Power dive and dead stop by Aerialis Kites

Transcript

1. ›

   Introduction

   0:01

   Hi there, Sven Arnesen from Aerialis Kites, and here is another quad line tutorial for you: the power dive and dead stop. Now, didn't that look cool? I sure think so. If you follow along with this tutorial, I'll let you in on the details so that you can do that cool move yourself.

2. ›

   Three elements

   1:06

   Yeah, let's just keep calling it a move. It builds on skills from a few of my other tutorials: flying straight lines, and in this case especially the vertical down ones; the inverted hover, which puts your kite upside down and stationary in the air; and you might also take a look at the angle of attack and the five reps practice method tutorials, to have some of this stuff repeated. And this is important: have in mind that there is no one truth. There is more than one way of approaching this move, and in this tutorial I bring out a few guidelines that have worked for me and hopefully will work for you too. But most importantly, go out there, fly and have fun. As you might know, I like to try to break a move down into smaller elements, and I find this power dive and dead stop a combination of three such elements: the dive, the stop and the inverted hover. And of course, if you're picky, a continued flight again. All these elements you can practice one by one, and when you can do all three of them pretty well, it's time to put it all together.

3. ›

   The dive

   2:28

   So let's take a look at the first element, the dive. Start out practicing vertical down trajectories. Play safe when starting out, by flying slowly towards the ground, you know, thumbs forward, brakes applied. Turn your kite away and up from the ground, and make sure to do this a couple of kite widths above the ground, avoiding an uncontrolled touchdown. When you grow confident, you can go faster, turn away closer to the ground, and finally both.

4. ›

   The dead stop

   3:38

   When you feel comfortable with the vertical flying, the dive, it's about time to check out the stop. I mean the dead stop, because we really want that kite to stop dead on a dime. From a powered-up dive to a dead stop within a millisecond: wow, that's something. It pretty much comes down to technique. Too much, and your kite will stop but take off again, flying upwards in an inverted position, looking something like this. Or too little, and your kite will just slow down without making the dead stop we're after, looking like this. This is where you will have to practice your braking technique: how to kill your kite in the air by quickly applying the brakes, pushing your thumbs forward. Make sure to start out slow again: the slower you fly your kite, the easier it is to do a dead stop. So start out by doing things kind of in slow motion, and speed up when you feel confident.

5. ›

   A practice drill

   5:04

   All right: fly your kite to the top of the wind window, then do a 180 degree turn, so your kite's leading edge is pointing down and your kite is now inverted in the air. Start flying a vertical line towards the ground, but rather than going all the way down to the ground, do a full stop every two kite widths or so. Continue until your kite is about one and a half to two kite widths above the ground, then turn up and fly all the way up again to the top of the wind window. Start all over. Repeat this pattern a few times until you feel you've got the hang of it. Then do it again, but increase the distance between each stop and reduce the number of stops on your way down. Finally, you can do this and stop your kite just once, and after some practice you should be able to have your kite stop dead just a couple of inches off the ground. Make sure to practice flying faster too.

6. ›

   The inverted hover

   6:19

   At last it's time to take a look at the third and final element, the inverted hover, because following the dead stop, a perfectly executed inverted hover will put the icing on that cake, and that's what we're after. The key success factor for nailing the inverted hover is the transition from a hard brake to a much softer hover, and now I'm talking about your input to the kite. Also have in mind that, somewhat depending on the wind, you should move on the ground to make this transition as seamless as possible. In lower winds you might take a step or two backwards, to maintain enough pressure in the sail to control the hover. When the wind picks up a little, just like today, you must do the opposite: take a step or three downwind. This body language will aid in both the dead stop and the inverted hover. Like said before: too much, and your kite will stop but fly up again; too little, and the kite will just slow down but not come to that complete halt. So it all comes down to your input, your technique and your timing.

7. ›

   A practice method

   7:46

   And like said before, start out slow. Fly your kite kind of slowly towards the ground, dead stop it a couple of kite widths above the ground, and concentrate on that transition between the dead stop and the hover, and exactly what input it takes to glue that kite to the air. Try to hold that kite in that inverted hover for a count of, let's say, three: one, two, three. Try to do it the same way at least five times before you modify any of your input. This way you will sort out and eliminate external factors, like the wind speed, wind gusts and similar, that have an impact on the result of your flying, and you might find a pattern of internal factors that actually influence your flying and that you can adjust. By the way, take a look at the five reps practice method for more information on this.

8. ›

   Step it up

   8:48

   When you get the hang of this in kind of slow motion, it's time to step it up a little and increase the speed, and if you feel ready for it, lower the execution of the dead stop and hover. From here on it's simple: practice, practice, practice. The more you practice, the better you'll get, I promise you. Soon you're going to power dive that kite of yours downwards, dead stop it just an inch or two above the ground and hold it in that inverted hover like it's glued in place. So what are you waiting for? Grab your kite, find the field and just fly. Thanks for watching, and see you soon in another tutorial. Bye bye.