Hey guys welcome back to our beginner series and today we're going to be going over how to kite
Kiting is the perfect thing to do on the drop zone when it's too windy to jump
or if you're just a bit bored at home and you've got a local park nearby, you can go have a little play
so let's have a look at it
So first off why do we actually want to kite the canopy
There's a few reasons It's good awareness for our canopy control
We can also be looking at the canopy seeing what the canopy does and how it reacts when we do the inputs
It's also really helpful for on those windy days when we are jumping
learning how to shut the canopy down nice and quickly
and also it's just fun so let's have a go
Okay so there's a couple of things we need
Obviously we need a nice windy day
We want more consistent winds rather than gusty
it makes it a lot easier to keep the canopy up for you to kite it
We also want a nice big open field, this is going to help with smoother wind as well
So obviously your landing area at your drop zone when you're not jumping is perfect
but just be sure to check and make sure you're allowed in the landing area when it's not being used
and you're not going to be annoying anybody
A couple other things to go over
For this we've taken the d-bag of pilot chute off the top
it actually takes drag and reduces a little bit of weight on top of the canopy
So it does make it easier to get up
That's completely optional, you can do it with the d-bag on and the pilot chute on but we've chosen to take it off
The brakes are un-stowed
and also the slider, we're gonna collapse it and we're gonna sit as far down behind our head as possible
so we have a nice view of the canopy when we're kiting it
and lastly which is very important I would say for much windier days
is doing your leg traps up a little bit and having them on
you can just rest on your shoulder but if it's really gusty then there's a chance that the canopy it's just gonna pull you away
cool so starting off guys we're actually gonna be trying to fly blind
which means our risers are gonna be crossed
So we wanna lay the canopy out on the ground with the nose up as exposed as possible
and that's going to help us pull it up and get into the air
We're going to use our front risers, they're going to help drive it up
and then once we get it up, we want to get onto the rears and the toggles okay
You don't need to have your toggles in your hand and definitely for right now it's a bit easier to not have them
So with the nose up we're going to get the fronts a little tweak
we're just going to get that canopy up
and then once we've got it up we want to transition to the toggles and the rear risers
There we go
and now we're just going to try and keep it up there as long as the wind stays consistent
if the canopy starts to drop
We can give those front risers a little tweak
and you can see if it tries to drive forward, we just need to engage more brakes
Just like that
and you can see the container is also lifting, so doing the leg straps up is a pretty good idea
Cool and we can also, while it's up there, try and switch between blind and facing forwards
Just like that
and if the wind is nice
which it is being sort of right now, we're a little bit gusty but
the canopy, should hopefully...
just stay there
So another useful thing obviously
is say we've just landed and it's a windy day
we can use the going blind and practicing with that
and then we can also shut the canopy down nice and quickly
So what I like to do is simply
you grab the rears and you just pull them as hard as you can
Cool so there you go guys
so that was a few of the basics on how to kite
and you can see there at the end when I was shutting the canopy down how it can be super useful
and also learning that transition from blind to forwards
or in this case after you've landed from forwards to blind
so hopefully this has been helpful hopefully you've learned something
and just remember when it's a bit windy on the drop down you can still have a bit of fun
and enjoy your Icarus canopy
Anyway cheers for watching and we'll see you next time