Revolution 1.5 SLE (vented) & EXP

Part I - 15/12/2004

Part II - 19/01/2005 + update 23/07/2005

Part I - 15/12/2004 (updated 19/12/2004)

Rev 1.5 SLE (vented)

Today (15/12/2004) I took my new Rev 1.5 SLE (Super Leading Edge) vented out and put it through it's paces.

In consistent winds and a temperature that was not unreasonable for this time of year I spent a thoroughly enjoyable two and a half hours flying.

2004 seems to have been a particularly windy year and so I had been on the lookout for a Rev 1.5 vented for a few months.

Helen had bought a second hand Rev 1.5 vented from Jason in June and it wasn't until she let me have a go that I understood why it was that she had bought one.

I arrived on Dunstable Downs at 13:30 and much to my relief there was a good wind. I took the leading edge out of the vented and replaced it with the one from the Rev 1.5 EXP; my other new kite. Dave Boyle had also sorted me out with a set of Climax lines, the ones that are pinkish in colour & have a waxy feel.

I prefer to fly Revs on extended handles which I've modified by removing the 'V' shaped metal connectors from the ends. Instead I've tied lengths of sleeving through the holes which contain a number of spaced knots that are used to larks head the the lines onto. The problem I had previously was that the metal connectors would swivel around to the back of the handles or snag the lines during energetic maneuvers causing problems.

On the previous Sunday at the Stopsley STACK event I had balanced the handles by adjusting the lines so that the kite would neither pull forward nor fall backwards at the mid-point in the sky when the handles were held relaxed.

Having spent the summer flying the Airbow, the Rev 1.5 vented came as a sedately change to the energetic moves that the Airbow lends itself to. One of the advantages that the Airbow has given me is that I now have the confidence to try out moves on a Rev that I would never have previously attempted. The way a Rev handles IS different to the way an Airbow handles and it wasn't until towards the end of the day that I finally managed to fully switch back into the Rev flying mindset.

At 14:00 I broke for lunch and with the whole place to myself enjoyed sitting looking out across the surrounding countryside of Dunstable Downs

Afterwards I successfully tried out flic-flacs and was amazed at how easily the vented Rev 1.5 does these. I was never able to do this as comfortably on my Rev 1 & although I did occasionally run into trouble when the kite did its 'I'm a brick' impression, more often than not the kite would flic-flac successfully. I believe that the fact it is vented makes it much more capable than the standard Rev 1.5 at these type of tricks.

As well as spending a lot of time just flying the kite slowly and precisely I also worked on cascades, fountains and axels which performed ohh so sweetly. The length of line that I'm using seems to suit itself to my style of flying.

The vented Rev 1.5 is a fun kite to fly and although I did have to walk back to recover it a number of times (I've been spoilt by the total recoverability of the Airbow) I still had a lot of fun.

I look forward to taking it out again next Wednesday on the Downs (weather permitting), if not before.

Sunday 19/12/2004 - Today Helen & I returned to a colder Dunstable downs with a wind that blew strongly in the early part of the afternoon before falling away to nothing at sunset.

We flew briefly with members of Fresh Air before they moved off into a different field & very kindly left us with a large open space to play in.

This was also the first opportunity I had to try out my new Rev 1.5 EXP. Compared to the vented 1.5 its response is much more snappy.

I had the opportunity again to put into practice the Rev equivalent of a cascade. This is done by holding the kite at approx 50% height in the sky with the leading edge facing to one side, in this example to the left.

By snapping backwards with the right rear line (top wing tip) the kite rotates sharply backwards in a controlled stall. With care the kite will rotate 180 degrees and move towards the ground by one full kite length before running out of momentum, if this doesn't happen stop the kite when the leading edge is facing towards the right. Repeat the move with the other hand, i.e. snap backwards with the left rear line so that again the top wing tip is pulled and the kite will rotate 180 degrees and move towards the ground by one full kite length. Repeat until the kite lands on one wing tip...

The Rev equivalent of a fountain is also possible and is ideally done when the wind is not too light. The key to this is to walk forward with each movement to allow the kite to rise into the air.

Part II - 19/01/2005 (with update - 23/07/2005)

Handle Without Link

Rev Handles

Since I bought my first Rev in 1997 I have always flown on extended handles. I find that extended handles offer a greater degree of control over the kite than shorter handles.

Last year I removed the metal V shaped links from the handle tips and have never looked back. The problem with the metal V links is that they tend to flip around to the back of the handles during energetic moves and stay there. This changes the overall line length and requires intervention in order to return it back to normal. Removing the link completely solves this problem.

Each person has their own way of setting up Rev handles and here I explain my current preferred method.

To the top and bottom of each handle I've attached different coloured sleeving fixed to the handle by two half hitch knots. I've also added an end stopper knot to prevent the hitches slipping.

The top length of sleeving is shorter than the bottom length of sleeving. In this particular case the top green sleeving is 18cm long (measured with 1 knot & 1 end knot) whilst the orange sleeving is 21cm long (measured with 4 knots & 1 end knot). Each knot is actually a double knot so that the line has a strong anchor point when attached to the handle-sleeving with a larks head.

The green sleeving only has the 1 knot in effect; the origin knot. The orange sleeving has 4 knots, excluding the end knot, each an abritrary distance of 5cm apart. The idea being that provided there is enough length of orange sleeving only the bottom line needs to be let out or taken in, depending on the wind conditions, relative to the top line which can stay fixed at the origin knot.

The origin knot was tied first and then a complementary knot tied on the orange sleeving at exactly the same distance from the handle. This corresponding knot is marked by two black lines, see below. From this point subsequent knots were tied on the orange sleeving both before and after this first knot at regular 5cm intervals.

When I came to try out this arrangement in strong winds it soon became apparent that the Rev sits more comfortably in the sky when the bottom line is fixed one knot in, see below. There is still one more knot that the line can be move in to should I require to.

If I were to repeat this modification I might consider changing some of the sleeving lengths in order to allow the addition of at least one more rearwards knot on the orange sleeving, but as it stands at the moment this is not a problem.

Update - 23/07/2005

I did find a problem to this modification. After a while the sleeving on the top of the handles would fray and snap. This was due to the sharp edges on the metal holes.

To solve this I deburred the holes (got rid of the sharp edges) the best I could and then put in a much thicker and stronger non-stretchy chord that I bought from a local chandlers. This has worked well since I did it (just before Berck). You can get an idea of what the handles look like now in the photo below.

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