Rev Basics: Set-Up, Basic Flying and Pack-Up by Revolution Kites

Transcript

1. ›

   Setting out the lines

   0:00

   Let's get your Revolution set up. We're going to start with our line sets first. Stake the handles into the ground. We're going to attach our lines, then take the shock cord off. Take your time here, because we want to avoid tangles. Take a couple of extra minutes here and make sure nothing happens. Slowly take those handles off. You can see our handles and lines are already attached. Put that down, put one handle over the other, then lay the lines out. Take your time here again, because you don't want to get any tangles, so watch what's going on and make sure everything is clear. A couple of extra minutes spent here will save you time later.

2. ›

   Separating the line pairs

   0:46

   When you get to the end, you have two pairs, and they're connected together with what we'll call a lark's head. Take those at this time and spread them apart, separating the lines back to the handles. Don't worry about tangles at this point; you could sit there all day going through tangles. Separate them like this, and it will clear when we launch. Set the lines down, set up the stakes, and put your winder in your pocket so you don't forget it.

3. ›

   Unrolling the kite

   1:17

   Unroll your Revolution and keep the leading edge into the wind. The wind is blowing this way, so I keep the leading edge into the wind. We don't want it lying like this with the sail flopping around, so keep the leading edge into the wind.

4. ›

   Leading edge spars

   1:29

   Put your spars down and open up your wings. Here, slide the leading edge together. Slide the leading edge pieces together and feel the fit, with the ferrule on the inside, toward the middle of the kite. It's fitting together. If you can't feel it go together, it needs to go all the way together. If it doesn't go all the way together, you can break that spar, so if you're not sure about it, take that whole leading edge out, assemble the three pieces, and then slide them in as one piece. Lastly, put your cap on the end, and make sure the bridle is not wrapped or tangled around there. Do the same on the other side.

5. ›

   Downspars and spring

   2:10

   Okay, we're ready to put our downspars on. We're on the back of the kite; you can tell because the Velcro is back here. Get your top cap in and make sure it's all the way in, and then you put your bottom cap on. Again, make sure there are no tangles, and do the same on the other side. Okay, one last thing on the spring: you want that spring to the inside of the wing. Here's the standard way: you want the spring on the inside, not on the outside, because the tension goes to the inside and you want the spring to move with it. So attach it with the spring inside. Pull it over and put it back on.

6. ›

   Attaching the lines

   2:49

   Now we're ready to line up. Hook the lines up to the kite. We've got the back of the kite; spin it over again, and keep that leading edge into the wind. Put it down. We've got our two line sets. Now I get to do our lark's head. This is how we attach it: two fingers through the loop, fold the loop over and pinch it. That forms a loop, and that loop we attach to the top bridle. Cinch it on and slide it to the end. Bottom loop, same lark's head: two fingers, fold it over. Practice this technique. Give yourself a loop, slide that loop onto the bridle, lock it down, and slide it to the end of the knot. Do the same on the other side.

7. ›

   Setting the wing down

   3:35

   All right, we're ready to set up the wing, and the wind will hold it up. You hold it out like this, leading edge down; that's a nice stable way to have it, and I'll show you how to reverse off of that a little bit. But just take off the first time. If you're going to leave it for a few minutes, leave it leading edge down, then turn it over. Here we need to tilt these tips under, and that will keep the pressure on and hold the kite down. So, ready to launch. Let's go launch it.

8. ›

   Checking for twists

   4:03

   Okay, here's where we take it off our stake and check for twists or tangles out here. This is where you undo them, because you've got some tension and you're holding the other side. Here we've got a twist that's the wrong way; spin it the other way. The lines are clear. That's what you're looking for.

9. ›

   First launch: up, stop, down

   4:20

   All right, for the first launch you need your lines tight, and what I want you to do is bring those thumbs back to launch, forward to stop it, and back it down. So we're just going up, stop, back it down. Don't go for height; just try to get a feel for the controls and how quickly it responds. It's going to look something like this: launch, back it down. So that's the first thing we've got to work on: launch, stop and back it down. Once we get that wrist control down, if the wind drops off, back it down and wait for the wind to come up.

10. ›

    The wind window

    5:08

    The other thing I want you to pay attention to is the wind window. The wind is not blowing that way; the wind is blowing this way. You've got to stay in this window to keep it flying. A lot of people fly off to the edge where there's no wind, and they don't know why it's not flying; it's because you're off the edge. Stay in the wind window. Go up, stop it, back it down. Here we go. Watch the wrist action: up, stop, back it down. That thumb forward caused it to back down, and it will cause the individual wing to back down also. Up, left wing, right wing, left wing, right wing, both wings down. Do that several times, lots of times, and get a feel for it. If you can take it up, stop it and back it down, that's your goal.

11. ›

    Hovering for ten seconds

    5:46

    The second thing I want you to work on is to take it up and hover it. I want your goal to be ten seconds. I don't care how you keep it up there, but keep it up there for ten seconds. Here we go. Up, one, two, I've got to give it time, three, four, five, a touch, six, seven, square it up, balance it, eight, one more, nine, ten. Great job. Back it down and land. So what I want you to do is control it, hold it in position and back it down. It's all in the wrist control. Good job.

12. ›

    The stop and dive stop

    6:14

    The second skill I really want you to get down is the stop. As soon as it goes up there, stop it with your thumbs. If it flies off to the side, stop it with your thumbs. If it flies straight up, stop it with your thumbs. You've got to be able to stop it all the time. That's one of the big advantages of the Revolution: you've got brakes, so you can stop it at any time. When your Rev is heading into the ground, thumbs forward and it stops. You've got to be able to do this. Here it is, up and out into the ground, and stop. That's the famous dive stop. All right, so here we go.

13. ›

    Practicing turns

    6:53

    Let's practice the next move, with just a turn. It's actually the same as the stop, but with just one thumb. Right thumb turns right, left thumb turns left. Turn, turn back. If you hold it, you're going to get a spin. So let's just turn, turn back, turn, turn back. This is what it looks like: launch, right turn, left, right, left, right, bring it back to center, balance it out and back it down for landing. Perfect job; the landing is going well.

14. ›

    Fixing a flipped kite

    7:35

    Okay, you're going to end up in this position for sure. The way to get out of it is, if you can tell which lines are on top, push that thumb forward, all the way down until it touches the other line. See that it's touching the other line? At that point you can pull it in, and it'll roll over by itself depending on how much room there is, or you can pull it slowly past your hip with the lines on top, well past your hip. It rolls over and you're ready to launch.

15. ›

    Detaching the lines

    8:05

    All right, now you've had fun flying your kite for the day. Turn it over, nose down, as we talked about before, then put your stakes over the handles. Now let's detach the lines from the kite. Okay, we've got a lark's head. Grab that loop, pull it out and slide it off. Same on the top: pull it off, slide it off.

16. ›

    Winding up the lines

    8:26

    And again we're going to put our lark's head back on, so remember to finger-fold it over and pinch it. That's our loop. We're going to put that loop onto the other line. There's no need to pull it up tight, but this keeps them together. Do the same on the other side. Now you have two sets that have been lark's-headed together. Put one in each cleat, keep a finger separating the two pairs so they don't tangle, and wrap them on what's called a figure eight: over, under, over, under, over, under, over, under. Take your time, bring it in, and when you get to the end, we're going to leave the handles attached. Lay them up against your winder, tuck that string in there, and wrap the shock cord.