A couple questions about my first *BIG* kite

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[Josiah]

For Christmas this year, my parents bought me a Gomberg Skyform 60 along with a matching 50' tail.  I've been wanting a real lifter for a while, and am excited to finally have one.  It showed up in the mail today, and after unpacking it, I've got a few questions...

1) The bridle seems to be daisy chained to make it much shorter.  I assume you undo all of that so each line is as long as possible?  Do you daisy chain it up each time to keep the bridle from getting tangled?  Any tips or advice on this bridle in general? It already has a bit of a bird's nest going, and all I've done is unpack it! 

2) The matching tail is 5' wide, whereas the kite is 6.75' wide.  Is it OK for the "tails" of the kite to be slightly pinched together by the tail? Since David helped pick out this kite/tail combo, I'm assuming it is no problem.

3) All of the vents are hot cut only, no hems.  Did anyone take the time to go through and glue the edges of the hot cut vents to keep them from fraying, or is that pointless overkill?

4) Was anyone else surprised by just how darn big a 60 sq ft kite is? 

[mikenchico]

1) Daisy chaining can help with tangles if the bridles are real long and I always do it, but the MOST IMPORTANT thing to do is find a tab on the kite or a bridle connection point and larkshead the loop where you attach the flying line to that when packing up. That keeps the bridles from being able to tie themselfs into knots in the bag. If both ends of a line are kept seperated and secured then there are no knots, just twists.

2) If it seems the narrow tail is pulling the trailing together lengthen the attaching lines a bit, that will help, you shouldn't have too much problems with what you have.

3) I doubt you'll have troubles, watch them the few flight to see if there is any fraying. There is not a lot of airflow through those holes though.

4) Big? 

Just beware of the pull they can generate through the power zone as they rise, read Gomberg's site on anchoring and launching and wear gloves. Look into making a leash with a pulley or large caribineer to walk it down, sometimes it's best to reverse that process and walk the kite up, it shortens the time the kite is under high power and lets you more easily control it.

Have fun  - Be safe

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