Revolution Reflex 3-D Catch and Throw by Revolution Kites

Transcript

1. ›

   Catch and throw: two ways

   0:00

   Hi, Joe Hadzicki, inventor of the Revolution. One of our Club 38 members asked about the Reflex catch and throw, so let's talk about that a little bit and take you to the next level. The catch and throw is a classic short-line skill. There are two ways to do it: old school or new school. You saw the new school with the Reflex just a moment ago. If you want to do old school, disengage your Reflex spring and you're ready to go.

2. ›

   The old school catch

   0:45

   All right, this is not a basic skill, this is pretty advanced. This is what you do. Take your Rev, fly it up overhead and get it in a stable hover. Put both handles in one hand, reach forward, grab those two top lines, and pull your Rev down towards you. This will cause your Rev to stall and fall, and that's when you catch it. This is what it looks like.

3. ›

   Why it is difficult

   1:36

   That basic catch and throw takes some practice. It's not an easy move to do. Number one, the position of the Rev needs to be right, and your position needs to be right. If the wind is blowing hard, it makes it more difficult. I'm doing this on 30-foot lines. If you're doing it on longer lines, that makes it more difficult. You need to take your Rev overhead, balance it in the hover, hold the handles in one hand and keep it balanced, and then reach up with your other hand and pull it down towards you. It's definitely a challenge.

4. ›

   Comparing the two methods

   2:04

   Let's take a look at the Reflex catch. Let's compare the two methods. For the standard catch, you launch, fly up overhead, pull it down, it stalls and falls, and you catch it. For the Reflex, you actually fly it out to the edge of the window, lay it out flat, and give it a light tug. It will fly and glide towards you, and you catch it. This is what it looks like.

5. ›

   The Reflex float and tug

   2:35

   You fly your Rev up and over to the left side. You've got your springs re-engaged so you get a float. To do a float, you lay the wing out like this, and you fly it off to the edge, floating. Notice that this line is very close to this handle. You reach up and grab that top line and give it a slight tug, and that will take your Rev, swing it around, and glide it towards you. This is what it looks like.

6. ›

   Step 1: practice the float

   3:22

   I think there are really four steps to this process. Number one, you need to practice that float. You need a very stable float overhead or off to the edge of the window, either way. If you take your Reflex, float it overhead and pull it out, it's simply going to recover, turn around, and fly back out to the edge. That's what the Reflex is designed to do. It's too high to really catch, and it doesn't really lose much altitude.

7. ›

   Step 2: a low, flat glide

   3:46

   The way to get around that is to do a float lower to the ground, and the way you do that is to float it out to the edge. Float it out to the edge, lay it out, and then give it an ever-so-slight tug and try to get it to glide over toward you.

8. ›

   Setting up the glide like a model plane

   4:02

   What you're actually doing is setting your Rev up like a model airplane, and you're just going to glide it over to you. You need to have it nice and flat, and then you need a nice soft launch, and that launch is that little tug. The wing is so efficient that if you tug hard, it'll turn harder and fly faster downwind, so you have to give it just a slight tug. In fact, sometimes you don't have to tug it at all. It'll just glide, and if it's moving slightly towards you, it'll just glide down toward you.

9. ›

   Steps 3 and 4: position

   4:33

   The third step is to walk underneath your Rev. When it's floating out to the edge of the window, you want it to be even further upwind, and the way to do that is to walk downwind, and that will position your Rev further upwind. Then when it turns and floats, it'll be floating downwind towards you. If your Rev is high and you pull it, it'll turn and glide right over your head, so you have to get that height right on the float to pull it towards you. The fourth point: depending on how far upwind it is, how high it is in the window, and how hard you pull, you have to predict where you need to be for it to glide in so you can catch it. This is what it looks like.

10. ›

    Trying it in light wind

    5:13

    The best conditions for this are really lighter conditions, and right now we're at about 2 miles an hour, so it's almost perfect. Let's give it a try. Here we go. We're going to launch it, float it out to the edge, taking it up pretty high, laying it out. You can see that float where it just lays out. It has to do with how good the conditions are, and they're basically perfect right now. It's more difficult in higher winds. I hardly pulled it at all. It was pretty much set up for that glide. I gave it the slightest tug to bring it toward me, and then I just watched and predicted where it was going, and it was so smooth that it was very easy to predict.

11. ›

    The old school toss

    5:56

    Okay, the skill is actually the catch and toss. After you catch your Rev, you want to throw it back out. This is basically a short-line skill. You can do it on longer lines if you've got some wind to help you, but then that makes the glide more difficult. Anyway, we're on our short lines. I disengaged the Reflex again, so we're going to do the old school toss. With this, you don't really have any glide or float, so what you tend to do is throw harder and a little bit higher, to get it to rise up and get out to the end of the lines. Here's what it looks like. Let it go.

12. ›

    The Reflex toss

    6:37

    Let's take a look at the Reflex toss. Hand launching the Reflex is a little different. You've got that reflex action, so you don't have to throw it up so high. Sometimes I even throw it down, because the Reflex will float it up at the end. Hold it like a spear by the end.

13. ›

    Hand launching the Reflex

    6:53

    I'm left-handed, so I'm throwing with my left hand; if you're right-handed, do it the opposite way. I've got both my handles in my right hand, and I'm ready to grab them and fly with that same hand. Grab your Rev about in the center, grab the tip, and push it out. This is what it looks like. Check to make sure your bridle is clear and your lines are clear, and you're ready to go. Did you see the way it rolls up at the end? That's the Reflex. This is what I love about the Reflex: you can do it both ways. You can go old school or you can go new school. You can hand out the stall and fall, or the fly and glide. Either way works.