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but it flies like a dream!

After a week of a cold and laryngitis stopping me in my tracks I got a chance to bolt into the wild for a nice session with the 30 foot short lines.

It has been a week of changing-season type weather with clear skies and a decent amount of steady wind but I was locked down with little energy to even try.

But today I saw a light breeze in the trees so I headed to the field to see if I could play. The breeze was steady and all from one direction but it was real light and lessening.

The Pipe Dreams loves a light breeze and it was easy to keep rising up and then floating back downwind. Soft and gentle so as not to loose sail pressure and the lines will stay tight even without a breeze. Which is good because right about then the wind totally faded.

Now when the wind speed goes down sometimes it because the direction is changing or wandering and that can stir up the air. A wind coming from two or more directions fights the kite and tends to disturb any constant flow of moving air on the sail of the kite resulting in a downed kite.

When the wind is purely slow or stopped without a direction shift things are vastly different. Because the air is not moving it is available as a solid mass to leverage against. And if you can pull a sail through it there will be more smooth air flowing together in the same direction allowing steady support to the sail. Resulting in a nice graceful slow flight.
At one point the air was so still I was able to do a complete 360 at ground level, turn and 360 back the other way and turn one more time for another 360 in the original direction. Then a quick pull and it was overhead for a catch. but it turned out to just be a drop. It was a toss and catch session, but there wasn't actually any catching happening today, it was mostly a toss and drop session. But a good one!

It was a great workout although maybe a little much while recovering from a cold. Even so, all in all, it was healing none the less.

Kites Flown:

Revolution Pipe Dreams

iFlite I Twin Vents Blue

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Saturday October 18th, 2014

No Weather Is Here