Flight School - Gulf Shores May 2001

From: David McDonnel (dmcdonnel@charter.net)
Subject: Re: Dodd's Flight School Methods
Newsgroups: rec.kites
Date: 2001-05-09 20:00:24 PST

Hey again Dodd,

Had a great time at Flight School last weekend...perfect weather and winds...thanks for all the help. I am certainly proof that you can get a whole lot from attending flight school. Prior to last Saturday, my most amazing trick was doing a pancake to a fade (sometimes). By mid-afternoon
Saturday, after about 6 hours of flight school, I could do the following tricks (back me up here Dodd, or anyone else from the school, cuz it's not bs): the spin stall, snap stall, axle, side slide, spin axle, pancake landing, slot machine, flic-flacs, fade launch and coin toss. I can't do them all 100% of the time yet, but I know how to do them all and it's not an accident when I actually do succeed.

I know it's not much compared to all the tricks out there, my point simply is this - you have no idea how much you can learn from Dodd...he's an amazing flyer and an excellent instructor. There was one person on the beach that was a great freestyle flyer, but thought he was too good to learn
anything from Dodd so he didn't take the class. That afternoon I was teaching him how to do a fade launch...something Dodd taught me earlier that morning. No matter how good a flyer you are, I'd be willing to make a bet that you can definitely learn a few things from Dodd. Successful landings used to make me happy, but now I realize how much more there is to learn and how much work needs to go into becoming a good flyer. I can say that
because of Dodd, I am much further along than I thought I'd ever be right now...only been flying for about 3 months.

Last thing about flight school...Dodd's new kites are great!!! Spent a lot of time on the Dynamite and it is capable of doing much more than I could ever do with it. Handles great, does slow and graceful tricks, but can also do extremely quick and tight punch/combination squares. And it certainly comes in handy when I'm trying to get my Mini-Gem up in 6mph winds. (although, if the winds are 12mph and over you'd have to pry that minigem from my hands with a crow bar ;-) )

Hope to see you again next year Dodd...by then maybe I'll be ready to learn something new. And, yes, I am practicing my punch squares and not just flic-flac'in all the time (although I must admit, the flic-flac looks much
cooler). But I got the message loud and clear...get great at the basics and everything else will come much easier.

Again, had a great time, and take care.

David McDonnel

PS Just in case you need to hear it another way - Do yourself a favor and attend one of Dodd's Flight Schools. You don't know what you're missing.