Illinois Kite Enthusiasts

I was in Michigan on vacation for the last 10 days, visiting family, and I managed to make it out to the beach one of those days. The wind was kicking - 20-25 mph (the water was full of kite surfers, which was fantastic) when I got there, according to the locals. I discovered that there really can be such a thing as too much wind. I was by myself, and like a fool forgot to set up on the edge of the window, so here's me, setting up my Rev directly downwind of me, which was an adventure. Got the kite put together, weighed it down with sand, and played out the 75' lines. What with all the blowing and sand and whatnot, I managed to get the lines twisted and hooked up wrong, so I couldn't launch. After walking back and forth a couple of times, unable to see the line most of the time because the white faded into the sand (or was covered by it), I determined that I needed to just walk one set of lines back to the kite to see what was going on.

I'm not sure why I didn't think of using the winder that was in my back pocket, but it would have saved me a lot of headache - I managed to get both of those lines snarled into one of those balls like you used to see in the Peanuts cartoon, when Charlie Brown would try to fly his kite. *sigh* After over an hour of patiently picking away at this gigantic ball of knots, I managed to get it all sorted out, walked the line back out, set the kite up for launch, walked back to the handles, gave a flip of my wrists and...... watched my kite fold up and flop. Turned out the leading edge, through all of this nonsense, had separated. I stood there for a minute or two, during which I realized that the wind had picked up even more (pushing 30, I was told), so I just packed up and left. I can laugh about it now, but at the time, it was frustrating.

I'm pretty sure I'll never forget to use the winder again, though.

And I have a question - what do you guys do about the white line on white sand? Do you make up a set of lines and dye them?

-Wendy

catspaw00 wrote:
And I have a question - what do you guys do about the white line on white sand? Do you make up a set of lines and dye them?

-Wendy

Come to Two Rivers, WI this weekend and see for yourself!

Really, I haven't seen anyone concerned with that. Yeah, there are some environments where the lines can be harder to see. (Some of us even fly in snow) But it's not a big deal.

The main thing about your setup though, if there is a wind especially, attach the handles first, and stake them down. Unwind the line downwind, and set up the kite there. Doesn't have to be at the edge of the window. Then you can just invert the kite and it will stay there. It wants to fly forward, but since forward is the ground, it stays put. Go pick your handles up off the stake, and fly.

I think I'm doing it wrong - when I inverted my kite and started to walk away, it started rolling across the beach (fortunately tangling me in the line, which enabled me to pull in the leading edge and get that bad boy to STAY ON THE SAND).

I'll definitely have to come up to Two Rivers and see how the masters do it.

Think of how you would hold your handles to make the kite go really fast--thumbs way back, bottoms of the handles pointing towards the kite.
Now, land your kite upside down, and put your handles on the stake so that bottoms of the handles point towards the kite. That's maximum speed down into the ground. The kite will stay.
It's easier with a photo or in person, so you'll get it in Two Rivers.