Kites!
Everybody likes to see a kite in the sky, peaceful and tranquil, hovering in the air, but there is much more to kite flying in the 21st Century as you may have guessed, let’s take a look.
First things first, I have flown R/C for 16 years, with 8 spent on 3D flying, and have a lot of time/money invested in the hobby, then I moved to Bullhead City AZ……
Way too much wind to fly my big boys, let alone my little quadcopters and such so, what to do?
I knew 2 line kites existed, and thought about giving them a try, with a bit of research I found a nice, cheap Parafoil to start out with, and then went to YT, oh boy…. Did you know they make 4 line kites? 5 line kites? time to back up and study. It appears that a 4 line kite has what they call brakes, actually a wing flexing reminiscent of the Wright Brothers original design, but WAAAY better, you can potentially fly your kite Backwards, Spin on a dime, and land anywhere you want, pretty cool.
When the kite came in the mail, we proceeded to RTFM and all the Bridle lines came into focus, it made sense, after a few bowline knots, we hooked everything up and went up. Power! control! Crashes! it was great fun til the bridles and lines Tangled, bad, so we go back to YT and see what we did wrong……
Kite Types
So many types, let’s run through a few:
Single line – what we grew up flying, add a tail and have fun, there are a variety of fun singles, 75 foot tails, cubes, animals, all sorts of fun.
Dual Line – these come in Delta wing and Parafoil designs, and they perform! crossing the sky sideways, loops, dives, the wind window is your only limit.
Four Line – these are the bad boys, dual control lines and dual brakes. Very testy, very fun.
Five Line – these are the big, kiteboarding kites. The fifth line is a Bailout line; they need it.
Controls
This is fun, as there are many ways do control a kite:
Single Line – kind of obvious.
Dual Line – you are taking the entire wing and turning it to go where. you want to go. Arms parallel, and pull straight back, pull the left line to turn left, the right line to turn right, etc. Watch your loop numbers, then reverse them to clear your lines.
Four Line – the extra lines add the ability to shape the wing structure, meaning tight turns and loops, and the ability to land anywhere. But, if you aren’t on it, you crash….
You can start with stock handle controls or mod some. I did because I’m Bob the Builder, or you can buy some big boy toys for big kites. These are nice tools for Big kites, say 3meters and above, so far I’m at 1.8 meters and getting a 2.5 meter, baby steps. I recommend trying out the smaller control kites, they are a lot of fun, and if you want to fly get the bigger ones next.
I built a set of brakelines, and if I’m feeling saucy I’ll set up a four line kite. The park I just found is awesome, not just for flying either – two dog parks, one with all the ability features built in. Should be fun!
Kiteboarding, I wish they had it when I was young and strong, no need to send you to a YT link. Too much for me.
Kites are cool, since writing this imma gonna buy some single lines just for fun, you should too,
Have a lot of fun!
Next week, I’m getting a Prism Nexus, will report back. Prism is the go-to for good kites.
‘Til next time
PC!
Comments
174 responses to “Kites!”
The only kiting I’ve ever done was when I played MMOs, but that was finding a specific monster and luring it back to the party which camped in a safe spot.
Yay! I want this to be a series, please please please. Great start!
[[ I take in written information better than audio/video ]]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-12/kite-surfers-ready-to-nip-across-torres-strait/4816498
Related. I think.
I don’t think there’s a soul on the planet who’s unaware of breast cancer.
We need to send our charity money to someone else’s bizarre publicity stunts.
Boobs are all cheeky and fun and you get much virtue signaling points for wearing pink but as soon as I put big hairy set of testes on a t-shirt to raise awareness for testicular cancer I get sent home from work
I have a pet peeve about that. Heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined and yet … women still think heart disease is a man’s disease and that the only thing they ever have to worry about is breast cancer.
You’re really determined to take everything from us, aren’t you?
Men die at war, women hardest hit…
I’mma die like a man, dammit.
From testicular cancer?
something something booze and loneliness
Don’t make me spit out my drink
Oh, so mouth cancer and liver cerosis from smoking 2 packs a day and drinking 15 beers a day to get over the stress of having to provide for a family, seems fair…
How far back do these things go? Toys just keep getting better and better (no doubt because we keep getting richer and have more idle time.) The reason I want to live forever is I’m sure I can’t begin to imagine how awesome toys will be in the XXII centuries and beyond.
Try skydiving. Seriously.
Negative. There’s no reason to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Although these wing suits tug a heart string.
FYI Wingsuiters have to have a minimum of 200 skydives before they can transition to wingsuiting….
/Sad trombone sound
My SCUBA partner tried to get me into skydiving. I stuck with diving, because it was an orthopedically sound sport. I had no problem diving to 140′, past the amateur diver limit, but I had no interest in jumping out of a plane.
I guess I get that. I had a jumping buddy who tried to get me to get a dive cert. I don’t have a water aversion but it just didn’t excited me. Maybe if I aspired to live in a tropical or subtropical coastal area but I don’t.
Yeah, I was diving Monterey Bay, which required a 5mm wet suit. We dove deep, and I had no problem solo diving. I was a much younger man.
Uh…cuz it’s fun.
Though that shit is a lifetime ago for me. I regret nothing.
I’m still wanting to write that article about the USPA being an example of how a sport/industry can successfully self-regulate without a central planner. Unfortunately it requires more time and research than I presently can handle
One of my last few jumps was with Dave Briegs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azk80RvkhCc
I just hung out and watched during freefall. ( Not my video. Not this jump.)
He was good.
That’s amazing. It’s incredible how there are people who keep finding new boundaries to push in the sport. Was that in FL?
Nobody lives to regret skydiving.
Not exactly wingsuiting and posted before, but still gives me a chill at 0:20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VPvKl6ezyc
Coworker tried to cajole me into that. My response was some office-friendly version of “Are you out of your fucking mind?”
You should. Tandem skydiving has a pretty stellar safety record all things considered. 1:500,000 fatality rate I believe. I’m an advocate everyone try it once….
/My hobby and second job is filming said event
Fuck no.
Even if the plane is falling out of the sky, I’d have to think twice about getting out.
Your odds of surviving that crash inside the plane go down dramatically…..just sayin’
Still, if the plane isn’t going down, why should I leave it?
“Your odds of surviving that crash inside the plane go down dramatically…”
Unless it is a Cirrus Aircraft with a full parachute, made in Dooloot, MN ;^)
I don’t have $2million…
But sir, the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are approximate 3,620 to 1!!
+4 mynocks
If he had hit me up 10 or 15 years earlier, maybe. My thrill-seeking days are long past.
PS. I did actually consider it for awhile, but it never materialized anyway.
I filmed a lady in her 80s a couple weeks ago. I’d never advocate someone who is dead set against it to go (bad experience for you and the tandem instructor) but if there is even the slightest curiosity…
Even the people who look like they are about to shit a chicken on the way up are always smiling when we get back down to the ground
I exaggerate. I’m not dead-set against it.
Just not interested.
I had a friend who has a great grandfather jumped on D-Day. His last jump was a month or two ago.
I’m dead set against it.
Even the people who look like they are about to shit a chicken on the way up are always smiling when we get back down to the ground
I would expect that those people would be happier when they were on terra firma again.
There can’t be that many of the 82nd and 101st who jumped into Normandy left. That’s awesome that he’s still doing it.
My dad was in the 82 AB. He LOVED the jumping. When I was about 10 he wanted to take it up as a sport. My mom, for some reason, didn’t think that was a suitable passtime for a father of three. He eventually convinced it to watch – c’mon Hon you’ll see it safe.
They drove out to Livermore one weekend to a club jump. First guy out went straight in. His chute didn’t even open.
Dad to to be happy with just his motorcycle.
Everybody’s chute then were Army surplus Normanday invasion technology.
Damn. I need to learn to proof read.
Yeah the early days of skydiving really were the wild west and deaths were pretty common. Despite statist claims that any activity will only get worse without common sense govt reforms and safety regulations, skydiving in the US is down to about 20 deaths in average per year. I’m intending to write an article about this eventually but it’s going to take some time.
*skydiving remains almost entirely unregulated by the govt outside the FAA rules imposed on the aircraft/ATC.
That would be great. Funny how people worry about things like safety when their own lives are at stake. And how they don’t want to particiapte in the deaths of others.
You’ll find the same thing with divers, climbers and cavers.
“Hold my beer.” is just Darwn at work
Mikey- yeah, the stereotype of the “adrenaline junky” is a canard. The “hold my beer” types usually wash out pretty quickly. The people who push the boundaries in the sport are generally extremely focused individuals. And yeah if death were a constant nobody would stick around.
https://youtu.be/l-YsSL65quM
I went tandem maybe 12 years ago. It was a great experience, and I’m glad I took that opportunity then since my wife is adamant against me ever doing it again.
My mother still refuses to acknowledge that I participate. When she asks “what did you do this weekend?” And I reply “I was at the drop zone” we both know to immediately and without comment to change the topic of conversation
My little brothers first purchase out of college was a motorcyle, which he kept the existence of hidden from my mother for six months, and from my grandmother for several years.
Speaking of parachuting, do you know who Dan Poynter is?
I did a static line jump when I was younger. I ripped the nastiest fart just before we jumped. I also jammed my nuts when the chute popped.
A few years ago a cow-orker survived this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p6hqMnsLFY
Holy shit.
So…………no job opening, huh?
/ducks, runs
Medieval China, IIRC. Kite fighting. Man-lifting kites. Etc.
Ripstop nylon and fiberglass spars far superior to rice paper and bamboo in terms of survivability, but not so much in aesthetics.
I’ve got a 2m delta with a box keel which I found in a gully. Previous owners flew it using lame dimestore kite string and it broke free.
I want to fly my GoPro on it. Lifting power not an issue, obviously. Any thoughts on airframe mounting vs line laundry?
Looks like fun Yusef!! It looks as if parafoil kites are evolving into or mirroring skydiving canopies. Maybe when I retire from jumping I’ll get one to play with from the ground ?
I read a book in which the protagonist makes a stealth kite from clear straws and saran wrap. I still want to try that. Do you think it would work?
It would be shiny, so there will be people who catch the glare.
I agree with UCS. You’d be better off going opaque light gray-blue.
We used to make “ufos” (hot air balloons) from plastic straws, drycleaning bags, and birthday candles. We launched after dark from campus quad.
I’m trying to picture how that would work…
Yeah, how many birthday candles do you need to produce enough hot air to fill a dry-cleaning bag?
We use to go out on the beach with a 5 gallon bucket with one gallon of gas in it. We’d pour melted wax onto cheese cloth all over the top, then scrape a thin spot in the middle. Light a whole book of matches and set it on the thin spot, quickly (QUICKLY!) put the top on and crimp over two or three tabs and run like hell. It would make a fireball the size of a school bus. Very impressive at night.
Not so fun when it lands on a neighboring roof.
It went out fortunately.
Make it look like a jelly fish.
That would also fit in with what Tonio mentioned above – kite fighting. If your kite has sharp blades attached to it, might as well make it seem natural
Yusef, you are a man of many talents and skills, in addition to driving a Kia. What does your dog do while you are flying?. Is the dog interested in attacking the kite when its in landing mode?
Nice intro! As a kid I flew several types of kites. Homemade single line, box kites, and a small, two line “bat” kite.
Charlie Brown and I shared a kite. He took his turn first…
Ha!
What a cool article, Yusef! I knew there was more to kiting than the single lines I had as a kid, but didn’t know any details. It was cool to get a break down. I hope you keep writing these.
If Q drops in with some of his ladies, I hope he realizes it’s National Redhead Day.
??
O/T
Definitely surprised/disappointed at the number of uncontested races in VA. Looks like the legislature is flipping to the nuts. Otoh, it is interesting to see the successful write-in campaign by Freitas locally.
That reminds me, I have been meaning to take this boating trip that I have been putting off. Ima go ahead and schedule that, oh idk, probably for early January.
I’ve been thinking about getting a couple guns to subsequently lose in a lake. Looks like nows the time.
Yeah I figure one more cycle and VA really starts heading towards being Illinois.
What was the federal court ruling that made having an actual State Senate illegal?
Those kites are cool AF. I just can’t help remember the Peanuts gang telling each other to go fly one all the time.
It was a kind way of said “go fuck yourself”, wasn’t it?
Yup, but from simpler times.
Kite eating trees are real and my kid loves feeding them. Usually within two minutes of the first flight.
When I was a kid, I read a book, or article, or something about kite fighting. I pretty sure it was in Japan. They’d do different things like have glass on their strings and try to cut the string of the other kites. It’s been years…kinda fuzzy. It may have been historical, like it used to be a thing a hundred(s) years ago…?
Does this ring any bells with anyone?
No but combat kiting sounds like a blast
Grenades on the kite tail?
Yes, its a real thing.
The Kite Runner?
Good book
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kite_Runner
Huh. It is also a movie
No, but that book looks good. This would have been in the early 80’s.
Nah. If you ever bump another kite here, the other person says, “sumimasen”.
Still not sure what I read when I was a kid, but here is Japanese Kite Fighting.
But if both kites go down, how do they know who won?
Damatte kudasai
Indonesia they do it with glass dust on the string- all the time when I was a kid in the 80s. Not sure about contemporary stuff.
Yay! 5k words today! That’s a lot better than the 2k I managed back on saturday. Still slower than I was shooting for though.
I’d imagine that sometimes the word count flies without even noticing and sometimes it’s like waiting for water to boil. If you aren’t in the mood, do you just gut it out or come back to it later?
Sometimes. Othertimes I look for ways to get to the next scene. If I can get to the next scene, I can get to the scene after that. Before you know it, I’ll be on the next chapter…
For example, the current scene exists only because I needed to patch a plot hole I only just reaized was coming up. But could be averted if the characters thought of it and implemented some precautions. The precautions require a delay, and just having it happen in a scene break doesn’t fit. So the narrator is talking to another character about how one might transport Pygmy Dragons across an ocean while they’re listening the armor plates being hammered out. (The two are completely unrelated) Next scene they’ll be back on the original course towards the battle sequence. The fight will probably be written tomorrow, given the current time.
Plot holes would be a nightmare for me. Just imagine the glibertariat pouring over your story and looking for that one thing to point out .
I figure I can weather the storm if I give them an interesting enough story and a plausible excuse.
Crap.. I don’t know what the city of Raptaron looks like. It’s a slave port on the edge of a tropical/semitropical land mass. they have to pass it more than once.
True. Also, if they are interested enough to find the plot holes in the first place, it means the story has legs.
poring*
/Ted’S
What does Ted’s have against poor rings? That man is monster!
ISWYDT
They always complain if there’s nothing to fapp to.
Well, I’m going to call it a night. 5,124 words today. Maybe tomorrow’s battle scenes can rack up a higher count.
I suggest battle kites.
Great article Yusef. Always loved flying kites as a kid. One-line diamonds. Picture of a flying wing on them WTF! Kite was a dime and a ball of string was a nickle (yeah, I’m old). Every new nickle was a new ball of string.I finally had enough balls of string that kite got so far away I couldn’t see it. Then the wind died. I lost my whole net worth with that string.
Anybody watch Artie Lang on Rogan? Artie rubs me the wrong way. His attitude seems to be, “Yeah, I was fucked up, but ha, ha, ha, aren’t these stories funny?” To me, it was, “Yeah, but you were an asshole and now I get the feeling you don’t even regret it.” Recovering junkies may use humor to deal with what they’ve done in the past, but there is a fine line between laughing at what you did and relishing in it.
I don’t do Rogan but I recall Artie swirling down the drain in real time on Stern when it was still good. The show where he fell asleep was a classic. I think he was in rehab like a week later.
Never really watched Stern other than the odd clip here and there. East coast humor can devolve into simple douche bag humor real quick and Stern was guilty of that very often. It’s why I love Burr. He fully understands the risk and adds in humility to his act.
?
Or as I call it, “humor”.
Straff is a good Midwesterner. We prefer jokes to be more than vulgarity screamed about wypipo.
“East coast humor”
/Shit that isn’t funny
You can’t tell the difference between Wisconsin humor and NY humor? Big difference to me.
Speaking of which, did ya see ta turdy pointer?
Case in point (bad pun intended). There is no, “We’re gonna make fun of ourselves, but we still think we’re better than you”. Mitch Hedberg and Brian Regan know how to do this.
Yes, coastal humor seems to be about making fun of THEM (being us), midwest humor seems much more focused on making fun of US (being us). Self depreciating humor.
*points at CPRM and laughs*
Joins in! AHAHAHAHAHA, what a piece of shit! AHAHAHAHA!
I blame his dad. (The heavy breathing makes this shitty video)
Oh, it’s the breathing what does it wrong?
No, but the breathing is piece de resitance, or what ever them french fuckers say.
I’m sympathetic to him. The man has a lot of demons. It’s sad and he isn’t asking for anything from anyone.
I can have sympathy for him and still think he’s being an asshole. None of the stories in that interview were about him doing horrible stuff to other people. No way you’re a junkie for that long and didn’t do things that hurt other people. He talks about how he hurt his mom by making her worry about him, but no hilarious anecdotes. I bet there’s a story that is both funny and shows what a dick he had been at some point. Why not tell that? Again, I’m talking about in this interview and not when he was still using.
Fair enough. I haven’t seen him on Rogan.
It’s possible that I’m being blinded by my own bias and just ignored when he did that. That’s why I said it rubbed me the wrong way. There’s something about Artie that I always disliked.
blinded by my own bias
*throws up in mouth after last several weeks of HR pushing unconscious bias*
I have a bias for any woman that looks like Lucy Lawless, IYKWIM.
Been on a Jonathan Haidt binge the last week. Starts seeping into your psyche.
That works out well. I’ll take Renee O’Connor.
What’s with glibs and there fetish for chicks that were once hawt? Sophia Loren, Lucy Lawless etc. You guys have a jizz powered time machine? I fantasize about chicks that I have between .005 and .01% chance of actually nailed someday.
My punctuation and glammer at the worst. Used to double check before posting, but Trump…
Um…Ash VS Evil Dead Season 3 was like 1 1/2 yreas ago, still woood.
chicks that I have between .005 and .01% chance of actually nailed someday
#insert married joke here
For a 0% chance, I’ll take Myrna Loy over Demi Rose. The first is much easier on the eyes.
That leaves me zero fantasies. Fuck you shitlord!
You may find a gal who that isn’t into looks, money or personality someday.
/NY humor.
Excellent article, Yusef!
More importantly, you seem to be doing better and you “sound” happier.
Ditto.
Awesome Yusef. Those are beautiful, very cool.
Speaking of Kites
Iowa/Minnesota Glibs, especially those with kiddos, might be interested in this
Color the Wind Kite Festival in Clear Lake Iowa
Feb 15 2020, weather permitting (must be cold enough to ice the lake)
I rather enjoyed watching my kiddo enjoying herself when I brought her last year.
I really hate to come out here and bitch right away, but it’s been one of those days. I have a cold and so went in to work late. Waited on a co-worker who was supposed to join me at 12pm, until 3:30. Nice. Then there was a fire and an armed car jacking right down the street and I was told we can’t get into the parking garage. It’s Baltimore. Great. By the time I got out of there at 5:30, the traffic was a fucking nightmare. More than 1 hour to drive 9 miles. Fuck that shit.
Then I get home and fire up Red Dead Redemption 2, which I think I’ve been waiting on for more than a year. The game is all sorts of cool and atmospheric, never really seen anything quite like it. That is if you crank every graphics setting up as high as they will go. If you want to gain a little performance by turning the setting down on high? Holy bejeebus, that’s the ugliest shit I’ve seen in years, it’s just horrible. Problem is, I have way higher than the recommended specs to run it on ultra, but it really sort of runs like shit. Now, that isn’t cool, because I can’t aim well with my gun, because you know, if you’re a gamer, low FPS equals you getting dead because your aim isn’t steady enough. That after spending an hour getting it running because my AV software makes it crash, despite the fact that I punched a hole in it to allow it. Come on, Rock Star, this is not even acceptable, fix it!
That’s my rant for the day. I’m out, back to work in the morning.
This! (I only played like like 2 mins of Red Dead 2 on my brother’s PS4, I’ll wait to buy if on PC till it drops to $10)
The game is fucking cool as hell looking, like I said, if you max out the graphics at 3440×1440. Otherwise, it’s just shit and it runs like shit. They need to fix this shit now. I don’t even have my on game FPS display on, but I bet I’m getting 30-40 FPS, lol. Just fuck no.
They will fix it, or not. It’s a PC port. That’s why you wait to buy a PC port. Even then, sometimes it’s a broken piece of shit like Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions or GTA IV, which I’ve never finished because they crash on the final boss fight no matter your set up.)
I was actually a little bit harsh, because I didn’t realize I was playing online. I’m sure I selected story mode, but I guess not. The story mode, while the optimization is not any better, the graphics are incredible, probably the best I’ve ever seen. Still, I think with a 1080ti with 11G, 64G or ram and an i9 with 10 cores, I should be able to get more than 40 frames per second. I mean, I’d be OK with even 60-80 FPS, at least I’d be able to lock on a target with some degree of smoothness. Nothing really unusual on release day, but I’d like for them to fix it soon.
Oh, I ain’t done yet! How do I take screenshot of all this beautiful scenery in your shit new game launcher, Rockstar? Looks through the list of 300 keyboard commands… F6… OK, yeah that doesn’t do anything. Oh, wait, I don’t have a fucking camera! I have to find one before I can use it! What.the.fucking.hell? Oh, fuck off!
First world problems, dude.
Yep, lol. But at least I’m just going to have a few beers and sleep and hope things are better tomorrow, I’m not looking to ruin someone else’s livelihood over it.
MikeS what happened with your bat?
I can answer for him, he ran ran into a guy who made fun of him because it was Jose Conseco bat.
TDS is truly without limit.
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2019/11/05/new-york-times-triggered-by-sean-spicers-untruthful-dancing-which-betrays-a-cold-brutality/
It’s a powerful drug.
And in the early weeks, it was striking that the majority of the dancers whose votes put them at the bottom of the pack were black
And if they had all made it though, it would have “reinforcing muh stereotypes!”
But it’s a good stereotype, for a minority, therefore it’s true! Those bad stereotypes, they’re fucking racist! Unless they’re the bad one’s about whites, then they are true!
That’s the funny thing about praising a specific race for any subjective quality. “Asian women are beautiful.” Alright, but you obviously are comparing them to another group. So which group is ugly?
Wisconsin women.
NY women. *Takes off nice guy gloves.
Wouldn’t that typically mean, “relative to the entirety of woman-kind” ? Bell curves (hawt!) and all that…?
That’s amazing! I wonder if Snopes is on the case? Gotta fact-check that meringue….
I tried flying some regular ol’ kids kites while on Galveston beach back in April. Absolutely perfect day. Except, there was virtually no wind. On a Texas beach. I almost started looking for The Old Ones, it was so unreal. Only one flew, and barely, at that.
So, yes…………::sigh:: It’s technically true that, for the other one, I couldn’t get it up.
Did you try holding it and running? (not being specific on it being a kite or your junk, which ever one you couldn’t get up)
Running in beach sand is nigh impossible for me.
Also, blood flow considerations. (You get light-headed, you can’t keep an eye on the kite.)
Lovely kites. I loved to fly the single string ones as a kid on the plains.
In Minnesota there were too many trees and power lines in our area.
Thanks for the cool advanced tech version summary.
The hyper velocity glider rounds (under development) similarly change wing shape (rather than waggle independent fins) to affect trajectory.
Cheeky fish…
Oi! If yer keen for nut punches, Ozy’s newest post is up. >>>>>
Feel bad soiling his excellent series with dick joke comments. No offense, Yusef.
Well, Ozy IS commenting on tons of dicks who happen to be government employees. Your jokes might not be a bad fit….
Right on Yusuf. I love the double kite, it feels like you are really flying something. We own one, it was a solid 25 buck spend. If you live in an area with wind, which is much of the planet, you will have fun with it. Go kites.
Kites are cool. I look forward to your next report.