New Tech Kites

Dodd · High Flier Joined: 13 May 2005 Posts: 186

Rudiments of Kite flying. Very important. There are steps, there is a system that works. Start with the basics and build upon your foundation. The stronger your foundation, the more you can put on top of it without it collapsing.

Related to dual line sport kite flying, the foundation begins with learning key elemements found in the first section of the Flight School DVD, Basic Flight School.
Go ahead and watch the entire DVD a few times, but before you get ahead of yourself, make a commitment to your self that you will stay on the lessons found in Basic Flight School until you have mastered all of the material. For some this could take only a couple of days to a couple of weeks, for others maybe longer, but the more time you allow for the basics, the better off you will be later.
The DVD starts off with lessons for example:

Understanding basic dual line flying concepts and the "wind window"

Hand and body position

The assisted launch and solo launch

Basic pull and push turns

All of the above of course needs to be learned and understood first before you can continue.

The same is true for the following lessons. So there is a system, a format if you will that has been layed out for you.
I suggest that you purchase the DVD, Flight School by Dodd Gross.

Many have Flight School right now, but have not yet decided to train with it.

I suggest that you try to stick with and concentrate on only the Flight School training videos until you have mastered all of the lessons in Basic FLight School first. That will take you all the way through the "AXLE". The next step of course is Advanced Flight School found on the same DVD. After that, sure, start learning anyway you can!

I just want you to develope the basic skills first.

This thread will focus on training with Flight School DVD.

Any questions so far before we continue with specific lessons?

Sincerely
Dodd
Master Instructor

rocoto · Wind Seeker Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 8

Dodd,

I commend you.
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Richard

rocoto · Wind Seeker Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 8

Dodd,

I'm watching your DVD and have come to the half axle lesson. You state "...the half axle...is basically a two tug movement starting with the outside hand, or upwing..."

You are flying the kite from left to right across Center, and as you get to the right edge of the Wind Window, you Tug the Upwing with your INSIDE hand first, and then you tug the DOWN wing with your OUTSIDE hand. What am I missing here?

Thanks,
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Richard

ed_diaz · Posted: Thu May 19, 2005 8:04 am Post subject:

i never understood it either and i only started to learn the half axel this past January only from listening to what others have to say and getting advise from them. after picking up Freestyle pilot i understood it better and now after many months i look at Dodds half axel section and i now understand it lol.

if i may?, fly the kite from right to left passing windows center, as you approach the edge(but not the extreme edge) just enough that you start to see the kite slowing down and pulling less, give a short small "push" with the inside hand/upwing(this is your set up) immediatly following it with a "tug" of the same hand whilst giving slack to the other hand, the kite will go into a "pancake" position, when its in this position immediately give a small "tug" with the outside hand this will get the kite out of the pancake(similar to doing a side-pop-up) and start to fly the opposite direction. the half axel is fast and quick the whole trick probably last about half a second so you gotta be really quick and not hesitate. good luck!
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rocoto · Wind Seeker Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 8

Ed, thanks for the feedback. Let me summarize:

1. Fly kite from either side past Center, in your example we will be flying from right to left (you must be right handed...).

2. Pass Center, and approach the left Wind Window's edge; do not proceed to the very edge.

3. Use your Inside hand with respect to Center, this is your right hand, the Upwing hand, and slightly Punch (push) the Upwing (push with your right hand) to set up the move.

4. Immediately Pull your right hand, this will cause the Upwing to snap towards you, the flyer.

5. As soon as you Pull with your right hand, nearly simultaneously provide Slack with your left hand (Down Wing hand - or Outside hand with respect to Center).

6. Immediately Tug with your Left hand, the outside hand, while providing slack with your right hand. This Tug is less severe when compared to the first Tug executed with the right hand in Step 4 above, which is the Tug that initiated the Half Axle.

7. Fly the kite horizontally from left to right. This completes the half axle.

8. If this does not work, contact Dodd...
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Richard

ed_diaz · Posted: Thu May 19, 2005 10:19 am Post subject:

HAHAH yea i am right handed but i can do tricks pretty good and easily with my left hand too(but yes i write with my right hand) so i figured i would try to explain it using the right hand lol.

i think you got it nailed down!!. reason you dont want to go too too far to the edge is because the kite will power down way too much and prett much "just stall" if you try to do the half axel here at that position the kite will more then likely not react good and just fall out of the sky which almost always happens to me.

the half axel is very similar to the axel, the axel needs a setup just like the half axel which is "bringing the wing back alittle". in the half axel i bring the top wing back just a little for the set up and pop that same wing back towards me which puts the kite into a pancake, once in this position i just immediately power up again and fly the opposite direction, to do that just do pull off a manuever similar to the "side pop up" by picking up the slack on the outside hand. its fairly easy once you can comprehen the half axel which it took me a very long time to understand it, once i understood it i attempted it and nailed it pretty fast, after that cacades became very very easy to learn!.

the tug with the left hand does not have to be hard, your just picking up the slack and powering the kite up again to fly in the opposite direction thats pretty much it. thats why in Dodds video i also was having a really hard time trying to understand it, even watching his hands and movement was very very tricky to understand.

the only hard part about the half axel which im still working on till this day is trying to power up and fly in the opposite direction "CLEAN".. i power up and fly out of the half axel alittle sloppy and not straight and clean at times and its kind of hard to fly straight tracktion out of the half axel. cascades become extremely addicting! but wait till you start doing backspins and flic flac !! oh boy!. lol

good luck and keep practicing!
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rocoto · Wind Seeker Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 8

OK, did about 20 half axels today - kite used was the Pyro XS (Fire). The key? Viewed Flight School DVD in slow motion, pausing every few frames to see Dodd's hand movements, this was key, no sound because of slow motion mode so concentration was exclusively on the hand movements. Next, did the same analysis but looking at the kite's movements. Then looked at hand movements and kite movements, all still in slow motion and a few frames at a time. Even when viewing the DVD's slow motion material it was too fast, so I slow motioned the slow motion (slow motion squared), and only advanced a few frames at a time while pausing constantly. It took at least ten passes to see what Dod's hands were doing.

Next step, looked at the Prism DVD to see how the kite moved during the half axel section. The little red dots did not add very much, the narrative added little as well, no contrast of hand movements to kite. The printed material for the half axel was nebulous at best. Overall this DVD provided some added value, but it was minimal.

Next, I typed notes to myself from what I saw in both DVDs, including the frame-by-frame exercise. When I hit the flying field I was able to do a half axel on the first try, not pretty, but the technique worked and got better with each try. I am light years from having mastered this technique, but wanted to let everyone know that it does take quite a bit of viewing, hand exercises (which I was doing for almost two hours while walking, that is, while not even close to the flying field), writting notes, studying said notes, and have proprioception (muscle memory is part of this) take its course.

I had failed to do this with the half axel, I had done it with the snap stall and the axel, mostly from the Flight School III video, not the DVD, and nailed both in no time. I learned my own lesson, never jump ahead or take shortcuts - I thought the half axel would be simple since I could do the axel; w-r-o-n-g.

Thanks for the videos and the DVD Dodd, they helped a ton. Now, would you consider slowing down the hand movements so that they can be seen more clearly?
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Richard

ed_diaz · Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 9:20 am Post subject:

congrats, i wouldnt say your light years away from "mastering" it.. give it one month of doing the half axel and you'll be able to do it...then the more you do it the better and better and better you'll get until you can pretty much nail it all the time....then its time to move onto cascades! Very Happy

...personally i found the writing in the manual for the freestyle pilot on the half axel to help me out even more! i understood it completely the first time i read it and it made everything even more clear for me..
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