[Vhfcn-l] 3 Kites,One man flying them,NOT magical!!Lesson 1

Fri Apr 24 22:58:20 EDT 2020

  So good to see my old friend Ray Bethell again. Have seen this 
several places with same beautiful music to go with his three kite. I 
met and chatted with Ray in my home town of Newport, RI at a kite 
festival there and had only been flying stunt kites for a couple of 
years.  There is a guy in RI that can do the same thing and I saw him 
in Newport also when he came and knocked on our Motor Home door and 
introduced himself to me and asking me if I was really Freds Brother. 
I told him I had a brother Fred and a couple of years ago he taught 
me to fly his two line and I was hooked and bought my own. At the 
time I told him,"Presently I am trying to make myself kite poor." I 
did see him again when we were fully retired and travelling in the 
Big Assed motor home full time and were on the west coast and heard 
about the kite museum and the Kite Festival to be happening and so we 
stayed for a week.  One day I am walking around and here comes Ray 
and he had a bunch of folks helping him had to walk right pass me and 
I waved at him.  He came over and asked me what I was doing... your 
from the other side of the country. I laughed and told him I came all 
this way to watch you Ray. There is a guy in New England that can do 
the same thing but is younger and he belongs to Kites Over New 
England Club(K.O.N.E.)

So anyhow, Roger said I could talk about it and here is an older 
pilot friend of mine saying he could not control what amounts to a 
piece of rip stop nylon.  I would ask several things of you if you 
have an idea to control just one kite at a time not 2 and certainly 
not 3 or more. There are single line kites which will fly themselves 
on the end of your line and if you get it high enough and it has 
clean air to keep it flying. You can tie it off to something solid 
and it will fly all day. I once did it from noon one day to middle 
morning next just to prove it. The small flash light attached ran out 
of battery power and I had pinned down a note next to the line saying 
who it belonged to. It was a large kite of about 5' tall and 3+ 
across. The line was 300 ft long.

Then there are 2 line kites. One person can set up a two line kite. 
You need to have plenty of room and nobody under where you plan on 
flying it. Most of my flying was done on beaches. You need an anchor 
to start with if you will try by yourself. Depending on the ground 
that can be a long screw driver on up to a shovel and a log with long 
screw eyes. Hopefully you have received some instruction in flying a 
2 line kite. There are several makes and styles of 2 lines.Hopefully 
the lines and fabric for the handles come included in the price. Hope 
fully it is Spectra line as it has little to no stretch.  But it was 
expensive when I bought my two 125' lines in Newport because as I 
told the kite store owner I will be flying mostly in Texas with 
plenty of room around me. This after watching my brother set his 
large $250+ 2 line kite up with no help from me although I offered to 
hold the kite. He hooked the ends of his line handles to the spike he 
pushed into the ground  and kite and pulled the lines tight.  Then he 
moved the kite so it would stand there leaning backwards away from 
his handles. Be careful before you just up and walk away from it. Be 
sure that the Kite will not fly up until you pick up your 
handles.  You want to stand up straight and be sure the kite is still 
leaning away and get feel for how you kite feels with the wind 
blowing against the face of the kite. If you slowly pull the handles 
towards yourself you will feel the kite getting ready to fly 
upwards.  Keep it leaning back but not so much that it lays down on 
its back because you will be out of control totally, and then when 
your instinct tells you that you need to pull it closer to upright. 
There is the possibility that you will overcome its bouncing 
backwards and pull to hard and it may jump off the ground and 
immediately it will go into a turn left or right and dive into the 
ground.  You will be frustrated that happened. Two things you can do 
is get a helper to hold the kite on the ground or on their body 
fronts. Keep your handles even in front of you and feel the pull on 
the handles. The kite  will not fly on limp lines. If you want to 
fly, keep your lines tight and together until the day you "THINK" you 
are expert. If you get the kite almost directly over your head pull a 
little on one handle. If it is the right hand then the kite will 
slowly move over to the right and keep going that direction until it 
crashes. So, not wanting to crash bring that hand forward until the 
handles in you hand are back to the same length and try the left 
handle.  These are all small movements. What you are trying to do is 
get the feel of the kite and how it feels when you do this or that. 
Go slow and learn. Left and right over your head.It will take some 
time. Think about the first time you tried to hover.  Eventually you 
got the feel and it no longer felt like it was going to roll over or 
dive frontward or aft into the ground. You learned what the 
instructor meant when he told you to "just think about it".   Thank 
you 1st Lt Jesse M Lozano  coming down the NYC East River.  It was 
amazing how much better that H13 reacted making the left turn around 
the end of Govenors Island when I just thought about it. Take it easy 
and slow yourself down if you never flew a stunt kite before

Saturday I will try to get to 3 line kites and 4 line kites.  In the 
meantime I would suggest that you look at line in Amazon and search 
for Stunt kites and see how many you can see of various types and 
what they look like. There are even videos.   I have not flown a 2 or 
4 line kite in a very long time, and I am kite poor, in almost about 
9 years. But it is like riding a bike! If you go on FaceBook and 
search for my name check out my picture taken on the shores of Lake Lewisville.

Twin 2 line Kites which Chicago Fire Team used to win a world 
championship ages ago. The bottom spread is 8 feet wide. Some are 
wondering who that lady is. That is the Imposter Wife and John Grow, 
she learned quickly how to fly that kite.  But we are in Texas and 
there are times when the wind is blowing hard. 2 and 4 line kites can 
put a hurt on you if the winds are high or gusting high. She had me 
get her a much smaller kite that does not pull really hard in high 
winds and zips through the air quickly but she figured it all out and 
she had a ball. She is older than many of you guys.
Da Foot

At 12:37 PM 4/21/2020, John Grow wrote:
>This is old but still worth a look see.  I can not even fly one at a 
>time, let alone three.
>
>Falcon
>
>   If you have ever flown a kite you will wonder how this is possible?
>
>
>
>
>The guy flying the 3 kites is in his 80s, and he's from Canada. He 
>comes to the Washington State International Kite Festival every 
>year. His skin is like leather as he normally flies with his shirt 
>off. He is deaf, so when he flies we hold our hands up and wave them 
>for applause. He flies 2 with his hands and the 3rd one is attached 
>to his waist. Enjoy!
>
>
>
>You must watch to the end to see the amazing landing of that last 
>kite! I would have those kites so tangled up, you could never get 
>them separated again! And of course, make sure the volume is turned 
>up because the music is wonderful and totally reflects the soaring 
>of the KITES. Beautiful.
>
>"Romancing The Wind" - Ray 
>Bethell<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch_popup%3Fv%3Dnr9KrqN_lIg&data=02%7C01%7C%7Cb489ef306f3841210a0908d7e613972a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637230844115962040&sdata=hjljPulW9loyigQcNsQ2cPgFnqR2cFkWahLGeGxYnHk%3D&reserved=0>
>
>
>
>
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