Flight and control by KiteForge

Transcript

1. ›

   Introduction

   0:00

   The very first thing to always remember is that when your kite is on the ground, it's every bit as important control-wise as being in the air — it still requires my attention to keep it secure, which I do by leaning my thumbs toward the kite. I have the brakes on with the kite upright.

2. ›

   Basic launch

   0:34

   To launch, I lean my top lines back, bringing my thumbs slightly closer together to get that angle more easily. Then I do a double tap — not a big pull, just tap, tap — stepping back and securing the tension of all four lines with my top lines dominant. The first tap jumps the kite into a more curved shape; the second tap sets it. And that's your basic launch.

3. ›

   Backing down

   1:59

   Once I'm up at the top, I let the kite come to its natural peak, then as it starts to drop, I gently leverage either bottom line — less is more — to keep it trimmed on the way down, walking the bottom lines. If I ham-fist it, being too aggressive, the kite ends up making movements too big to track. The faster the kite goes on the way down, the more wily it gets, so there's a speed that works well. Every time I touch it down, I set it so the kite leans back and locks into place.

4. ›

   Open turns

   3:18

   For an open left turn, I bear down very slightly with my left hand for a large-ish left circle, then straighten my hand back out — like three and nine on a driving wheel: I make an input, then go back to stance. Same idea on the right. That down motion is applying pressure to the bottom line, and using an open, gross movement with the hand rather than the wrist gives a wider, smoother style of turning.

5. ›

   Tighter spins

   4:50

   To level that up into spins or tighter circles, I apply more leverage on the thumb, between the thumb and the ring finger, torquing the handle more. That cross-leverage between thumb and ring finger makes it easier for me to get a tighter spin, on both left and right.

6. ›

   Axis spins

   5:34

   I can also juxtapose — instead of turning with one hand, I use opposition between the hands for an even tighter spin, almost an axis rotation, in either direction. After the spin, I'll sometimes need the opposing hand to stop it: I go back the other way for just a second, then back to three and nine. That's the basic introduction to the base controls.

7. ›

   Dive stop 1

   6:09

   The ability to stop or brake the kite matters while you're learning, because you might suddenly be heading toward the ground and need to slow down before crashing too hard — and dive stops are just fun to do. I push both thumbs abruptly, my hands dropping slightly lower than my elbows, pressing down on the bottom lines; how abruptly I brake changes how hard the stop is. Letting my arms out slightly at the moment I hit the brakes alleviates some wind pressure and makes the brake input even stronger. I can also spread the stop out instead of a hard stop, slowly building thumb pressure as I head down before landing.

8. ›

   Jab turns

   7:57

   A jab input, or short-range input, is a very brief input followed by an immediate return to three and nine, which lets me make short changes in vector — like a left square I do with four soft pushes. These short-range turns can be tricky at first, but with a soft hand you get a feel for it; this kind of input opens up shapes like diamonds and zigzags, letting you incrementally adjust direction until you're headed where you want to go.

9. ›

   Pull turns

   9:14

   Another input I use in a variety of ways is the deep pull turn, sometimes called shouldering. It goes back to bearing the hand down and putting it back, but in short jabs, with my actuating hand coming slightly down and back, applying heavier bottom-line input. It gives a slightly more rounded turn, and I tend not to lose as much drive with it.

10. ›

    Targets

    10:15

    Once you have a broader understanding of the inputs — thumb pressure, draw or shouldering turns — the next stage is to start selecting places you want the kite to go: it's one thing to launch and maintain control, but giving the kite a purpose, a target in the sky, matters. Assuming you understand the wind window, I'll pick an area — say, aiming up and slightly upper left — then bear my other hand down to pull back toward center, or launch toward a side with a slight shoulder before pulling back and settling.

11. ›

    Vocabulary 1

    11:25

    Going up and down, out to a side, circling one way then the other — all of this works toward what I call flight vocabulary: like learning the notes before the chords on a guitar, so that vocabulary then connects into something cohesive.

12. ›

    Left / right passes

    12:17

    Putting that vocabulary to use: I go up to top center, then up to the upper right for a kind of trident between the two upper corners and center, followed by a control circle out to each side, and hunting from side to side across the wind window — bearing left until it's facing left, evening up, then drawing right and back, going back and forth while staying playful or close to whatever orientation I'm comfortable with.

13. ›

    Vocabulary 2

    12:50

    Putting it all together with that guitar analogy: up center, up left and back, up right and back, circle left, circle right, that box pattern again, hunting left, hunting right, and finishing with a dive stop and a set-down — so you can see how all of that vocabulary comes together in sequence.

14. ›

    Body position

    13:28

    Notice that my hands stay close rather than waving around — any time a hand goes out of the control box, the strike zone, it applies an input whether I mean it to or not. Making a conscious input and then going back to the strike zone every time gives me the cleanest control interface.

15. ›

    Dive stop 2

    13:55

    One more piece on the dive stop: I stop, then turn away, letting one thumb back to turn the kite over and upright, or pressing the other thumb, or letting one hand out — the handles end up juxtaposed, starting a turn out of the stop. Each variant, a thumb input alone or letting a hand out, gives the turn a slightly different feel.

16. ›

    Tuning & handle grip

    14:53

    Where exactly you hold the handle matters for how the kite responds to you: too high and it's hard to leverage the brakes, too low and you're already on the brakes. There's a tipping point on the handle that I call the fulcrum, which is usually where you want to be, so a simple change in your tension point lets the handles move to a new position and fly.

17. ›

    Closing

    15:44

    That's my basic introduction to flight and control — be sure to check out the other tutorials, where I get a little deeper into the mechanics behind all of this. In the meantime, have fun. I'll see you in the next one.