From: ilh@lcs.mit.edu (Lee Hetherington) Newsgroups: rec.kites Subject: axel Date: 12 Oct 93 15:11:53 Organization: MIT/LCS Spoken Language Systems Yesterday I managed to learn the axel. Within five minutes of my first controlled success*, I was axeling all over the sky, in both directions, and into landings. It seems incredibly easy once you know how to do it ;-) Some things I learned when doing the axel with my homemade Tracer clone in about 5-8mph wind: 1) A good stall is necessary. Any forward speed, and you tend to turn out of the axel. You don't have to hold it for any length of time, but it has to be a stall that you COULD hold. I was starting the axel with the nose pointing straight up. 2) Rocking the kite a little the "wrong way" first helps. This seems to give you a little more momentum when you rock it the "right way". 3) I was doing the axel with a quick push-pull (one hand pushes and one pulls) flicking motion, and putting my hands right back where they started. I estimate my hand motion to be about 6in. Previously I was seriously overdoing this motion and not being fast enough about it, usually resulting in tangled lines. 4) It's probably easier to learn relatively high, say 1/2 way up. Up there the kite is already in more of a belly-down position, and it tends to flip the wingtip over the lines easier. It also gives you more room to recover from the turtled tangled mess that sometimes results when you're learning the move. It's also probaby easiest to learn the move near the edge. 5) Sometimes it comes out as a flat, belly-down, rather slow spin. Other times it comes out as a kind of flip to the side, almost in place. I haven't put enough time (only five minutes) in to figure out how make it more or less flat. Thanks to Dave Butler, Steve Thomas, Jeff Burka and others for their descriptions of the move. It's one of those interesting, a kite- shouldn't-be-able-to-do-that kind of moves. Personally, I find my Tracer clone very easy to axel, at least in those relatively light winds. Hopefully my Katana will like axels too. I haven't really tried multiple axels, or axels from the ground yet. I can't wait to get back out and try more. *Note that I said five minutes from my first SUCCESS. I won't say how long it took before the first success. -- Lee Hetherington ilh@lcs.mit.edu