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Hand catch: taking your kite back without fetching it

This lesson is part of the Cramayailes indoor 4-line school, restored by QuadKites.org. The text is Thierry Bressure’s, in the first person, translated from French. The video commentary is in French.

Prerequisite: none.

The figure

Section titled "The figure"

A simple figure: with the lines taut and the kite on the ground, bring it back to you.

Watch the figure: hand catch

The lesson

Section titled "The lesson"

The hand catch lets you take the kite back in your hand without having to fetch it from the ground. At the end of a flight, simply rest the kite on its two wingtips, then bring it to you.

Hand catch lesson by Cramayailes

Key takeaways from this video — Hand catch lesson

  • Pulling too high is the beginner's mistake: the kite passes over the pilot's head.
  • The right pulling height is roughly waist level. Pulled too low, you have to crouch to take it back around knee height.
  • When the pull is too high, a small jump can still catch the kite in flight.

Transcript — Hand catch lesson

  1. Pulling the front lines toward you

    0:00

    The hand catch is an easy figure, which consists of pulling the front lines toward you to bring the kite directly into your hand.

  2. The beginner’s mistake: pulling too high

    0:30

    The beginner’s mistake is to pull too high. Here is what happens: the kite passes over the pilot’s head.

    Watch the right hand closely: I pull too high and the kite passes over my head.

  3. The right pulling height

    1:00

    The right pulling height is at waist level.

  4. If you pull too low

    1:48

    If you pull too low, you will have to crouch a little to catch the kite at knee level.

    A slow-motion replay lets you see the pulling height clearly.

  5. If you pull too high: the small jump

    2:18

    If you pull too high, you can recover by making a small jump.

Video page: transcript, series and other uses

Movement

Section titled "Movement"

The pilot stays in place, or moves back slightly to lengthen the return flight into the hand.

Control

Section titled "Control"

The lines must be taut and the kite upright on the ground. Grab the top lines together: this tips the kite forward. At that moment, pull the front lines energetically toward you.

If you pull upward, the kite will rise above the pilot’s head: remember to pull downward.

The Revolution Indoor tends to climb. There is not enough weight in the LE to make it fly in a bell shape. If you do not let it tip far enough before pulling, or you pull upward, it will climb and either pass over the pilot’s head or stop climbing and go back.

In the first case, where it passes too high, you can still recover by jumping to take it in flight.

The pulling speed must not be too fast, but the same speed as the flight.

What comes next

Section titled "What comes next"

Now that we can catch the revo without a support, we will learn to start without a support as well, with the hand throw.

Last updated: — restored Thierry Bressure's hand catch lesson, with the figure reference