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Basic Light-Wind Techniques for Your Rev by Revolution Kites

The key points of light-wind flying: save energy by flying across, turn low, and point the lift upward by laying the wing flat.

From the series Wind and places to fly. Transcript by QuadKites.org.

Basic Light-Wind Techniques for Your Rev by Revolution Kites

Key takeaways from this video

  • Climbing costs the Rev energy: step back to climb, then turn straight away and fly left and right.
  • At the edge of the window, a bottom turn saves energy instead of lifting the kite.
  • Lift is perpendicular to the sail: close to the ground, lay the wing flat to point the lift upward.
  • For a trick, walk back to make wind, then float the wing downwind to regain your ground.

Transcript

  1. Conserve your energy

    0:00

    I've been getting questions and comments on Facebook about light-wind flying, so here are some key points. Number one: there's very little energy, so you want to conserve it. That means you don't want to do a lot of lifting. When you're flying your Rev, flying it up takes energy, and flying it across doesn't take as much because you're not lifting it. So the first thing you do is step back and generate the energy to lift your wing up, then turn it and instantly fly left and right. That stops the need to lift.

  2. Turn upward with bottom turns

    0:18

    Number two: turning it upward takes energy, because again you're lifting your Rev up. So on the outside, do a bottom turn, and that conserves energy. Then as you move across the sky, the motion will lift your wing, you take it back up and do another bottom turn, back and forth. Here we go: energy up, turn it instantly and get it moving across, then conserve energy by turning down and across. Conserve energy again the other way: turn it down and fly across.

  3. Lift is perpendicular to the sail

    1:11

    The third thing is that the lift on your wing is perpendicular to the sail. When your wing is flat, the lift is backward, it's actually pulling on you. When your wing is overhead, it's lifted straight up. So in light wind you want to control that lift, and you want that lift going up. Another trick is that when you're flying low to the ground and flying across, you can lay your wing flat, and that gives you your lift in an upward direction. That's what I'm doing with that foot: pull the wing back, lay your wing out, and get that lift going in the upward direction.

  4. Putting it together

    1:42

    So, putting those three things together: generate lift by stepping back and popping it up. As soon as you've got it up, turn it sideways and don't waste any energy. Keep it moving, because it generates lift when it's moving. Bottom turn and lay it out, lay it out, bottom turn, lay it out. If you want to do a trick: step back to generate the wind, then float forward to regain your ground. Step back to generate the wind, dive down, step back, do your trick, lay it out, do your bottom turn, step back to get it back in the air, float downwind and regain your ground. That's one of my techniques for light-wind flying. Give it a try.

Keep going

In the series Wind and places to fly — Revolution Kites tutorials

  1. Basic Light-Wind Techniques for Your Rev — you are here
  2. Light-Wind Flying with the Rev Reflex, for Everyone
  3. 4 Techniques for Light-Wind Rev Flying
  4. No Wind? No Problem! How to Fly Your Revolution in Light Winds
  5. Master Light, Unsteady Wind with Your Revolution Reflex
  6. How to Reach the Highest Levels of Rev Mastery, Even in Light Winds
  7. 6 Tips for Flying Your Revolution in High Winds

See the 16 videos of the series

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