Happy First Day of Spring!

Date: 3/20/09 (10th day in a row)
Place: Cosmo Park, Columbia, MO
Kites: E2 on 85' lines
Wind: 10 - 4 mph, S-SE
Weather: Cloudy, 58º

I received the new upper-spreader fittings from Prism. It was fairly easy to take the old ones off and put the new ones on. I learned more about how the kite is built.

When I flew today, I only had the top spreader pop-out once even though I nose-dived the kite more often and harder than I really wanted to. Yeah (about much fewer pop-outs, not the nose dives)!

I reviewed most of the "Freestyle Pilot" DVD and found a couple new things to try. One is a "new" recovery launch (it's only new to me, and then only because I overlooked it) called "the sleeping beauty." The kite is on its back nose towards the flier. Wind picks up one wing and as it turns over you pull at just the right time to scoop wind under the nose and then fly off. It's fairly easy, but if you goof on this one you end up in the dreaded belly-down nose towards the flier position where only 2% of the time you can succeed with a "dead launch."

Flic-flacs are coming along very slowly.

I seem to be over-popping my 1/2-axels - they often are almost back flipping the kite.

I had a couple really nice side slides that slid all the way to the center of the wind window.

To celebrate the 1st day of Spring (and because it was on my wish list and on sale) I ordered a Citrus (green) Prism Zephyr today. This is a low wind kite and comes with yo-yo stoppers and two line sets. I particularly wanted a UL kite and until I really know what I'm doing I'm going to stick with Prism -- I've had really good experiences so far with them. I can purchase custom made high-end kites when I really know what I want from such a kite.