A few weeks ago, I got an email from Natalia Bykova, asking about 'kite-flying lessons' for her husband Alexey. He normally enjoys flying his HQ Crackerjack kite on the beach, and is eager to get to 'the next level'. She found us through the interview we gave to BBC Russia when flying at Streatham Common Kite Day in 2016:
I told her we could easily give Alexey pointers as to how to improve his flying, and, if he is interested, give him a first taste of team-flying. That sounded perfect to her, so we arranged a mutually suitable date to meet up at our flying field at Stokes Bay, which was this past Sunday. And, as this was done with a STACK banner flying on the field, I guess it can be called a 'mini bootcamp' ('mini', because done for one person, for one day).
Alexey's Crackerjack is not currently in Britain. but as we happened to have a Crackerjack ourselves (which used to belong to a former team member who sadly passed away a number of years ago), we brought that, and asked Alexey to fly it for a bit, so we could gauge his level of flying.
Turned out Alexey had good basic control, so not much we needed to do there. I noticed that he snap-stalled the kite regularly, but then never did what I expected him to do, which is to axel it. When I asked him, he said he didn't know what an axel was, but given he can snap-stall the kite, teaching him how to fly axels seemed like a logical step.
Alexey learned really quick, and within an hour-and-a-half or so, he managed to axel the kite repeatedly, and on both sides of the wind window!
He obviously needs to practice more, to make sure he consistently gives enough slack (he had the occasional tip-wrap due to not giving enough slack), but he definitely notched up his flying skills!
Time for lunch ...
Following lunch, we set up three of our Skydog Dream On kites, to give Alexey his very first taste of team-flying. After some initial pair-flying to get him used to the kite, the longer lines and to explain the basics, we threw him right in the middle of the team.
Starting with flying infinities, we went to boxes, ladders, jumps and team wraps. Stick practice was used to clarify additional figures such as threads and cascades.
For someone who has never flown in a team before, Alexey did amazingly well. Of course he made mistakes ("Alexey, the other left!"), but he never panicked and never took the whole team down.
As we packed up, Alexey said that team-flying was so much more fun than solo flying! I think the mini bootcamp we organised really got him bitten by the team-flying bug; Natalia told me that he was buzzing all the way back home!
Picture credit of us in stick practice: Natalia Bykova
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