4 Techniques for Light-Wind Rev Flying by Revolution Kites

Transcript

1. ›

   Why light wind is hard

   0:00

   I'm Joe Hadzicki, inventor of the Revolution. Let's take a quick look at light-wind flying, from beginner to advanced. If you're a beginner, your light-wind flying might look like this. What went wrong? Not enough wind, right? Wrong. Well, actually there's some truth to that, but with a little bit of practice and by following these four techniques, you can master light-wind flying.

2. ›

   Fly horizontally

   0:33

   Technique number one: fly horizontally. People are always trying to fly up because the wind is so light, they're trying to get up in the air. Well, finally your Rev will stall and you'll fall out. The key is to turn and float across, left and right. This way you're not constantly trying to lift the weight. This is what it looks like. Okay, that was much better. The next step: did you notice how I was on the edge of the wind and I was pumping to get it to go back up, to get back on the turn?

3. ›

   Use bottom turns

   1:13

   Technique number two: use bottom turns. This uses gravity to get you through the turn, so you're not trying to lift up through the turn. There's very little wind on the edge. There's very little wind everywhere, so when you get on the edge, instead of trying to lift up into nothing, use the bottom turn and let gravity help. It looks like this.

4. ›

   Float for more lift

   1:47

   Technique number three: use the float to generate more lift. As your kite is flying, the lift is always in the direction perpendicular to the sail. So if you're flying across this way, that lift is this way. If you can tilt your wing flatter, you can generate more upward lift. This is very useful in light winds, and this is what it looks like. Pull that wing back, which causes your Rev to lay out, and you get a float. See how it lifts up? Lay that wing out. See my arm position? Lay that wing out, that generates that lift in an upward direction.

5. ›

   Pump up and walk down

   2:45

   Technique number four: use that same float, but this time we're going to use it to gain ground. What people do is keep walking back, trying to keep their Rev up in the air, until they finally run out of space. So what we're going to do now is take a couple of steps back, get our Rev up high, and then use that float to lay the wing out and walk back downwind to gain ground. This is what it looks like. Launch your Rev, pump it up by stepping back, you've got some height, lay it out and float it, and walk down. Pump it up, float it, walk down. Use these four techniques and your light-wind flying will go through the roof. Next stop: indoor flying. We'll see you in the gym.