So you want to Axel, the trick that is called the “Gateway to Freestyle Flying”! There are many ways to look at the axel and many ways, and explanations on how to do it. So to be fair, I’ll just give you just my take on how I approach the Axel. Winds should be moderate to low; I find it easier with lower winds. I expect that you can fly around the window without any trouble and that you can somewhat stall the kite anywhere in the wind window, and you know how to get your hands back to neutral. We’ll be using the 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions to start with since it will give you a better feel for the move, then we will work to start the Axel from the 12 o’clock position. That said, let’s get started.

First let’s fly our kite towards the right edge of the wind window and watch the kite. When it starts to slow down turn the nose up and walk a step or two towards the kite to relieve tension on the lines. This will actually stall the kite and give you a feeling of the kite not flying. Just don’t let the lines go slack, just relieve the tension on the lines. Notice that the nose of the kite will naturally turn towards the center of the window, in this case towards the left. If it doesn’t turn towards the center of the window, you’re probably going too far to the edge, remember I said to go to the right until the kite starts to slow down, not go to the edge. Now let’s do it again several times so we get a good feel of getting the kite to stall and to get our feet moving.
Now let’s add the inputs for the axel. Fly to the right and do the stall thingy we just worked on. Now keep your eyes on the kite. When the nose of the kite naturally rotates to the center of the window, wait till the nose is at the 10 o’clock position and pop your right hand and at the same time give slack with your left hand. Wow the kite did this goofy thingy and floated to the ground, try rethinking your right hand “pop”. It was actually too hard, it’s more of a medium/soft pop. Let’s try again. OK, fly to the right, stall, 10 o’clock, pop,….AUHHGG! Tip wrap! Ah, I see, you forgot to slack the left hand at the same time as the pop of the right hand. So, let’s do it again, so this time when the kite is pointed at the 11 o’clock position, start slacking the left line so you won’t get it wrapped around the tip. Pop the right hand and you should see the kite go into a nose away belly down position and continue to rotate back to the nose up stalled position just like when you started the axel. Oops! It didn’t go around and stopped in a nose away, belly down position, ( good place to pull both hands and bring the kite to a fade. But we're not working on that!! ) well, after your right hand pop, you need to bring your right hand to the neutral position to slack the line. After the pop, both lines should be slack, so if the winds are up, you may need to move forward to maintain the slack. Now let’s do it again and remember the slack and foot work! Fly to the right, stall, slack left, pop right, slack both, watch kite rotate, the kite is almost pointing at 2 o’clock, take up slack, and fly away! (Remember that different kites require different amounts of slack, so pay attention!!) Congratulations, you just did your first axel! Good job, now let’s do it again and again, and again. That’s good, now do it on the left side and do it the other way but this time pop your left hand when the kite is at the 2 o’clock position, and start slacking your right hand at the 1 o’clock position. Note: As you get used to doing the Axel, you will start working towards starting the Axel at the 12 o’clock position. Start the Axel at the 11 o’clock position, then work it to the 12 o’clock position, then do the same on the other side. Soon you will be Axeling from the 12 o’clock position in either direction.

Once you can do it on the left and right sides of the window, try axeling the kite the opposite way. On the right side of the window, pop your left hand to make it rotate to the right. The more you do this the more you will see how much slack is needed and how soft the pop can be. Good Luck, and remember to have fun !!

Great lesson! So are you saying if you pop the right line, the kite kite rotates around to the left and if you pop the left line the kite rotates around to the right?

Thanks!

Hey Reggie,

Thanks, always the right details are in there.

Cheers,

Iddo

yet another great explanation Reg. I'd just like to say these lessons of yours are invaluable for learning, or just to go back as a refresher, reading what one does put into words, and easily understandable ones at that, is really good stuff. Thanks dude, you da man.

One question....do you find the setup that Dodd does necessary? In other words, right before the pull or pop to rotate the kite, he teaches to slightly push back first, then the pull/pop to rotate the axel. I suppose this helps in getting the high wing/low wing situation, where the higher wing is the one pulled and rotated.

Bill

Thanks all, for the comments and support, Bill, I really don't use Dodd's stuff since I have great teachers like Matthew, John and Jim. I just take what they taught me, take what works for me, then develope the lesson. As for what everyone else teaches, it's their preference. I just like to break it down to the easiest moves to get the job accomplished and then to perfect it. It's hard to perfect the Axel if you can't even do one.

Tony, WD is right on, pop right , spin left, pop left, spin right.

Iddo, Glad you liked it.

Jayson, Now you are the MAN! Less than a year and you're teaching already!! I may have to pass the torch.

Jim, As always, your input is always invaluable.

WD, My ol'friend, Jump in any time. Your input has helped so many people. Keep it up!!

Reggie - Nice choice for #6...

I thought I'd keep up my usual of chipping in on these lessons even though my first axel was a while back (still working on them though).

For me there are the standard keys to axeling - stall, then pop and slack, but from continued variation in inputs, I conclude that the absolute must is slack in the off hand (once again slack-line tricks need slack - and once again the obvious stikes the centre of my forehead). You need to understand what you want the kite to do, and then relate that to what the bridle (and hence the lines) need to do. You want the rotation to go via a flare position (nose away belly down). To get there from a flying position the kite needs to rotate about two axes simultaneously. Not only about the yaw axis (that's what I'm calling it anyhow - the one the kite turns around in a normal flying turn) and the pitch axis. So it turns out, the axel has a pitch component! And we know that to get a pitch rotation you need slack (like a flare or a backflip). The trick with the axel is that you need to do both at once, so that means slack on one wing and a pull on the other. This isn't as hard as it sounds, actually if you put slack in both lines and then pop one, the kite will start an axel. To complete the axel, the popped wing needs slack, otherwise you "choke" the rotation early and invariably spear to the ground or tip-wrap. Of course, theres a cool bail out if you spot that the kite isn't going to go much past the flare psotion - a pull on both lines will pop the kite into the fade from which a lateral roll gets you back flying for another go!

There was another thread on axels a little while back - I include my thoughts on tip-wraps for the sake of completeness.

That's all from me for now!

Enjoy.

Quote:

Ben, as I said earlier in another thread. Yo must be a great flyer, if not yet, really soon. Thanks for the input, it really goes along with the lesson, and I like it when people chip in with there comments.

Thanks again!

Reggie, I've been trying the axel with no success.  I look forward to trying your axel lesson when I get the right wind!  I've printed it out to take to the field!

cheryl

Thanks for the tip on not going to the edge of the window.  This is what I had been doing earlier.  Yesterday I had a little bit of flying time.  I tried the first step in your lesson (I had forgotten to bring the print out.)  I got the sense of flying right (not to the edge), stepping forward and feeling the kite flatten a little bit.  I don't yet have the sense of the kite turning toward the center of the window.  I might have managed a very slow axel.  Not sure.  There was barely any wind.

However, when the wind picked up a tad I managed a Flare to fade!  It just happened  .  And it was a beautiful thing.

Anyway, following your lesson I can see that I am getting better at stalling and experiencing slack lines.  I'm almost to the point of axeling.

Thanks for your great instruction!

Cheryl

Reggie... Thanks for a Million things... first, taking the time to talk to me... turning me onto the "Forum"... Taking my E2 for it's Maiden Flight... Great Advice and now Great Lessons... I just printed off 1-6 and praying that works SLOW and I'll have time to read them... not only today, but I'll carry them with me... along with "Conceptual Kiting"... Wow... You've given me alot to work on... I'd better head out... thanks again... kraig 

Reggie these lessons are great. on Monday I was able to pull off the axel twice, after only an hour of tip-wrap spiral of death to lawn dart combos.  Seriously though, you do make it very clear for us newbies here in lesson 6. Considering that I am very novice at this, I'm really surprised that I even did it. If I only had the time I need to practice. thanks

OK, I tried this lesson out again--light winds (the weather web page said 10 mph but I don't think the wind was that strong) .  I was able to fly right, turn the kite up, watch it float to 10:00.  Then I did the right pop, left slack.  The kite went around with some coaxing.  So does it sound like I did an axel?

The left side of the window seems trickier.  I'll get it to the flare stage but I'm not getting it to go all the way around yet.

Anyway I'm making progress

Cheryl

Hi Reggie,
was flying a standard in 2-5mph (broken LLE on the Zeph) and I practiced the axel exclusively, each time I would try one on the right side then fly to the left an try another one. Here's wath I was doing, stall the kite on the edege of the window at 12 o'clock take one or two step, then pop and slack. Wow !!! I can axel they are ugly definately not flat but they are doing a full rotation.

Wish you good winds
Martin

I'm finally getting the hang of doing an axel thanks to your instructions. But I have noticed on most of my kites, the axels are doing a slight nose up spiral rather then a completely flat rotation. As far as I can tell, this seems to be the nature of most new school kites, and that's fine. I was wondering if adding a little nose weight instead of tail weight would flatten out the axels. I was thinking  of  trying this by adding a few wraps of solder to the spine at the nose and holding in place with some tape. Worth trying?

Martin,

OK. I mis-read your post. Try more slack with your off hand, that may flatten out the kite. If you can do a 540, you can see if the kite likes to rotate with the noves slightly up or not. I do notice some kites rotate flatter than others, but I just make the adjustments and move on.

I started in other way............ going to the right and turning the kite outwards  . Latter on I realize that it was the other way around, It wasn't a long time ago, but now I can do it both sides in both directions.
Thank you I follow you since the 1st lesson and you became a better writer.......... put all the lessons together and you have a book.......
TX
Adrian

Well DW, I don't think I'll be writing a book anytime soon, but I thought I might add some video with narration. Anyone willing to hold the camera????

Adrian, Thanks, but I think I should spread the thanks to WD, Ben, and a few others for helping to make these lessons better. How are you doing on the other lessons??

You'll need a good zoom lens since I'm in Seattle!!!

Good job, I actually encourage feed back on the lessons so when people read them they can get a better perspective other than just mine. You should post your thoughts or comments in the lesson the comments pertain to.

Ben did a lot in the fade lesson.

I have to tell you that I am reading again since lesson #2 and thinks make more sense now than before (long winter in between jajaja)
Thank you for words
Adrian

PS: I am flying a Quantum, do you think that other kites allow to make trick easier?
My other kites are lighter since here in NJ sometimes we have no wind.
TX.