Wing tip stand troubles

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[tommymcmillan]

I'm haveing trouble nailing my wingtip stands. I can nail the wingtip stand,but i'm haeing trouble w/the balancing the kite on wingtip.

[tpatter]

Practice balancing the kite on a tip on short lines (maybe even just leaders to start) in order to get a feel for how to keep the kite balanced there.

Once you can keep it balanced there for as long as you like - then take note of your hand and kite positions and when you drop to the tip stand end this way and you're golden.


-Tom

[justinpwheeler]

Unless I am just odd, I feel like the balance comes from the side on the ground. Tension causes the up wing to raise and s
lack causes it to f
all.  The wing in the air is just held in place with the lines when I do it.  Maybe I am wrong?  Likely.

[fidelio]

when you're in the tip stand try tipping the top wing back about 20 degrees.

[KaoS]

when you're in the tip stand try tipping the top wing back about 20 degrees.

Absolutely!  This makes a huge difference.  If you look at videos of Mark Reed doing tip stabs (stabs, not stands) you'll notice the top wing ends up a lot further away from the flyer than the bottom. This is much more stable than when the top wing is right above or even forward of the bottom wing.

So when you get your kite standing on one wingtip, try to emulate the finishing position of the tip stab.  Also, once in this position the control is done using the lower line more than the upper line

[inewham]

Once its on a tip pull more on the bottom it will rotate one way pull more on the top it rotates the other way, just get used to balancing the two.

In fact see if you can find tricky flickery on you tube - Andy Preston demonstrates

[lylenc]

Tip stand orientation is like an angled side slide into the ground with the lower wing closer to you and the top wing further away from you. Make adjustments to orientation depending on wind. If the kite tries to relaunch, tilt the both wings further back by slacking the bottom line and/or tightening the upper line. If the top wing is dropping to far, tighten the bottom line and/or slack the top line. As others have said, the bottom line gives bigger control inputs and the top line gives fine tuning. It's like lufting a sail on a sailboat - slack slows the top wing's rotation up and and tightening increases that wing's rotation down around the lower wing tip.

In higher winds, the lower wing's leading edge is tilted back more from vertical and in lighter winds the lower leading edge is more vertical. Either way, the the upper leading edge remains further away than the lower leading edge.

At the beach, I practiced tip stands on hard packed sand. That forced me to balance the kite's weight on the lower wing tip so the tip wouldn't slide across the sand. Once that angle was set, all the fine tuning was done with the upper wing. Normally, if the lower wing tip is in soft sand or grass and won't slide across the ground, main control is easier with bottom wing inputs. If the nose is flip flopping around to much (you are out of sync with the inputs) it's usually due to over-control with the bottom wing; try finding a happy medium with the bottom wing and fine tune with the upper wing.

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