This last weekend I got out both days for the first attempts at the best inland site near me.
I am using the Flexi Navarro buggy and my Revolution Power Blast 2-4 as an engine.
Cutting out a lot of venting frustration, I'll just say that I may have to rethink trying to fly at a site near my home.
The winds are SO freaky that I'm either:
A. Going to be one of the world's true experts on overcoming ANYTHING weird a big Rev can do, or
B. Developing so many bad habits in my efforts to keep the kite in the air that I will have to start at square minus 3 to relearn Rev flying once I get to some good air.
In two sessions with winds varying from zero to about 10 mph, my best run got me a ride of about 50 yards and a good gybe, after which the wind quit and I landed.
Well, not me. The kite landed, and I just sat their frowning at it!
Before I totally give up on the site, I'm going to try it using my little Sky Tiger or Prism 2.8 foils. I am a little spoiled with the ease of relaunching a framed kite. I even did it a couple of times while seated in the buggy (GASP! He didn't REALLY do that, did he?) :-)
As for the buggy, so far so good. Nice and light, and the only breakdown I need to fit it into my new Prius V station wagon is taking the back axle off, which is just an easy two bolt operation. I will probably replace the bolts with some at least 1/2" shorter though, (or just cut these ones off with my angle grinder) as there are more threads on the stock ones than necessary, and that just means more wrench cranking.
When I get to the point of having longer rides, I may want a higher backrest (I think someone said Kent at WOC has them), but for now this one is fine.
I'm running the tires pretty soft, mainly because it is such a pain trying to air them up. I do have a 90 degree air chuck adaptor on order (thanks for the tip!), so that should change soon.
All tolled, the initial sessions yielded a LOT of exercise, a nearly equal amount of frustration, and some useful lessons learned.
The buggying shows potential, but I haven't tried the Blokart yet, so which way I will end up going is still up for grabs.
Who am I kidding? When face with the choice of two potential reasons to never retire so I can afford my hobbies, I inevitably choose both! :-)
Bob

Soft tires will really slow you down and can be frustrating. The extra drag will make it hard to get going and harder to maintain your speed. I would get those pumped up pretty firm and give it another go.


That being said, you can't do anything without proper wind. Flukey winds are ... as you mentioned ... incredibly frustrating!!! Especially when you are trying to learn. Inconsistent winds will make learning that much harder because you can never repeat the same things twice. If you dive the kite one time in heavy winds, you get yanked too hard so you try to adjust the dive to learn, but the wind dies off and now you have nothing, dive it a third time and the wind picks up and yanks you sideways out of the buggy.....curse, get frustrated and wonder if you should just toss the whole thing and go home. Been there, done that!!!

Don't give up, once you get out in some decent smooth winds everything will change.

If your local spot never has good winds, time to find a new spot. It is worth driving an extra 20 minutes or even an hour to be able to spend 4-5 hours in smooth butter winds where you can lock in your kite and ride than to save 15 minutes of driving and spend the next 4 hours cursing the crappy wind conditions.

There are several lake beds here that are 20 minutes from the shop. We don't usually bother with them at all and instead, drive 45 minutes south to Ivanpah because we know the area and most of the time the wind is awesome. A lot of people ask "Why do you go so far when you can just go here" we just smile and say "Cuz Ivanpah is awesome". Trust me, its worth the extra drive time.

Hope that helps.

Yeah, the tires will get more air when my 90 degree adaptor gets here, should be today.
I'll have to try and find a reasonably close beach for the good air.
Thanks for the good advice!
I guess this means you did NOT receive my email asking you about a higher backrest for the Navarro?
Bob

2 things I've learned/been told:

1. Kent is definitely right,... Once you get a few good sessions in in some smooth wind (beach wind) everything makes a little more sense. You can figure out what is supposed to happen when you do this or that with the kite, and it just really all just makes a little more sense. It helps immensely to figure out how to negotiate period,... Even in the inland shifty gusty stuff.

2. After you get things ironed out and you can negotiate shifty and gusty wind (aka Metro Atlanta conditions) and you put in a lot of time in harnessing the poopy kind of wind, you will find that when you get into the good stuff (on the beach)(aka when you come to JIBE) you really have a much easier time negotiating it. Since you've trained yourself to negotiate the poopy wind, the buttery stuff is like a dream, and you (at least) really look like you know what you're doing.

Unfortunately, once you get into the buttery wind,... It's just disappointing when you go back home.

Have you considered training with foils before you hop in e seat with the revs?

Yeah, I know I need to get to better winds.
There is a guy in Cocoa Beach who sells Blokarts.
I've been wanting to try one of those. Maybe the beach where he sails will allow me to buggy.
Or, i will get in touch with the Kiting Tampa Bay club. There are some great beaches around St. Pete, if they're not too crowded.
Yes, I am going to try the little foils I have at my current inland site to see if they will work in that sloppy wind.
When I say "sloppy", I'm talking about setting the Rev up to launch, walking back to the handles and seeing the lines blowing sideways because the wind just shifted 90 degrees.
Or, just about to launch, I get a puff from the back of the kite that blows it flat.
And those are the GOOD parts! :flaming:
Bob

Yeah,... I know those winds,... They aren't like that here ALL the time,... Just on the days where I think "oh, there's enough wind to kite" and I end up spending more time resetting my gear than actually flying.

I do know that you can buggy at Treasure Island. If it is not to far it is worth the drive. You might look into nasa wings. They fly well in gusty inland wind. I have been flying them now for over 5 years.

Susan (npw goddess)

Gusty, shifting winds? My name wasn't chosen just to be cute, it's all I ever deal with. Wind change of 90-180 degrees almost every single session, usually multiple times....

Hope you get some good pulls in soon bob to make sure that kite-hook is fully set!

I did get your e-mail Bmwbob and replied. Let me know if you didn't get it.

Kent,
Glad the email worked. I replied and sent measurements and a picture.
Soliver, KM4 and EW,
The area where I am trying to buggy is nice EXCEPT for the wind situation, ( and the ant hills, and the sand spurs!) at least for the big Revs, so I'm going to try my little Sky Tiger and Prism foils to see if they can work there. I'd be happy to see the Tiger come to life on the buggy. I traded another kite for it a couple of years ago, but have only static flown it a few times, and it is pretty sluggish. Maybe it will wake up when it gets some speed going.
The Prism Stylus 2.8 is quite zippy by comparison, but its not too big.
When I was buggying "back in the day", I used Flexifoil Blade kites. Quite powerful as I recall, but I really didn't know what I was doing, so that doesn't count.
One thing that has kept me amused with the Rev is the "glider" mode it goes into when the wind quits. I've gotten fairly good at back pedaling to catch it just before it touches down.
Hey, if you can't buggy, you need to have SOME fun! :-)
I've seen some YouTube videos of folks buggying with the NASA foils, but I really don't want to completely re-kit just for this site. But if someone wanted to loan me one to try, I would be happy to give it a workout. Besides, I spend 40 hours a week working for NASA (Kennedy Space Center), so I'd really like a change for the weekend! :-)
I just emailed Jay at Kiting Tampa Bay to see if there is anywhere over by him that I could buggy on the weekends.
Now that we have the Prius V (station wagon 42 mpg) instead of the Tacoma pickup (20mpg), the idea of driving across the state to buggy is more feasible.
Stay tuned!
Bob

You should get in touch with Chip Brown, not sure of his user name on here. All he flys are big Rev on inland winds (Ohio). He can teach us all things about flying them (just don't ask about ditches :shocked2. As others have said it sounds like you may need to find a better location to fly.