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Old Kite


Controlled Crash

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Hello everyone. New to the forum, old to kiting.

To make a short story long, I was cleaning out the kite closet and decided to set up several of my *old vintage kites. I thought, "Hey, Check 'em out on Youtube". Found videos to most all the two line kites I have, except for the Advantage Classic by Revolution. I may not have ninja Google skills, but the only reference I found was on this site, and only in one place here. I figured if any place had the answers to my queries, this would be it.

Questions:

What gives? Okay, okay, perhaps to broad...

Do I own the crazy uncle, of Revolution Kites, that no one talks about? Do I need to search for "the kite that shalt not be mentioned"?

How long where they made? I thought I bought mine late 1995 to early 1996. I could be wrong, but I thought I bought it before my daughter was born. The one mentioned here says 1997.

How many were made? There doesn't seem to be many claiming to own them...

Is there some shame that I should be feeling? It flies great. Only one other "vintage" kite of mine has more flying time than the Advantage.

How much was the origional sticker price? I have slept since then.

Does the Advantage Classic count toward "How many Revs do you own?" If so, I have two. My other is a 1.5 SLE that I bought two winters ago.

*Old/vintage- The difference seems to be whether or not you own one. If you don't, it's old. If you do, it's vintage. I never thought of the kites as being old. I guess some of them are, it just not how I see them. I have only flown a few times in the past 15 years. Moving from a condo on the Gulf in Galveston to Kansas dramatically reduces chances to fly, that and a family and a new job. Got bit by the kit bug again and plan on flying much more this year.

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I flown several kites that were rigged for dual or quad. The double strand is line of bridle line, folded in half. Now there are two strands (or legs). If you use High Test bridle line (100#) it is very easy to tie and un-tie,... so you can make adjustments easily and still keep as few knots as possible when testing/tuning. You are placing a single overhand knot in one leg only. When you larkshead to this pig-tail you will grab both strands, even though only one has a knot.

At the top spreader location (you are not removing the existing dual line bridle at all) you will slip that folded/doubled bridle line thru the hole in the sail and wrap the spreader fitting such that nothing can move when you yank or spank, pull or jerk the line. This become the top flying lines attachment point when you switch to flying the kite quad-line. The attachment point is still the dual line bridle for the quad lines on the bottoms.

I've flown TC Ultras, ordinary 8' sport kites and the Prism 3D using this method,... but WAIT, there's more.....

If you order today you can get a 2nd one free (you just have to pay add'l shipping and handling! < just kidding > )

Charles Stonestreet is an older gentlemen with typical age-physical symptoms. He can't grip a quad handle anymore! So he flies a THREE string method (It's still considered mutli-line). He flies the kite on the normal two string bridle using a wooden handle (imagine a very shortened broomstick, rounded off on the ends and drilled thru at each corner for affixing the flying line leaders. He wrist rotates this stick back and forth is his grasp. THe braking action comes from that third line,.... tied to the spine (center fitting) this time, so that by changing the relationship distance between the handle and his waist he can add forward drive or take it away. Oh, I almost forgot, "Stoney" flies one in each hand at the same time. A great show if you haven't seen him in Freestyle (OIOU) !!!

So, how long are these new top line attachment points (or the spine thingy is your going after Stoney)? You'll have to experiment and I highly recommend you undertake this mission with a partner. Testing and keeping track of your efforts is both fun and educational. Enjoy yourselves and keep us informed of your progress too.

The TC ULTRA handles are excellent for this type of flight dynamics. The holes in the plexiglass make it easy to stake your kite down under tension in a specific set-up position. The handle has a finger outline like a pistol grip that easy to rock against, forward or back. Since your not on Rev handles you don't immediately have preconceived expectations on "feel" either. You are going to be making new muscle memories, start fresh everywhere!

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You are placing a single overhand knot in one leg only. When you larkshead to this pig-tail you will grab both strands, even though only one has a knot.

I don't understand why only one leg would have a knot. Why leave the other strand free? How much longer past the knot would the end of the other strand be?

At the top spreader location (you are not removing the existing dual line bridle at all) you will slip that folded/doubled bridle line thru the hole in the sail and wrap the spreader fitting such that nothing can move when you yank or spank, pull or jerk the line. This become the top flying lines attachment point when you switch to flying the kite quad-line. The attachment point is still the dual line bridle for the quad lines on the bottoms.

Do I do this once for each side? Without removing the existing bridle from the top spreader, the existing bridle will limit how far back the nose can tilt, right?

You are just going to have to type slower so I can understand. My excuse? I did spend most of this summer building and flying SLK's, I just didn't anticipate this side effect. On a side note, I made a four cell tetrahedral kite about two months ago, but I haven't gotten to fly it.

Charles Stonestreet is an older gentlemen with typical age-physical symptoms. He can't grip a quad handle anymore! So he flies a THREE string method (It's still considered mutli-line). He flies the kite on the normal two string bridle using a wooden handle (imagine a very shortened broomstick, rounded off on the ends and drilled thru at each corner for affixing the flying line leaders. He wrist rotates this stick back and forth is his grasp. THe braking action comes from that third line,.... tied to the spine (center fitting) this time, so that by changing the relationship distance between the handle and his waist he can add forward drive or take it away. Oh, I almost forgot, "Stoney" flies one in each hand at the same time. A great show if you haven't seen him in Freestyle (OIOU) !!!

Yes I have seen him. I had no idea why he flew his kites like that. I figured he was just that kind of awesome. I don't think that it is as easy as he makes it look.

If you order today you can get a 2nd one free (you just have to pay add'l shipping and handling! < just kidding > )

When one can buy one pair of X-Ray vision glasses for five bucks and get the second pair free, people don't mind paying thirty-five dollar S&H.

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I don't understand why only one leg would have a knot. Why leave the other strand free? How much longer past the knot would the end of the other strand be?

......... You only need one leg to have a knot in it, if you fold the leader in half and then placed a knot in one leg, of course the other side would remain longer. The longer, un-knotted strand will be captured when you larks head the flying lines on, it's not free. The reason for one knot in one leg only is convenience of adjustment during the tuning phase.

............

Do I do this once for each side? Without removing the existing bridle from the top spreader, the existing bridle will limit how far back the nose can tilt, right?

............ Testing. The existing bridle is only connected to the bottom flying lines, rotating your quad grips will certainly change the pitch

You are just going to have to type slower so I can understand. My excuse? I did spend most of this summer building and flying SLK's, I just didn't anticipate this side effect. On a side note, I made a four cell tetrahedral kite about two months ago, but I haven't gotten to fly it.

Yes I have seen him. I had no idea why he flew his kites like that. I figured he was just that kind of awesome. I don't think that it is as easy as he makes it look.

......... Nothing is as easy as a "master" makes it look!

When one can buy one pair of X-Ray vision glasses for five bucks and get the second pair free, people don't mind paying thirty-five dollar S&H.

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......... You only need one leg to have a knot in it, if you fold the leader in half and then placed a knot in one leg, of course the other side would remain longer. The longer, un-knotted strand will be captured when you larks head the flying lines on, it's not free. The reason for one knot in one leg only is convenience of adjustment during the tuning phase.

............

Do I do this once for each side? Without removing the existing bridle from the top spreader, the existing bridle will limit how far back the nose can tilt, right?

............ Testing. The existing bridle is only connected to the bottom flying lines, rotating your quad grips will certainly change the pitch

The existing bridle would still be attached at the top spreader too. I would think that this would limit the distance the nose could move away from the pilot, as in, it could not tilt farther back than the bridle will allow it to tilt as it is right now. I think it would work better to disconnect the top bridal points. Do both top lines attach at the same point? Or do I need two leaders, one for each side?

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a leader on each side,.... YES.

You don't have to disconnect the bridle from the top of the kite either, it has no impact on flight dynamics when being influenced solely by the brake lines

you adjust the pitch using the top lines, so that the nose can move forward or back as desired

exactly as a quad should function

Feel free to test (with & without) the top bridle attached to the kite, it's not necessary to remove it

The dual line kite will not side-slide easily because the sail is very 3 dimensional, so cutting across the wind sideways is much more challenging

(S L O W)

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a leader on each side,.... YES.

Ahh, this makes sense.

Would this be easier, or work better, on a bigger or smaller kite? I have several candidates for a conversion, but I don't think I'm going to do this to the Rev.

Do you think It would work better to replace the entire bridal? I.E. to make the lower bridal attachments align vertically with the upper attachments, or do I want the tilt?

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