Teaching Your Kite to Fly

Climb:

Keep equal tension on both the fly lines as the kite points straight up.

Sometimes a kite flies well for a time, but refuses to climb past a certain height. It may be that a strat or layer of calm is reached. If so, there is usually another breeze a little higher up moving in a different direction from that of the surface wind.

Horizontal Flight

Hold control handles in position keeping equal tension on both lines.

When you are flying horizontal, you need to offset the force of gravity. This means maintaining a very slight additional tension on the upper line. If you are flying to the left, you will need to pull back, almost imperceptibly, on the right line.

Right/Left Turn:

Simply pull with your right hand and the kite will turn right (clockwise), or pull with your left and the kite will turn left (counter-clockwise). The farther back you pull, the tighter and quicker the kite will turn. To stop turning, even out your hands. The kite will continue forward in the direction it's pointed. If you pull one line and hold it, the kite will fly in a complete loop. Don't worry about putting twists in your lines as you fly loops; you can untwist them by simply doing a few loops in the other direction.

Looping:

Pull back gradually on the right/left fly line while gradually pushing your left/right line forward.

While doing loops, your fly line will naturally cross and twist. As long as your fly lines can slide, you will be able to control your sport kite.

Remember how many loops you make to one side. You will have to loop the same number of times in the opposite direction to uncross your lines.