News & commentary, 1997

Sept. 21-28, 1997, World Cup VIII, Long Beach, WA, winds 0-60 mph

The big story: Team "AfterShock" from Japan, six kites in the air, was far and away the best team the world has ever seen! They used solid-grip rather than strap-loop handles for better feel and control, and no air brakes or slow mesh-vented kites. Their kites were faster than all the others. What absolutely brilliant & spectacular choreography and flying! The audience gave them a rousing first! The judges awarded them third.

As we watched the teams fly, many other dual-line kites flew beyond the competition area. Several were WindDances. The WindDances flew noticeably faster than the deltas -- including those on the competition field -- with faster edge to power-zone acceleration, faster response to the wind, and higher speed in turns and spins.

One day, friends 'kidnapped' me and took me for my very first kite-buggy ride! We achieved twice true-wind speed! The acceleration was phenomenal! What a rush!

Which got me thinking technical about kite-sailing again. All the buggy enthusiasts have many expensive large parafoil kites. Each sail is set to operate at "full throttle" pull; there is no intermediate pull or "idle" pull. Each is best for one single wind & course combination. When the wind picks up or you change course towards 90°, you wish you had a smaller sail. When the wind drops or you change course away from 90°, you wish you had a larger sail. If I was a buggy nut, here's what I'd want: One large kite with a control bar that functions as a throttle. Operating the throttle would change the wing's angle-of-attack and profile (it would not pull on the trailing edge). The default "dead-man" throttle setting would be a very-low "idle" pull, even in strong winds. To kick in the power -- and there'd be a LOT of it -- you'd rotate the bar as you would a motorcycle throttle. There IS a way to easily aeronautically engineer such a parafoil wing and throttle system.

Later, a friend told me this: When I was flying fast sharp-cornered squares with a WindDance 2 a day or so before the World Cup VIII started (I'm just a fun-addicted recreational flyer), several competitive delta flyers watched from a distance. They were amazed, especially about the utter absence of any wobble or weave after every sharp, square corner. With deltas, tricky little corrections are necessary to make it go straight after a sharp corner. Not with WindDances.

Sept. 9, Kite Hill, Seattle, WA, near-zero wind

I was flying a WindDance 3. My new flying lines, 75 ft 90 lb LaserPro Competition, were shrieking from the speed!

"Your ad is wrong," said a flyer, a WindDance owner. In our new ad in Kite Lines magazine, the minimum-wind spec for the WindDance 3 is 3 mph.

"How so?" I asked.

"The wind's a lot less than 3 mph. It's not supposed to be flying."

Sept. 6-7, Pacific Beach, WA, kite festival, light to the-strong-side-of-medium winds

Winds were light in the morning and early afternoon, and that's when the most dual-line deltas were in the air. Later on, when the winds picked up, there were few deltas flying. Those that flew either had mesh airbrakes to slow them down, or were slowed way down by their spar and sail distortion that increases as the wind rises. The same thing happened at the Long Beach international festival. During the Westport festival, a competition flyer said that he hated strong winds because none of his kites, deltas of several sizes, fly well in strong winds.

When the winds pick up, WindDances don't distort and they FLY like crazy! WindDance owners love strong winds!

Kite retailers and competition flyers, after watching us fly side-by-side, told us that WindDances are very fast and turn really well. We think they also liked the way our WindDances quickly recovered from our many midair collisions, and how well they withstood hard landings.

The high point? This remark from a flyer: "You're both having so much fun! And you dance so well together!"

Aug. 20-24, Long Beach, WA, international kite festival, light to very-powerful winds

We quickly taught beginners how to fly! They, as well as beginners receiving no instruction, found WindDances very easy to learn on!

For example: A family purchased a WindDance 2 from a Long Beach kite shop. We watched them quickly learn how to fly it -- in 20+ mph winds! They attached big tails to slow it down and to reduce the pull to manageable levels. In that same wind, our well-tuned WindDance 2 was too powerful for us, so we mainly flew the WindDance 1!

In milder wind, we noticed a WindDance 3 flying poorly. We walked over to help. The cause? A half-pound of sand had collected in one wingtip! Before launching, it helps to heed page 21 of the User's Manual: "Hold wing by trailing-edge and shake out any debris such as beach sand."

Experienced delta flyers stopped by to try our demos. After advising all to avoid tension-eliminating advanced-delta techniques and to use tension-generating-&-maintaining kite-FLYING techniques -- especially while flying at the edge in turbulent winds -- most of these delta flyers flew our WindDance parafoils extremely well! Some flew very fast, very tightly, and very powerfully -- much more so than they possibly could have with their deltas!

Two young competition flyers got into the speed & sharp-and-tight turning & power in a huge way! They executed powerful accelerations and turns continuously, digging a pit in the sand with their heels, while flying all three WindDance models! In their excitement they flew themselves into the ground in more ways than one! They had never experienced such kite-FLYING fun, or such a kite-FLYING workout, before!

We talked with a top competition flyer from the San Francisco area who has performed advanced tricks with WindDances, "axels" and others such as the "Black Hole." He proved us wrong about WindDances not being able to do tricks!

In the light winds during the festival, the WindDance 2 & 3 were some of the few dual-line kites that would stay up and fly well.

During the festival's moderate and strong winds, it was very apparent that no other kites flew as fast or with greater aerobatic agility!

Several people -- primarily novices and non-flyers -- remarked that it was obvious that WindDances were the best-FLYING dual-line kites at the festival!

But most experts -- heavily into deltas, the sport's status-quo -- seem to be in a state of denial about how well WindDance parafoils fly.

On Sunday, 20-30 mph winds blew along the shore from the south. What fun!

While flying a WindDance 1 in these winds, to my side a flyer in his 60s flew his new WindDance 1!

The wind was steadiest and most powerful near the water. My WindDance 1, with the bridle setting reduced slightly to lower the pull while maintaining full speed, created as much pull I could comfortably handle while flying in the power zone.

Down the beach, Jeff and Bettie were taking turns flying Jeff's WindDance 2. Every time they turned they got yanked 10-20 ft downwind (due to the "increasing-resistance" steering-&-turning feel engineered into WindDances)! It looked like too much pull. So I power-kited downwind, a fast trip, and advised Bettie, "You know, you can reduce the pull by lowered the bridle setting a little." "I like it this way," she replied, her face beaming with excitement! Later, one of their friends sand-skied on his feet behind their WindDance 2!

Updates:

We learned a few days later that Jeff or Bettie had broken a bridle line during that power fly. We fixed it. One center A-line broke, at the webbing-loop knot. Failure tension in that A-line was about 30 lb, during which the total pull was about twice the WindDance 2's Rated Pull Strength of 133 lb! They were using 150 lb LaserPro Competition lines, which did not break -- excellent lines!

On Seattle's Kite Hill after the festival, we talked with a WindDance 3 owner. He had flown in the same winds farther to the south, and withstood the pull for only 45 seconds before he had to quit!

With my WindDance 1 on 75 ft lines, in those strong winds edge-to-edge passes took about two seconds! That's an average speed of about 75 mph! What about the pull? Low at the edge, to enormous in the power zone, to low at the edge -- all in two seconds! Every turn, and every dip into the power zone, generated a sharp and huge increase in pull! Ultra-dynamic power flying! (In comparison, the usual power flying feels like playing tug-of-war with a telephone pole on a windy day using a strong bungee, boring, especially with a stack of kites.)

In the power zone, pull-turns and pull-push turns created too much pull (power-zone loops were extremely powerful)! So I used punch turns to do sharp right-angle turns and sharp hairpin turns. During those (as well as the power-zone loops), the WindDance 1 was a blur! Perhaps because it was doing around 100 mph or more!

Flying a ten-foot square (ten feet on a side) in the power zone would have taken about a half-second using speed-robbing punch turns. Four sharp turns in a half-second. The WindDance 1 is quick enough. But I am not. Such high-speed precision flying would be a real challenge for competition flyers!

What about landing WindDances in these strong winds? Landings were controlled crashes: after the initial impact, keep it aimed straight down until the bouncing stops!

On Monday in Seattle, we learned that the kite-buggy group had the same winds at Seaside, OR (it's illegal to kite-buggy on most Washington State ocean beaches). One buggy enthusiast did well with a WindDance 3, including tacking back up the beach!

Mid-August, Kite Hill, Seattle, WA

I was flying WindDances, exuberantly with great speed, precise ground-avoidance moves, and snappy turning. Immediately to the side and behind, a competition team was practicing, flying their dual-line deltas.

Two bystanders, who had been near the team flyers, came over.

Remarked one, "We asked them about parafoils. They saw yours, too. They said parafoils are too slow and are not precise enough. WE sure don't see that! Your parafoils fly a lot better than their deltas!"

July 12-13, Westport, WA, kite festival, smooth light-to-medium winds

The competition and trick deltas did tricks and razor-sharp pivot turns superbly, things WindDances can't and aren't intended to do, but our WindDances FLEW noticeably better than the deltas! WindDance superiority in the numerous FLYING-performance qualities listed in the Product brief page played out before many eyes! We will also do this at the Long Beach festival.

The high point? A seasoned delta-kite competitor, a ballet artist, introduced himself as a "FLYER" and lamented how the emphasis on un-flying and doing tricks is moving the sport away from kite-FLYING. We gave him our special tips for flying a WindDance: 1) Do not use the tension-eliminating techniques needed to punch-turn, un-fly, and trick-fly a delta kite. 2) Do use the tension-generating-&-maintaining techniques needed to FLY a kite -- and do go for sustained pull in the "pull" line during a turn or spin, pull so strong it makes the very-fast turning or spinning WindDance generate a loud "swishing" sound! That is, go for the "swish!" He sure did, and made our WindDance 1 & 2 do wonders! He loved their feel! And he showed us how they would be great for ballet competition!

By the time he flew our WindDances, they had crashed hard many times, and were limp & heavy with saltwater & wet sand. Nonetheless, they flew rather well.

Several times during the past few months we've seen advanced delta flyers having a more difficult time FLYING WindDances than novices. Why? The experts used advanced delta skills detrimental to kite-FLYING -- punch-turning, un-flying, and trick-flying tension-eliminating skills -- which caused WindDances to turn poorly, and to collapse during turns and when at the edge. The novices used basic FLYING skills -- tension-generating-&-maintaining skills -- which made WindDances fly wonderfully.

The good news: When advanced delta flyers switch-OFF their tension-eliminating skills and switch-ON their tension-generating-&-maintaining skills, WindDances FLY super-wonderfully -- and considerably better than their hot deltas, especially in pulsing and brisk winds!

As of mid-July, we are now a member of KTAI, the Kite Trade Association International.

June 21, Seattle's Kite Hill, unsteady & turbulent light-to-brisk winds

"A stunt kite depends on line tension to fly. No tension -- no flying."
This is a passage in the first book about stunt kites we ever read.

An experienced delta-kite trick flyer, and a beginner, each tried a WindDance.

The beginner had a much easier time of it! And enjoyed far greater FLYING performance!

As with many skillful delta-kite flyers, the trick flyer used the "punch-turn" almost exclusively: to turn right, you sharply punch your left handle at the kite to release all tension in that flying line while holding your right handle still. Although the punch-turn makes competition and trick deltas turn very sharply, the sudden pull loss abruptly reduces the kite's speed during the turn (this happens with delta and parafoil kites). If the wind is light and the pull is low, the instantaneous pull loss during a punch-turn can cause a parafoil kite to suddenly fold and collapse (but in very strong winds, WindDances require punch-turns). We tried to coach the flyer to lose the punch-turns and to use basic pull-turns instead. But the punch-turn was too deeply ingrained, the push-turning habit too strong. He simply could not do pull-turns that come naturally to new flyers and children. His turns (all push-turns), although sharp, were slow had no exciting high-speed slicing-like-a-sword-through-the-air sound to them, and the parafoil wing often folded and collapsed as the bridle lines on one side of the wing suddenly slackened during his quick control-handle jabs at the kite. He could not do 180° down-turns at the edge at the end of a horizontal pass or while hovering, or fast spins either. Why? These maneuvers require basic pull-turn skill: pull hard on one line as long as necessary, and for a really tight turn or spin let the other line go slack just like in a punch-turn but merely a fraction of a second later. At the edge where turbulence caused the pull to momentarily subside, he nearly always lost control and the kite collapsed. Why? Maintaining good control of any kind of kite at the edge requires basic sensing-&-responding skill: when the pull drops, you move back away from the kite as much and as fast as necessary to maintain at least a tiny bit of pull in your lines to keep it flying and in control. Punch-turning and trick-flying teach you to go for slack flying lines, to go for zero pull = zero speed = zero FLYING. That reflex can really mess you up when you need pull to keep your kite flying, and when you want pull to have lots of fun. With a delta kite he could do tricks like crazy with his advanced skills. But couldn't FLY a kite with basic skill.

The beginner, waving his arms wildly and moving his hands back and forth rapidly as if in a grunge band mosh pit, lacked only one skill -- ground avoidance -- which is not a necessary skill if you're flying a WindDance! Instinctively using basic pull-turn skills and basic sensing-&-responding skills as beginners usually do, his turns were very fast & tight with an exciting shrieking sound, and he automatically moved away from the kite to maintain line tension when turbulence caused the pull to drop when the kite was at the edge. In spite of his extremely rough & wild technique, the WindDance 1 hardly ever collapsed! Why? He never used punch-turns! Beginners almost never use punch turns because they're so unnatural: everybody knows that kite lines are for pulling on, not pushing on. He quickly picked up on doing spins by yanking hard and long on one line and letting the other go totally slack. He also did a few accidental bounce-'n'-flies, as well as several self-relaunches after crashing. As he got better and better at controlling it during that half-hour of flying, the crash frequency steadily dropped. But not a whole lot because there was little incentive to not crash!

These days, there's a major difference between advanced delta flying and basic kite FLYING that's very clear to any observer:

• In advanced delta flying (punch-turning, un-flying and doing tricks, as well as all other "slack-line" stunting), no tension = no flying occurs during virtually all primary stunts; no tension = no flying, and the resulting low speed & pull including while turning, in essence is what you strive for.

• In basic kite FLYING, as in all stunt kiting more than a decade ago, no tension = no flying is what you avoid and prevent in order to sustain good speed & pull.

• The advanced way is the opposite of the basic way!

In advanced delta flying, you abruptly & frequently eliminate speed & pull as much as possible -- because that's the 'hot' thing to do.

In spirited basic kite FLYING, you go for speed & pull as much as possible, and powerful fast turning, too -- for the thrill and the exercise.

Which is more fun? It depends on what you want out of kite flying.

June 20

We now initiate the break-in process here at Seattle AirGear when we prepare WindDances for shipment. In addition, we check for correct bridle assembly and adjust the bridle-setting to the First flight specification in the user's manual.

We crash every WindDance hard -- and loudly -- into the ceiling at least twice (see User's-manual excerpts/Pre-flight page/section). Each 'brand-new' WindDance has at least one second of air time, twelve feet of flight, and two crashes worth of break-in. This improves out-of-the-bag FLYING performance.

We also break in the "bridle adjustment" area of the bridle as much as possible so that the bridle-setting doesn't change as much during real break-in.

June 8, Seattle's Kite Hill, light-to-mild unsteady wind

We had 'work' to do: break in a WindDance 1, 2, & 3 before shipping them to the Sky High Kite Displays exhibition-flying team in the UK.

WindDances must be broken in to achieve best performance. During break-in -- which consists of flying them long and hard and crashing them a lot -- speed and turning keep getting better and better!

While hard at work flying the WindDance 1 & 2 side-by-side -- with lots of speed, tight turning, and close encounters of many kinds -- we had at least two dozen midair collisions! We failed to recover in midair only once!

As usual our aerobatics, crashes, collisions, and laughter attracted bystanders. We put nine of them to 'work' breaking in the team's new WindDances!

Using the WindDance 1, we taught a family how to fly: both parents and their two grade-school children. Even the youngest caught on fast, and instinctively reacted correctly to turbulence-caused pull drops while flying at the edge (something an expert delta-kite flyer failed to do while test-flying our WindDance 2, see May 18, Story 1, below)! Using the WindDance 1 & 2, we taught four teenagers how to fly. None of these eight had ever flown a dual-line kite before! Of course there were many crashes, some pretty hard, but a WindDance needs to be crashed when new. A new flyer breaks in as a new WindDance breaks in. It works out well. Some of these flyers progressed to tight loops, downturns and loops at the edge, and self-relaunches after crashes.

In aerobatic agility and overall zippiness, the WindDance 1 is extremely quick and tight! Once the initial flurry of crashing was over with, the family had no problem handling this hot performance, and all the teens preferred the WindDance 1 over the WindDance 2 because it was easier to fly and more exciting!

The ninth, another WindDance flyer, helped out with the WindDance 3 by performing some violent one-line pull turns and some hard crashes. After each of the crashes, he noticed a slight improvement in speed and turning, indicating that break-in was not yet complete.

We pretty much completed the break-in of the WindDance 1 & 2 here in Seattle. The Sky High team will complete the break-in of the WindDance 3 next weekend in England.

May 31 - June 1

An Australian kite dealer visiting Seattle, looking for dual-line kites that would be exciting enough for the young Australian male, could not find any deltas that would be suitable. The hottest deltas, although hot for competition or hot for un-flying and doing tricks, weren't hot in the FLYING department. All the deltas were "too boring."

On Seattle's Kite Hill, he tried WindDance parafoils. Skeptical at first because no other dual-line parafoils have ever flown well, he was impressed by the high speed, sharp turning, strong and lively pull including the way it rose while turning, edge to power zone acceleration, responsiveness to the wind, wide wind range, and the ability to fly with high performance in wildly unsteady winds! In these major FLYING qualities, none of the deltas had come even close! Effect on the body? "Like working out in a gym!"

He found WindDances extremely exciting to fly! Exciting enough -- and physical enough -- for the young Australian male!

June 1

During a fly on Kite Hill in brisk wind, a WindDance 2 owner had to quit flying because of the pain caused by his strap-loop handles.

Out of respect for WindDance owners, we then added the strap-loop handle safety advisory to the WindDance flyer.

Strap-loop handles pull on the backs and sides of your hands and squeeze, which can cause pain and injury. Even the wide and padded models do this. It happens even if the handles are used the correct or safe way. The sport has known of this product-safety problem since at least the early 1980s. We learned about it in the first book on stunt kites we read.

The sport desperately needs a good FLYING handle. Bar handles with cord at the bar ends don't feel right during arm-down pull-turns. Regarding bar handles with the cord at the middle, the cord cuts into your finger when you turn. Replace that cord with webbing and you have the handle we recommend (see User's-manual excerpts / Line & handles page/section). Hopefully soon, someone will seize this business opportunity and produce & distribute handles like these by the thousands.

Sunday May 18, Kite Hill, Seattle, light puffy wind -- Story 1

As usual, WindDances were flying with greater speed, agility, and responsiveness to the wind than all the other dual-line kites including the hot deltas.

On days with stronger wind, especially strong unsteady wind that shows off the high performance and ultra-wide wind range of a WindDance, the difference is even more striking. Then, well-tuned WindDances fly with dazzling speed and agility, and shriek like jets! And pull like crazy, especially while turning! Even the small WindDance 1 can pull like crazy -- in really strong winds, the WindDance 1 has yanked big guys off their feet and dragged them across the ground!

In such wonderful and exciting FLYING winds, delta-kite flyers typically fly differently than WindDance flyers do. Delta flyers un-fly and do tricks (and experience low to zero speed & pull in the process) rather than FLY their kites (to experience high speed & pull, aerobatic thrill, and a good workout). Or when FLYING, delta flyers can't keep up with the wind changes -- can't reset their bridles back-and-forth fast enough to maintain good flight performance, and can't switch back-and-forth between their specialized light-wind, medium-wind, and strong-wind kites fast enough to maintain good flight performance. Or if something breaks during a gust or a hard landing, delta flyers must take time out to replace broken spars or search the field for parts that fell off. Or delta flyers try to fly as fast as WindDances, but can't because their kites are designed for competition or un-flying and doing tricks rather than to have good FLYING performance, and because their kites are "overpowered" by the wind, i.e., suffer large performance losses from being severely distorted by the forces of flight.

On days with winds so light you feel wind in your face as you walk downwind from your handles to your kite, the WindDance 3 flies well when light

Some delta flyers really like the way WindDances FLY! And some don't.

Two delta flyers test-flew a WindDance 1 & 2, and just loved the speed and turning!

A trick-flying guru then came over and tried our perfectly-tuned WindDance 2. He flew mainly near the edge of the flight envelope where a kite's speed is low. When he flew briefly near the power zone, the WindDance's speed became impressive, especially when mild gusts hit, and he remarked about the "serious speed and pull." But overall during the entire time he flew, the WindDance did not turn well. And it collapsed a lot. Cool tricks that WindDances do well in light winds -- spin-stalls, tail-down spin-landings, and relaunches -- were not done at all. In his hands, our WindDance was not all that fast, didn't turn well, collapsed very frequently, and didn't do tricks. He expertly made our WindDance look like a terrible kite. We all saw it as his way of saying, "WindDances certainly do perform as advertised!"

All the while nearby, a beginner who had purchased his WindDance 2 two weeks before put on an impressive aerobatic show -- high speed flight every which way, fast-&-tight turns and spins, sharp & snappy 180° down-turns at ground level including near the edge -- all without ever collapsing his kite! His WindDance looked like a wonderful kite!

How did the beginner out-fly the expert by such a huge margin?

The expert used advanced-level delta-kite-specific competition skills, un-flying skills, and trick skills -- which WindDances don't like -- and appropriate basic FLYING skills, that beginners quickly learn, hardly at all. Plus he avoided the high-performance area of the flight envelope.

The beginner used the basic FLYING skills in our user's manual! And he flew and tightly maneuvered all over the flight envelope, especially in the high-performance power zone!

Sunday May 18, Kite Hill, Seattle, light puffy wind -- Story 2

For us, WindDancing side-by-side is much more fun than WindDancing solo! The aerobatics get pretty lively! Sometimes midair contact occurs -- light touches to noisy collisions -- that we usually quickly recover from and keep flying.

On past days, delta flyers, seeing how much fun we were having, tried side-by-side flying. But the snagging during midair touches -- kite on other kite, kite on other lines -- plus the clattering of spars and the spar-against-sail sounds, spelling out the good chance of damage during hard collisions, usually quickly convinced them to go back to flying separately and solo.

After our perfect head-on collision just above the power zone -- purely accidental, very loud, and totally hilarious (to us, anyway) -- we grew faint from laughter! After a non-recoverable collision like that, it takes only a few seconds to sort out the mess and set up for more fun!

Two couples came over, remarked on how much fun we were having, and each assured us they were going to buy a pair from Great Winds Kite Shop!

"It sure looks like fun! Where can I get one?" asked a bystander. We recommended the WindDance 2, and he dashed off to try to get to Great Winds before they closed!

May 18, Questions from flyers & retailers

"Are WindDances for real?"

Yes. They perform as advertised.

All you have to do is break it in (which involves crashing it!), tune it for peak speed, and use the basic FLYING skills in our user's manual!

Beginners can become hot aerobatic FLYERS in a few hours!

Expert delta-kite flyers have to be careful to avoid certain skills that WindDances don't like -- such pull-and/or-push timing and punches and jerks that simply do not work with frameless kites -- and to use the appropriate FLYING skills as well as advanced skills and trick skills that WindDances respond well to. We have watched trick flyers FLY WindDances far more skillfully than we can! With WindDances, expert delta flyers can do ultra-tight-turning high-speed aerobatics that are truly amazing!

WindDances don't require a light touch. During fun-inspired accelerations, turns, and spins, you pull suddenly and hard, even in light winds! A one-line yank-'n'-pull (the other line goes slack), for a sharp 180° turn or for spins during which the wing is a blur, is not delicate in the least! When you drop a handle, the WindDance usually keeps flying, spinning in one spot! WindDances merely require a kite-FLYING touch!

"If I buy your product, will I be a guinea pig?"

No. Although WindDances are new in the marketplace, from the product-development and mass-production standpoints they are fully mature and well proven. (For the WindDance and Seattle AirGear stories, see the Seattle AirGear web page.)

Consistent high performance and high quality are assured. Beginning in 1991, Seattle AirGear developed these parafoils using innovative and careful aeronautical, structural, and quality engineering. The product is highly refined, and thoroughly flight, strength, and durability tested (see Field reports web page). Several quality-assurance measures are incorporated into the product itself, and into mass-production tooling and processes. Pre-production quality-assurance production-test runs were made. Those kites passed with flying colors, and all (except one we are keeping for ourselves) have been sold to dealers.

Our first shipment has arrived, the second is due shortly. We flew several randomly-selected WindDances. All kites of the same model performed identically, and as advertised. We checked many bridle-line lengths. All were very accurate. Why the superb consistency and accuracy? Our quality engineering and the way production is set up. With WindDances, accurate and consistent wing and bridle manufacturing automatically happens, sort of like a factory stamping out car fenders.

Before we ship WindDances to customers, we check for correct bridle assembly and adjust the bridles to the First flight specs in the user's manual. The kites fly well right out of the bag. Even if flyers never adjust the bridle and never read the user's manual, WindDances will fly fairly well -- but not superbly at their full potential.

During test-marketing, WindDances sold well! They are currently selling well! At Great Winds, at a rate that is very high for new product!

Think about it: Here in Seattle, a hotbed of delta-kite development and trick flying, WindDance parafoils are selling extremely well!

WindDances almost have it all! Their only performance weakness: They cannot turn quite as sharply as dual-line deltas; rather than turning around their centers, they turn around their wingtips. And they're not good at un-flying and doing tricks.

For high-performance FLYING, remarkable crashability, wide versatility, and prices that are low for the value -- nothing else comes close!

If flyers like what WindDances offer -- and if they like the thrill of having new state-of-the-art airgear that may rock the kite world because parafoils are not supposed to fly better than deltas -- WindDances could become highly popular and the kites to buy!

WindDance dual-line parafoil stunt kites/sport kites are developed, sold, and backed by Seattle AirGear.
WindDance, WindDancing, Seattle AirGear, and AirGear are trademarks of Seattle AirGear.
Copyright © 1995-2017 Seattle AirGear.
This page last revised Sep-30-1997