

hahaha! Here are a few

The Revolution and the white Canard single line (in the background) are my favourites. The delta is latticed so as not to be a hang glider. Its about 12 feet across. I have a few with very long tails too that look fabulous in modest winds.

Kite flying is not a cheap hobby. I have amongst others a Djiin (similar to a Rev) and as Cougar says it’s very sensitive. You certainly need line lengths to be near mm perfect. Flying in a field surrounded by trees is never going to be good. The wind will be to unpredictable. The best place to fly, is always a good sandy beach, where the wind is often steady, and your lines won’t get caught up in the grassy undergrowth.

I don’t fly as often as I should, but when I do I find it so relaxing I can loose myself for hours.

If you really want to learn how to fly a kite, get yourself on YouTube and immerse yourself in John Barresi videos. You will soon learn that flying a kite well, isn’t easy but when you can the movement of a kite is a thing of beauty.

We’ve a 5 quid Spider-Man and a Pteranodon kite. 🙂 Wee lad loves flying them but can be relied upon to unexpectedly let go of the strings at any moment.
I also have a foil kite I bought years ago and never really got to grips with. Really should give it another go.

I’ve an ancient 1.8m Decathlon four line.

It lives in the car and camper boot and a few times a year comes out to drag me around and provide mirth and smile.

I found I had to be super fussy with the brake line lengths.

I’ve also found that most folk seem to hold hands up and out, when in fact you can hold them close and lower, ‘pushing and pulling’ to get the kite to move.

I’ve used mine in the open canoe and nearly had us planing….

Just you be careful of those electric substations ok?

Years ago I made a few:

2.4m^2 soft foil (Dominator 2 design). Fun to fly in light winds, but an absolute beast in F4 – so blinking fast!

A ‘lifter’ kite, aimed at aerial photography (before drones, etc.).

I built a remote controlled camera platform for it to hold my 35mm compact film camera and allow pan/tilt and remote shutter release, but never actually flew it.

Here it is with a small, collapsible kite (in yellow) that would take an Action Man and a parachute all the way up the main kite line then drop them off to float away – great fun with kids.

My favourite was probably the 5m^2  NASA Parawing 5 – not fast, but had a heck of a pull on it. Very easy to make.

Must dig them out again…

The best place to fly, is always a good sandy beach, where the wind is often steady, and your lines won’t get caught up in the grassy undergrowth.

… and the ground is relatively forgiving when you **** it up under a traction kite. (-:

We’ve a 5 quid Spider-Man and a Pteranodon kite. 🙂 Wee lad loves flying them but can be relied upon to unexpectedly let go of the strings at any moment.

Leash them round his wrists, Wii-Remote style.

This is basically how kite killers work on big kites, but that’s another post.

This is basically how kite killers work on big kites, but that’s another post.

Kite killers are wrist straps attached to the brake lines but much higher up.  If you’re on full brake and still out of control, you just let go of the handles and it collapses the canopy.  I always thought they were pointless right up until the day they weren’t.

A mate had bought a new kite, the newest generation of Blade.  The Blade is a traction kite, designed to haul you around, it’s essentially a parachute.  My photo above wasn’t under a Blade but it was a similar style of power kite, so you can see the work I’m putting in to keep the bugger in check (and also the drag marks in the sand I’d carved).

Now, a fundamental feature of Blades, their defining characteristic if you like, is that they are incredibly aggressive and do not suffer fools gladly.  So of course I had to have a go.  I made two stupid errors.  Well, a number of stupid errors.

1) I thought “I’ve flown Blades before.  I know what I’m doing.  This is fine.”

2) I didn’t really consider, this new one was a little bigger than I was used to flying.  Be right.

3) I had no concept that with each successive generation of the Blade they got exponentially more batshit loopy.

4) So I grabbed the handles and launched it straight up into the centre of the power envelope.

I landed at least 10 and probably nearer 20 yards away from my start point in the time it took me to say “argh,” it was all a bit of a blur if I’m honest so I didn’t take measurements.  I splatted horizontal, full length, flat on my face.  I had the brakes on full which wrestled the kite down to the ground but it was still pulling like a carthorse.  I’m being dragged like Indiana Jones across the sands and I’m suddenly mindful that my mate’s brand new kite is about to have a thornbush interface at the back of the beach I’m rapidly running out of.

Someone shouts “let go” or some other pearl of wisdom, I had nothing left so I did.  The kite killers wrenched the canopy flat and everything went a bit quiet.

“Is the kite OK?”  Yeah, thanks.

I splatted horizontal, full length, flat on my face.

I travelled a considerable distance along the foreshore at Silverdale like that, much to the amusement of my friends.

That made me laugh out loud Cougar. I’ve had similar experiences with my mate’s blade. Feisty little sods aren’t they?

We started to do boarding / buggying and that added a new stupid dimension: speed. There’s nothing quite like the terror of heading across wind at 20mph 5cm off the sand and suddenly realising you’re no longer sat in the buggy but are floating a couple of metres above it while you both are still doing 20mph. Co-ordination of your landing with the still moving buggy while at the whim of the wind never really works out.

Another thing to note is that many big beaches have no fly zones. This is understandable as kites are unpredictable, their users are often halfwits (Hi!) and they take up quite a lot of space. Druridge bay is one such beach. Something to check out.

If you get into it, beware of kite attrition. Ours went something like this:

I’ve bought power kite we should go power kiting. (1m thing from beach tat shop).

I’ve also bought a power kite. (Identical 1 m thing for different tat shop)

I’ve bought a 2m blade.

I’ve bought a 4 m blade and a mountain board.

I’ve bought a kite buggy.

Well I’ve bought a 4m kite you’ve not heard of. So nah!

Well I’ve bought a 6m Venom and I’m in hospital.

I’ve bought some kite killers.

Lots more good advice and funny stories above.

So far the 2 kites have cost less than £30. I won’t rush into upgrading or expanding the collection until I have success with what I have to hand.

Being competent at flying would be a nice skill to attain. I like the idea of the focus that it takes and the control they need to remain in the air.

Those tales above are pretty much the reason I kite on water, it’s generally more forgiving to land in than solid earth. I’ve still had the occasional kicking though and when it does happen you’re also getting dragged through the sea with breaking waves like being in a washing machine.

i too have a 5 sqm Nasa Parawing. nothing folds as small and pulls so hard. I used it to pull me through the water. It was designed as a steerable parachute.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogallo_wing

Ooh it’s great to have a new kite thread, funnily enough I flew my flexifoil 8’ kite last weekend for the first time for ages, what a hoot! I have a selection of 4 line kites, mainly HQ Beemers of varying vintage which are great and not too lethal for a mere mortal. It’s strange how kiting has fallen out of fashion now, 15 years ago it was quite popular with loads of festivals and kite shops around but they have really tailed off now. Would echo all the kite killer advice here, don’t think they are for weaklings, a stroppy kite in a big gust will have no qualms about hurting you badly. I really wish you hadn’t reminded me of the Rev kites, still that time of year is approaching so who knows?(Strolls off to garage to see where the kites are lurking)

Get yourself having a look at http://www.oceanshoreskites.com  A bit of a crappy and complicated site, but the store is magnificent. You could spend some serious money here and come away with some wonderful kites.

Alternatively have a look at https://kiteforge.com where the serious West coast kiters get their kit.

I’ve got a 6’ Flexifoil that I bought back around the very early 70’s, at a hang gliding event now near Mells in Somerset. Bob Wills, inventor of the Wills Wing rogallo glider was there, and there were some people demoing Flexifoil kites, they had a VW Microbus with a stack of six that they managed to tow the ‘bus with, so I promptly bought one of their kites. I haven’t flown it for years, I did replace the leading-edge carbon fibre tube with a glass fibre one, after the original one shattered in flight, apparently due to vibration.

My brother flew it for some time, but I haven’t for years – I ought to dig it out and fly it.

A few years ago I was up on top of Bratton near Westbury, and there were some people there flying really big kites, one bloke was jumping and getting several metres off the ground, another bloke had one arm with a steel framework holding it all together, with long rods going through his arm – a sudden gust had yanked him into the air and smashed his arm very badly.

Be careful out there!

Started with a little delta recommended on here, then a crosskites 2 line foil, then a hq symphony (old version, used, prefer the crosskites), then a 1.8 beamer. The beamer is ace, 4 lines means it can spin in it’s own length, stall etc. Pulls well but manageable.

Often fly on the farmers field behind work at lunchtime.

For single line I have many premier kites bought in the US. being pulled around the field gets old quite quickly, but a big single line fluttering gently is always welcome  Pay £200 for a nice one

Collections – Canards

Collections – Rokkaku

And this – Blackfoot’s Magic Gourd. Lovely in the sky but takes an age to pack the tail away! The main kite is 8ft diagonal  

Pretty windy outside. So I headed out to the park with my stunt kite. Managed to get it airborne then quickly back on the ground after spiralling around!

Spent most of the time carefully untangling the lines.

I then had a bright idea to hold the kite with the strings in my hands and the kite took off with the string zipping through my fingers. I won’t be doing that again. No serious burn but a minor one.

Ouch, been there.

Those reels aren’t very good for dual line kites – you would definitely benefit from fixed equal length lines.

Decathlon do some good kites under their “Orao” brand, maybe worth checking out? I’ve got the Feel’r 180 model that my friends/family used. Bit small at 160cm span and needs a good breeze but very well made and robust (for the inevitable crashes). Good line set included as well.

Best thing I did with my 2 string was upgrade to better lines, I think they were Dyneema.

Less stretchy and much lighter, so in light winds the strings stayed taut rather than hanging down.

Trouble was it became apparent in stronger wind that the delay in the old lines was much more forgiving of my poor inputs ?

I’m evily chuckling at your misfortune.  You know the scene in Back to the Future where Doc is trying to connect the lightning conductor and loads of things start to go wrong resulting in a series of disbelieving gasps and quizzically shocked stares? I think everyone’s introductions to kite flying is a lot like that. I certainly had many moments like that.

Hope the burn heals.

I just remembered that I managed  to bloody an idiotic observer’s nose on one of the first times I flew my stunt kite (halfwit came over and stood under the ark of the kite strings, I lost control of it in a  death spiral and it sought out his nose. ??‍♂️)

My finger will be ok. No blood but it was close.

I will look into new lines and handles.

I tried flying with short strings and add the kite took off above my head the wind caught my woolly hat as I looked up blowing it over my eyes so I couldn’t see where it was going to crash! I’ll wear a better hat next time.

The last time it went airborne I was staring into the sun! Cue another crash!

I’ll have another go tomorrow…

HQ symphony kites come with handles rather than a reel and proper dynema. Makes a huge difference. Of course it melts when it runs against against cheap twisted lines. Expensive but looks funny when your  kite is cut off in its course by a single line you didn’t see. Been there done that and repaired the lines. More than once.