Kites For What Purpose

[TargetZero]

forgive my ignorance.but could some one please explain thier usage please.thanks perry

[Java Falconer]

It is used to train falcons to gain height as much as possible in order to be able to stoop well when in hunting days.

[Jack]

The kite is your friend if you are training a long wing. I never used it to gain pitch. I have never seen a falcon actually gain pitch by it's use. I use it simply to teach wait on. If you intend to fly game from a wait on, there is no better way of training for it than the kite.
First, rather than toss pigeons and the lure in hopes of getting the falcon to catch on to what you want, you can put her exactly where you want her, when you want her there. I start out by using tiny tidbits. I will run my kite up to 1000 feet, which is much higher than you would think. The kite is just a place to tie off a line to, nothing more. I start by tying off a short line to the main line with a piece of toothpick tied to it for sticking on a tidbit. I can push this short line up and down tha main line as needed. I will load it and let the falcon pick it off. I do this a few times and then start letting the kite line rise with it. Eventually I push the short bait line up to about 200 feet. Over a few days the falcon will be going up to get the tidbits at 200 feet. I will eventually put the kite up and move off down wind of the bait line and plant a launcher. For the UK guys, you can simply use the lure. I will put a well flighted pigeon in the launcher. I then put the falcon up to chase the bait line. Once he takes the bait, he will eat it and go back to check for more. Once it is determined that there is no more, the falcon is free to stoop the launched pigeon or the lure. I have used both, and the lure works just fine. What this does is teach the falcon that if it takes a particular position above you and wait on, something good will happen. A few times of this and you have a falcon that will wait on. I have achieved this end with a falcon and a tiercel. And it only took a week to do. From there you can work on pitch.

Jack

[Java Falconer]

Sorry I was wrong...

So it's used to teach longwings to wait on. I was thinking it's to make them getting higher and higher pitch so they can stoop well. I've just read that some people using tossed pigeon (Racing Pigeon) to train their longwings getting high pitch.

[Sprout]

With any motivation to go to the lure suspended below the kite, my falcon will refuse anything else put out below him - he continues mounting to the lure. I use te kite purely as a fitness aid, nothing else. I find it builds up fitness rapidly before moving on to traditional training for waiting on etc

[Jack]

It is because of this that I work with tidbits that can easily be taken off the line. Nothing will deter the falcon from the lure. And most can not be detered from a tid bit. I wait until the tidbit is taken and eaten, and they when the bird returns to check if there is more, as soon as she determines that there is no more, I will then before she moves out of position, toss the lure or release the baggie. The falcon can then be free to stoop from the pitch it holds. Some people here use a lure to get them to go way the heck up there. Then they put the kite up and no lure, then they bag the falcon. Problem with this is that as soon as the falcon finds out that there is no lure up there they refuse to climb. Not allways, but most of the times I have witnessed. So for this reason, I will train only for wait on. I then try to let the falcon climb higher each time before flushing game. The first falcon I trained this way was a big Altai Saker. She was never taken more than 200 feet into the air. 200 feet is very high when you know the exact height. The day I decided to drop the kite and fly her over game, she mounted to about 600 feet, which is way the hell up there. And she killed the first duck I flushed for her. A week earlier I could not get her to go up more than 10 feet from the ground. Tossing full flighted homing pigeons did not work. A kite used like I use one will make short work of training a falcon to wait on. I keep a kite. Not an expensive one either. I think I might have paind $20 us for it. I love my kite.

Jack

[Mark Collins]

Fitness first and foremost , kiting teaches a falcon how to climb ,use the wind, teaches it to fly into the wind , down wind , side wind, young falcons are not very confident when they first go loose and will land or , fly quite low , i train most of my falcons to the kite and i dont fly game , they get fitter quicker, the fitter the bird generaly the better the flights, mark.

[Barbary Boy]

dosnt anyone stoop thier falcons to a lure these days? it gets them fit enhances footing ability and in my opinion is more demanding for the falcon rather than just ringing up! not knocking kiting, its a great aid to getting your bird "up" if thats what you want?

[TargetZero]

ive just downloaded this ,puts a new spin on kites in a way.it takes a while to download(hours) but worth it http://www.mininova.org/search/?search=TERMINAL+VELOCITY

[Jack]

Flying to the lure actually takes a lot of skill. Not many do it these days. Great care must be taken that a fast, hard footing falcon does not pull off a talon. I think most people do not lure fly a falcon because they are not good at it themselves, and then some believe that flying the lure will lower a birds pitch. It will to some extent, and it is detrimental toward game flights. If you are flying a falcon from the fist at birds that are already in flight, then you would do well to lure fly them hard so that they can develop their flight skills and footing.
Forcing a quarry to ring up by crowding it in the open, or slipping at rooks and crows that are already in flight or moving about in the open. These flights do not require a falcon to wait on, but they do require the falcon to be strong and fit with great footing skills. With wait on falcons the first stoop is the most important one and if this one misses, the odds of success drop drastically. Very few of them are going to fly down a quarry if they miss the first shot. A kite will indeed make a falcon fit, but it will take the place of flying game. Unless of course you do not fly game. I personally could not imagine keeping a hawk or falcon without flying it at game now and then at least.

Jack