Does anyone have any input on teaching kids to kite with a 4 line handle kite instead of a 2/3 line trainer?
I find that my young son has such a tendency to turn the bar instead of pivot it.
I also think that learning to fly a 4 line kite is the right way to start learning instead of a 2 line, learning to fly the kite and sheet it properly is so important and it's just not safe to hook a young child in to allow them to learn to sheet on a bar based kite.
I've also tried letting my son fly a 4 line kite while it's connected to my CL to give him the ability to sheet the kite but of course he has a tendency like any beginner to oversheet all the time.
I've never actually flown a 4 line handle kite so I might be way off. I was thinking about a Beamer 3.0 or something along those lines.
I'm a big fan of 4-line fixed bridle foils for introducing people to kiting, but I hadn't thought about them for kids. How young is your son? Mainly, I'd want to make sure the diameter of the handles wouldn't be too big for small hands.
Understand that there is no sheeting on a fixed-bridle foil. There are brakes which allow you to stall and reverse the kite; but you can't dump power like you can with a depower kite. But if he's not hooked into a harness, the worst that's going to happen is the handles get pulled from his hands, or he goes for a bit of a belly drag before the kite hits the ground. Nonetheless, the brakes do let one learn the feeling of the power evaporating when the kite stalls, and how to recover from it. In general, I'd say that handles give a very good tactile impression of what is happening with the wing at any given time.
I've read good things about the Beamer, I'd only be worried that 3m would be too much for a child in anything but the lightest winds. Here's a good instructional video:
Slappysan wrote:Does anyone have any input on teaching kids to kite with a 4 line handle kite instead of a 2/3 line trainer?
I find that my young son has such a tendency to turn the bar instead of pivot it.
I also think that learning to fly a 4 line kite is the right way to start learning instead of a 2 line, learning to fly the kite and sheet it properly is so important and it's just not safe to hook a young child in to allow them to learn to sheet on a bar based kite.
I've also tried letting my son fly a 4 line kite while it's connected to my CL to give him the ability to sheet the kite but of course he has a tendency like any beginner to oversheet all the time.
I've never actually flown a 4 line handle kite so I might be way off. I was thinking about a Beamer 3.0 or something along those lines.
Tell him it's like riding a bicycle, not driving a car... I would have said "like riding a horse" but does that these days?!?
4-line fixed bridle kites... you don't sheet them or alter the AoA.
In short, stick with the 2-line. Get him to hold your hands while you do it or something...