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1-Handed Rev Flying: You Can Do It! by Revolution Kites

Five tips for flying the Rev with one hand, opening with a pilot flying two at once. A way to feel the rotation of a single handle, from forward flight to the reverse launch.

From the series Spins, hover and reverse. Transcript by QuadKites.org.

1-Handed Rev Flying: You Can Do It! by Revolution Kites

Key takeaways from this video

  • With one handle the controls stay the same: thumb back to take off, forward to stop and land.
  • Start by climbing, stopping and backing down in reverse, without going to the top of the window where control is lost; then add turns, rotating the handle thumb forward on the side you want.
  • In a spin, keep the pressure to the end; when the kite is upside down, a little reverse lifts it and slows the rotation.
  • Practise with your left hand as well as your right: it prepares you to fly two Revs at once.

Transcript

  1. Two Revs, one in each hand

    0:00

    Hi, I'm Joe Hadzicki, inventor of the Revolution. Don Fox wowed us at Kite Party 2024 when he flew two Revs, one in each hand. Let's do this. The average Rev pilot can't do this. Here are five tips to get you there.

  2. The one-handed challenge

    1:45

    If you're good with chopsticks, you're going to love this next challenge. Here are five tips for flying your Rev with one hand. One-handed Rev flying is simple in concept, but it takes a little practice to get used to it. Here are the basics for one-handed flying. Bring the thumbs back to launch, and push the thumbs forward and down to back up and land. It's the same thing with a single hand: rotate that thumb back to launch, and push it forward to stop and land it. Now let's see how it looks in real time.

  3. Tip 1: start simple

    2:34

    Tip number one: start out simple, just like you do with your standard Rev. Just jump it up, stop it, and back it down. The mistake people make is that they jump it up and fly all the way up to the top, get out of control, and crash. Our goal in this first part is just to get a feel for the handle rotation: forward flight, stop, and reverse.

  4. Tip 2: adding turns

    3:04

    Tip number two: now let's add some turn controls. With two handles, you rotate the left handle thumb forward for a left turn, and the right handle for a right turn. It's the same thing with a single hand. What you need to do is rotate the handle, thumb forward, on the left side for a left turn, and thumb forward on the right side for a right turn. Now gradually add bigger turns and longer flights.

  5. Tip 3: adding spins

    4:07

    Tip three: we're ready to add spins. The trick with spins is that you have to get through the downturn, because gravity is going to want to take you down, so make sure you maintain your pressure all the way through the spin. An advanced version of the spin is to jump, spin, and land. What this requires is that you keep your altitude. The way you do that, because you'll spin and be too close to the ground when you get inverted on your spin, is to give it a little reverse control to lift it up. This also has the effect of slowing your spin down.

  6. Tips 4 and 5

    5:10

    Tip four: practice one-handed flying both left-handed and right-handed. Now you'll be ready to fly two Revs at the same time. Tip number five: reverse launch. Everyone needs a reverse launch. Once you reverse up, spin it and fly it up.

Keep going

In the series Spins, hover and reverse — Revolution Kites tutorials

  1. Revolution Kites: Advanced Inverted Hover Skills
  2. Advanced Rev Inversions, Part 2
  3. 1-Handed Revolution Kite Flying: The Basics
  4. 1-Handed Rev Flying: You Can Do It! — you are here
  5. Revolution 3-D Toss and 3-D Flying
  6. Revolution Reflex 3-D Catch and Throw
  7. Club 38 Member Seth Learns the Reflex Catch and Throw

See the 24 videos of the series

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