Basic grid skills by KiteLife

Transcript

1. ›

   Hover positions

   0:00

   After some good discussion on the Revolution forum about the upcoming mega fly attempt at WSIKF here in 2010, I'm going to cover some of the basic maneuvers and skills you need to take part in a mega fly successfully. The first, of course, is your hover. The key with any hover in a mega fly is that you only have this much room for play — maybe 3 to 5 feet on either side of your kite, depending on what's going on. So you need an upright hover, a sideways hover, and the diagonal hovers are really useful to know as well, along with the inverted hover — although there are positions in the grid where the inverted hover isn't really a factor, and you don't need it for any of the maneuvers.

2. ›

   Controlled speed

   1:01

   To expand on that, you'll need controlled-speed flight forward and backward. The key is not over-accelerating off the line: in a mega fly grid, everything is best done at a controlled speed. You're better off going too slow than too fast, because at least you and the pilots around you have time to adjust. Also useful: with the kite upright, rising and dropping at a controlled speed, then stopping with a hover at any of those positions — for example when columns move on vertical threads, every odd-numbered column going up and every even-numbered column going down. The variant is doing it sideways: with the kites hovering sideways, practice sliding down and sliding up, with the ability to stop or change speed as you need.

3. ›

   Diagonal bursts

   2:21

   A really critical one is going out at a diagonal and backing up at a diagonal. If I'm the top right corner of a four-person ball, I burst out, then back in. More difficult is being a bottom corner of the ball, flying forward and then backing into the ball — one of the more difficult things you'll need for grid mega flying: bursting out, then backing up at a diagonal to your original position, toward the lower left and back, for example.

4. ›

   Compact 180

   3:15

   You'll also definitely want to practice the 180 turn: turning the kite leading edge down to face the other way, in one smooth movement — under and face the other way. The trick is not taking up too much room: a wide turn might take out the kite directly underneath you. Often you'll head outward, then turn around, but again, the trick is controlling your speed and your movement the whole time.

5. ›

   Edges and corners

   4:15

   Within those basic movements, which are the principal aspects of grid flying, practice at the far extremes of the window too. An upright hover near the top of the window is often harder, depending on the wind, than in the center of the sky, and the same goes for the outside corners. Whether hovering in any direction, flying forward, backward or sliding, control your speed and practice in the furthest corners and edges, to feel how the changing angle of the wind affects the kite and the lift it produces. One more slide to practice: upright, sliding left and sliding right.

6. ›

   Closing thoughts

   5:14

   That covers the most basic aspects. In more advanced grid flying, the turns and calls get tighter, but that's typically for groups of flyers who are really comfortable with what they're doing. Rev flying is very flexible and forgiving to the common level of skill in any given flight. That's your basic introduction; I hope it helps.