Date: Thu, 21 Jul 1994 06:41:32 -1000 From: ag436@leo.nmc.edu (Ken Nealy) Message-Id: <9407211641.AA03122@leo.nmc.edu> Organization: Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University Subject: Black Hole Stunt * WOW * Every ounce in a while something comes along that really excites me. Despite my previous failed attempts to perform the Black Hole and a virtually sleepless night (I was dreaming about the Black Hole), I headed out to one of my favorite local flying field with 2 objectives: 1) Learn how to do the Black Hole 2) Evaluate some minor tuning changes on a prototype kite that I am developing (90" wingspan). For the sake of this discussion, I will refer to this kite as "Ralph". The first order of business was to evaluate how Ralph was going to handle. After about 10 minutes I was comfortable with how Ralph was handling so it was time to try the Black Hole. From a downward path, I snap turned Ralph 90 degrees at about 30 feet above the hard deck - I thought that this would give me a chance to figure out how to handle the kite in the downward portion of the move. Wrong - in a blur, Ralph completely disappeared from my field of vision. Doing an instant replay, I seemed to recall that Ralph was headed for the hard deck with its spine parallel to the ground. Immediately, I had a few thoughts: 1) *** WOW *** This is a really neat move! 2) Was I going to need an excavator to retrieve Ralph? 3) I had better figure out how to control this move. Yup - you guessed, I broke Ralphs left foot (lower left leading edge spar). Since the winds were light - variable - gusty - 2-8 mph, I set up my Skyburner II Ultralight (G Force II ultralight frame), no field repairs for Ralph today, I had to work on the Black Hole. This time I tried The Black Hole from about 10 feet above the deck and nailed the landing. Yup - a big wing kite did the Black Hole. After about 30 minutes of doing the Black Hole, I broke down what I was doing into a couple of excercise steps. I would highly recommend trying to learn this move in stages. First a word of caution - this is an agressive high impact move that needs to be done sharply with crisp authority and without any hesitation - if you have a fear of the hard deck or question your ability to handle your kite in any way, do not even think about this since even a slight mistake can do a lot of damage to your kite. As a point of reference during this discussion, from a downward path we are turning the kite right so that the nose is pointing to the left in the left half of the window. Step 1) The objective of this exercise is to snap turn 90 degrees from a downward path at an elevation such that when the kite has completed the turn, your left wingtip is only an inch or 2 above the ground - then nail a wingstand landing with absolutely no percievable forward or downward motion after completing the snap turn. During the downward path of the kite, WALK forward slowly - you do not want to depower the kite, just maintain a constant speed - snap turn right 90 degrees by using a push turn (push left - return left hand to center) - immediately after completing the snap turn, push out with your right hand to land the kite. The kite should appear to turn and stop instantly in a wingstand with the spine parallel to the ground. When you can confidently do this 800f the time - go on to the next step. Step 2) The Black Hole is done as indicated above at about 10 feet above the deck with the addition of one move - after completing the turn and before pushing out with your right hand, pull agressively with your left hand to pull the kite out and start the downward drop immediately following the pull, push out with your right hand. It is extremely important that you do not permit the top (right) line to become tensioned during the drop. If you do, the kite will turn left - real fast - and it will also get intimate with the ground - just as fast. I would highly recommend practicing step 2 at about 40 feet above the deck - on the edge of the window - do not worry about a little forward motion or if the drop is a little slow. That is what we are looking for here. The objective is to learn how to control the drop - notice what happens when you get just a little tension on the top (right line). A big wing kite may be helpful here since a small kite would be a lot faster. If you get in trouble here - get the tension off the left line fast. Major Tips - WALK forward during this move - DO NOT allow tension to develop on the right (skyward) line during the drop. Finally - when you put it all together, you have the Black Hole. It is an absolutely incredible sight to see. Clearly, small kites lend more of a magical appearance to this move because they drop real fast. However, my Skyburner II really likes this move also. Good Luck... P.S. Bert - I hope this helps, let us know how you are doing. Ken Nealey ag436@leo.nmc.edu = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =