Sport & Stunt Kites

Hi all

I am looking for some bridle set up and flying tips for my Flying Wings Soul Vented, what you found worked or didn't.

I have flown the kite in 16kph (10mph) to 32kph (20 mph) winds on 25Mtr (85 foot) lines using the factory bridle set up, the kite will Axel, Half Axel and cascade ok but it won't stay in a fade (the nose bounces) also I can't Axel to fade at all, lazy Susan's are untidy and rolling Susan just don't happen as the nose doesn't drop enough.

It could be me not walking/running down wind fast enough but I thought if I could verify the kite set up then I can focus on flying.

Present set up--

I haven't moved the stand off on the lower spreader but I have tried the shorter stand off's on the outside with little success.

The two opportunities I see for bridle tweaking are the upper out haul and lower out haul.

Soul vtd sm.jpg (131.67 KiB) Viewed 652 times

The upper out haul has four knots, from the factory it is tied between 2nd and 3rd.

Soul Vtd upper outhaul

01 Soul vtd upper sm.jpg (60.64 KiB) Viewed 652 times

The lower out haul/ pigtail, The larks head sits against the lower knot, I have tried moving the larks head away from the kite but the knot always move back to resting on the lower knot.

Soul vtd inner sm.jpg (45.23 KiB) Viewed 652 times

Cheers

Mat
Port Augusta

I own 4 souls - Ul, 2std and one vented all versions of the Souls and all work well in there correct wind range. The vented is restricted to a point because wonce the wind gets up to high you have to basically run to achieve the tricks. I have no problem holding fades with the souls but only for about 1 minute and it becomes to unstable, other kites like the JJF and Sano you can hold for 5 minutes. So far I have found no need to adjust the bridle.

Hi Mat

Good choice of vented kite! It is one of the friendlier vented trick kites on the market and really has a light pull in the upper wind range - much more so than the Silver Fox vented. I haven't felt the need to change the bridle on my vented Soul, and I almost never remove the mylar panels to expose the secondary vents.

On any of the Souls models, don't bother with the shorter standoffs, they really turn the kite into a pig.

It sounds like you need to walk forward a bit more, especially in the stronger winds. Venting really only helps to reduce the pull when flying the kite in a forward direction. Having the kite in any other orientation pretty much negates the venting, and the kite behaves more like a standard. So keeping this in mind, you will need to move forward to lower teh effective wind speed on the kite.

Bouncing out of fades is very technique dependent, although some kites do it worse than others. I haven't found any of the Souls to be "bouncers", but any time you pull the kite into a fade you need to catch it gently on the lines. Walking forward will definitely help.

Similar with Lazies, Multilazies, etc. You want to reduce the wind speed going past the kite, so keep walking forward as you do the trick.

In your second photo, if you want the bridle to stay at the second knot, you will need to loosen the lark's head and place it the other side of the second knot. Otherwise the tension of the flying lines will slip the larks head back to its original position. (Huge apologies if I've stated the obvious)

Cheers

Kevin
Willunga, S.A.

really has a light pull in the upper wind range - much more so than the Silver Fox vented. Cheers

Kevin
Willunga, S.A.

True that, my 2.5SF Vent has some haul....

Thanks all for your replies.

The verdict is unanimous, move more/ faster and don't fiddle with the bridle.

Thanks for pointing out that the secondary vents can be removed, on my kite about 10mm of the top section of one of the Mylar pieces appears fixed to the inside of the pocket so I wasn't sure if It could be removed.


Good winds and happy flying

Mat Port Augusta

Hi Mat,

The easiest way to fade is to understand that in the centre of the window fades are stable, If you fly either side the kite will be pushed back to centre by the wind so you have to understand to tether your fade either way. Start with the side of the wind window and commence a slow to medium walk forward [ reason- the least air pressure in the window ], you will immediately feel the pressure come off the sail. The easiest way to execute a fade is to turn kite straight toward the ground [ Whilst still walking forward ] , throw both arms forward, kite will flare away, execute a deliberate pull of both lines back and start to walk back and feel the air under the sail. You can play by tethering your lines and make it fly straight, left or right and up and down by either walking forward or back depending upon the wind. In the right wind conditions fades, flic flacks rotating backspin and many more tricks begin with a fade. The secret is just practice and well practice some more or get a copy of Tim Bensons Trick or Treat DVD, then you have practice even more. LOL. Here is a link I think is worth a look, http://sportkiteflyer.spaces.live.com/ he will show you the other two ways to do fades easy and many more tricks. The soul is an awesome kite because it executes the tricks with ease and it doesn't cost the earth, I am looking next year to get a custom set made Ul, STD and Vented. Have fun, just spend a bit more time and understand the kite.

Cheers

The wind this afternoon was a nice 15 to 25kph (10 to 15mph) so the Soul vented and I when to the beach to try to put some of the advice into practice.

I am glad to say we got on together much better.
The fades stuck and I even managed a couple back spins and a few Axel to fade worked out, the rolling lazy susan's are pretty untidy (must practice more) but normal lazy susans floated well and I managed a few multilazies.

The legs got a good workout but it was smiles around.

Again thanks everybody for your help.


Thanks Matzelkite, I have the trick or treat dvd as well as the dodd gross flight school, all great for people like me who don't have regular contact with out kite flyers. The soul is my first vented kite I normal fly in winds less that 10kph and not use to moving a great deal so the soul is a new experience.


Next on the to do list is the 540 and slot machine.

Cheers
Mat
Port Augusta

If you would like to complete your set of DVD's, I can send you the Prism DVD- free of charge, I have extras. Cheers

That's very generous Matzelkite, but if it is the Prism Freestyle pilot I have a copy as it came with my E2.

You are right about practice, I don't live far from the beach so wind permitting I try and get out at least twice a week but even after a year of flying the trick list is short.

The Tim Bensons Trick or Treat DVD is great but his technique vary against Dodd Gross and Prism, as an example Tim uses a short sharp movement to get the kite from vertical dive to fade but Dodd has a whole arm movement. I guess it's kite related.
What works for You?

Cheers
Mat

Hi Mat,

I use all three methods to fade, I use the walk forward nose dive technique usually for flic flacs, you can usually get the kite level faster and with practice extremely fast and go as low as you want but get ready to run back to fly the fade back up. I use the axel to fade technique to set up for rotating back spins as you have initiated with one hand and the timing has begun to keep the kite spinning. I now use turtles and lazy susans as a set up to transitional fades to other tricks however a lot harder to get into your head. As I said earlier practice flying the fade up - down , left-right and use it as a transitional trick. I find I have good days and bad days, If you want some fun put the smaller standoffs [ float mode ] on the soul and start practicing rising turtles- it's not easy.

Cheers

Hi Mat

Yesterday was ideal vented kite weather so I took out the Vented SOUL and had a bit of a play with it.

I stand corrected on my earlier post. Yes it IS difficult to maintain a fade for very long, especially with all the vent covers removed. I could consistently get around 5 seconds, but the nose always dropped too far down after that. (In my defence, I'm usually too impatient to just hold a fade. A couple of seconds and I'm onto backspins or something)

Funny thing is when doing flic flacs it was a little reluctant to drop out of the fade and into the flare. With that first pop, it was more inclined to nose up and climb in the fade. Made for some lovely rising flic flacs!

I suspect that wind speed has a lot to do with the stability (pop on the lines increases effective wind speed slightly). Also that initial pop from the fade to flare will momentarily push the towpoints further away from the spine, so the lines will cross the leading edge further apart. This leads to less pressure pushing the nose of the kite down..

I ended up with the bridle set to the lowest knot on the upper leading edge pigtails, i.e. the longest possible setting for the upper bridle legs. This seems to be the best position.

hope this helps

Kevin
Willunga, S.A.

After every bodies replies I've resisted the temptation to play with the bridle setting except the upper outhaul position which I've had similar results as KaoS in high winds. For winds less than 15kph I like the larks head to be between the first and second knot.


Thanks for the reply about the fade being difficult to hold.
I tend to hold the fade a bit to long before moving on to the next trick. I still have to think about it, just haven't got that muscle memory thingy yet. But I have just sorted out the axel fade backspin combo (well 25% success rate) so pretty happy.

The wind here look to be suited to the vented for some time so I won't have any shortage of practice with the Soul.

Cheers