Flat relaunches by KiteForge

Transcript

1. ›

   Upright kite lying flat on its back

   0:07

   In this tutorial, I'm going to take you through basic flat relaunches, or recoveries. One of the most common positions you're going to find is where the kite is upright like this, but then lays flat onto its back with the lines and bridle on top. The main takeaway from this position is that, when I'm looking to recover and it's flat, I offset one hand to approximately my wrist, or maybe a little deeper, but not a lot. Then you'll see me play with the amount of gas I give the kite so that it opens back up. In this case, I'm looking for a left-hand-favored offset like this. We're going on our back. Then I set that left hand, and I play with the amount of gas so that the kite opens and sets back down on its feet.

   Let's try that with the right hand favored. I've gone on my back, there's my right hand deep, my gas comes on, and you can see what happens. The kite actually opens up, and usually the drawn hand, the low hand, is the wing that bites the ground first. Let's do that one more time and go through the sequence so you know it's not a fluke. We're on our back, left hand favored. Sometimes it's unpredictable and you shift to the other wing, but it's still the same game: a little bit of offset on one hand, not much, and then playing with the gas to open it back up. Let's repeat that a few times so we can watch it. There it is: it opens, there's my gas to get it to open. And then of course, once it opens, you want to establish control again to the other side. There it is, and bam, it opens right back up. So that's the upright flat relaunch.

2. ›

   Kite lying belly down

   1:50

   Let's show you what it looks like when it goes belly down. Now we're looking at the face-down, or belly-down, position, leading edge toward us. The primary difference is that in the last position the lines and bridle were both on top of the kite. Now they're underneath the kite. As with any flat relaunch, it's highly dependent on the turf you're working on. If we were in soft, deep sand or high grass, anything like that, the thing I'm about to try, which is spin-oriented, would be resisted by the sand and grass, and possibly not even be allowed to happen. But the principles hold true. The kites are pretty durable, and I encourage you to always give it a try, depending on what sort of surface you're on.

   In this particular instance, once more, the kite was on its feet. This would be a typical position if the wind was light and all of a sudden the kite just went flop and fell toward you as the pilot. Again, lines and bridle are underneath the kite. What I'm going to do is take my strong hand (I'm right-handed) and feed the other one slightly back, so my power hand is closer to the kite. The key to this maneuver is that I give it a quick spin, a quick flick with this brake line, my power hand, the one nearest to the kite, and try to get the kite to spin. But immediately after I make that strike, I have to make sure all of the lines are totally loose and lying on the sand, so the kite is able to spin over the top of them. Let's see if I can pull that one off. The other thing you'll notice is that, as soon as the kite has spun all the way around, I back up to take up that slack and make sure I have a connection with the kite. Let's see if I can pull it off. There it is. You can see what happened there. Let's do that again.

   Once more in the belly-down position, leading edge toward us: a slight offset with the weak hand. My power hand spins immediately after I hit the sharp spin, I slack the lines so it spins around, and then I take up all that tension when it's done spinning. Let's see if I can do it again. There it is. So that is the other version of the flat relaunch.

3. ›

   Inverted kite laid back

   4:07

   The last one I'm going to touch on is where the kite is inverted and laid back. The truth of the matter is that the example I'm giving you here is on hard pack, and it's a near-unlikely recovery. So the kite lays back, and really I'm just going to talk you through this. I don't think I'm going to be able to recover it, but I'll tell you about the other sides of it. It's here, we lay back, and now it's in the same position as the last recovery we did. However, the lines and bridle are on top of the kite. The challenge here is that, if you are in soft sand or deep, deep grass, you could in most cases simply turn the handles upside down, lift them quite high, and then apply pressure on your brake lines. The ground would be soft enough to provide purchase for the kite to dig in and then lift itself up. Ideally, you're flying on a surface like that, and it will be a non-issue.

   On this particular turf, hard pack sand, you can see that when I pull it, it just slides. That's a big challenge. Honestly, what I usually do, because the kites are quite durable and it's fun to play, is to play with spinning the kite, much like we did in the last position. Just spin it around, spin it around. Sometimes you've got a line hooked around a wing tip. At some point you may actually have to walk down there and resolve it by hand while you have the handles on the stake. Again, this is a tough position; I'm just going to play with it and give you something to laugh at. But in general, you're just trying to spin the kite around and get it lined up again. Yep. So again, that's just an example. Feel free to play with it. It is what it is.

4. ›

   Closing thoughts

   5:58

   The other two primary positions are clean, clear recoveries. With practice, you'll increase your success rate, and for the most part, just have fun. Don't take it too seriously. At some point, all of us, myself included, after many years of flying, still have to walk down to the end of the handles. Enjoy playing with your recoveries. If you find any better ways to do it, be sure to share them through the communities. I'll see you in the next tutorial.