my friend and i are going to try to start a student government funded wind sports/kite club at my university...what would be a good trainer kite for somebody whos going to fly for the first time? we would like to stay with quad lines because the jump from quad line trainer to quad line performance kite will be less than two line trainer to quad line performance. plus most of the people i have let fly my ace for the first time flying did just fine. our plan is

leval 1 quad line trainer

leval 2 quad line performance...ie 4m pansh ace's we have, or something like an HQ crossfire...just any small fixed bridle performance kite with lift/pull.

leval 3 some sort of depower once we get some cash flow from the school, plus the depower i just bought

leval 4...eventually break out in to kite surfing on the local lake

another challenge we have is flying inland...most of the trainer kites we see are smaller than 4m...4m is really the minimum kite size that will even fly here...kites like the ozone imp quatro and flexifoil sting are less than 4m...

Be very careful with how you word things with this club. You don't want to be claiming to give formal lessons or there will be insurance issues.

It seems like you already know to start folks out on a 3 or 4 line. Beginners crash a LOT. Having them able to relaunch on their own is a big help !

First thing I would ask are what are the average winds you will be flying in, and how much will the average person weigh? I'd suggest something small and stable, especially for inland winds. Like an HQ Beamer III 3-meter. It is a pretty good all-around kite. Not too big, and not too small. Depending on wind, you might want something smaller, or something larger. Beamers are great kites to learn with, and can be very forgiving. For the price, you just cannot beat them.

Sounds cool! I wish I had the chance to learn like this. Maybe I would have went to school more if I could fly kites there :wink2:

go with the beamer or pansh legend. Both have 4 and 5m sizes. As much as I hate to support their BS antics pansh is having a buy one get one deal right now. so for $150 you can get a 5.5 and 4.5 legend. Hard to beat that deal.

if there is anything I can do to help you out just let me know.

private lessons are not going to be mentioned...its just a student organization with myself and my other kiting friend as officers/instructors. a majority of the work ahead of us is drafting our "constitution" as a club and preventing ALL liability on our part and the university's part. there are plenty of clubs/ places here that are like that. the university rock climbing wall has a video that says that even if you die rock climbing, the university has no liability. thats what we need to get in place. at the same time though we want to make it obvious that safety is our number 1 priority. we would never allow new members to fly in dangerous conditions or fly too powerful a kite. we already have devised a structure that is in place for people to get certain "pilot" certifications, like flying foils that are capable of scuds and jumps, buggying...

that being said our typical wind conditions are 0-10mph... sometimes up to 20mph though. i am 115lbs and my pansh ace 4m jumps me well in a 15mph wind... id say there are about 4 times a month that i can get jumping winds, six more times a month just flying winds. i cant really say average rider weight, all sorts of weights. i think that the beamer III would be a good fit.

HQ Beamer III 3 meter for sale on the forum for $150. Look in "For Sale" section.
Bump seller/ BeamerBob

Thanks Mel. Yes, the model kite I have for sale is the epitome of a great kite for what you guys are doing. Mine is $80 less than a new one and its just like a new one would be after about 2 hours of kiting. It is still available, but I have an interested buyer that is scheduled to fly it on Feb 7th unless we get together before that.

they Hydra looks like the ultimate ticket !

we'll work on a Depower Mod kit for it.