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Vernon Learns a Light-Wind Skill (No. 31): Bottom Turn to Float by Revolution Kites

Vern, flying a Rev for a month, shows the bottom turn to float and explains what changed: no more panic at the edge of the window, a wider wind range.

From the series Progression and mastery. Transcript by QuadKites.org.

Vernon Learns a Light-Wind Skill (No. 31): Bottom Turn to Float by Revolution Kites

Key takeaways from this video

  • The bottom turn to float, Club 38 skill no. 31, is extremely useful in light wind.
  • With the Reflex, the float and the bottom turn, which speeds the Rev up and brings it back into the air, the edge of the window is no longer scary.
  • To regain ground, pumping with your arms is useless, the sail just collapses: lay the Rev flat and walk under it.

Transcript

  1. The bottom turn to float

    0:00

    Hi, I'm Joe Hadzicki, inventor of the Revolution, and today we're going to work on one of my favorite skills, the bottom turn to float. It's extremely useful in light winds, and this is what it looks like. Here's Vern, one of our new Rev pilots. He's been flying about a month, and we talked about this technique a little a couple of weeks ago. I guess you've been flying it a little bit? Yeah. So let's give it a try and see how it goes.

  2. Vern's first results

    1:50

    All right, Vern, that was awesome. Really good, you got a good reach. You've been doing it for a couple of weeks, so you're starting to get comfortable with it. I am. What would happen before is, if you go out on the edge, you're typically looking at panicking and crashing. Yeah, you're going to panic and crash, because I'm flying on the boardwalk, so there are people out there, and a lot of that has gone away because now you've got control out there. Absolutely. And how about your wind range, is it improving? Yes, much wider window to fly in.

  3. A wider wind range

    2:20

    Now you can fly in that bigger window because you can fly in lighter conditions. It's fun to fly on the edge of that window. Now you want to fly on it. I want to fly on it. That's right. I keep telling people: you develop those skills and your skills start to improve, and now you can fly in a whole range of conditions. You can fly in lighter conditions, you can fly out on the edge, and the panic has gone away. A lot of the problem with the stress of getting out on the edge is that you know you're going to lose it. Exactly. But with that Reflex and with that float technique and the bottom turn, which accelerates and gets you back into the air, you've got all those problems solved. That is amazing. It is absolutely amazing. Great job, Vern, and thank you for the master class. Your skills are getting really good really fast.

  4. Regaining ground

    3:08

    You're also able to regain ground. What did you used to do to try to get ground back? I would literally jerk my arms up and down, pushing the kite up and walking forward. Right, you're trying to pump some wind into it, but all you do is collapse the sails. You really didn't do anything. Yeah, especially in light winds there's really no wind to fill it up. But if you can lay it out and walk under it, that is amazing. Good job. Let's take your skills to the next level, and we'll see you on the field.

Keep going

In the series Progression and mastery — Revolution Kites tutorials

  1. Test Your Rev Knowledge: Watch My Hands, Guess the Skill
  2. Improve Your Rev Skills: Comparing Two Strategies
  3. Slow-Motion Technique for Mastering the Rev
  4. A New Strategy for Revolution Mastery: The Bullseye
  5. Vernon Learns a Light-Wind Skill (No. 31): Bottom Turn to Float — you are here
  6. Extreme Revolution Control with Two Basic Skills
  7. Basic Introduction to Team Flying

See the 19 videos of the series

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