harry.allerston - 11-1-2006 at 01:50 PM
Is a 7m firebee going to let me do jumps on a board? if so how big, how floaty, what winds do i need for decent airs... and of course how do you
actually jump whilst moving on a board?
on another note.. how psychotic will my friends 10m wipika air blast be with a board.. we're wondering whether to use it on land. any tips for
handling LEIs on boards?
Scoopy - 12-1-2006 at 06:14 AM
Leis on land in a beginners hands sound like bursted bladders to me. You can certainly use an LEI over land, but be very careful to keep it off the
gound. Also Lei's are hugely innefficent (dont know that I spelled that right) They are much less power per meter than a fixed bridle kite. Just
about all de-power kites are this way.
Jumping a board-
http://www.kiteatb.co.uk/_basics/jump.html
some really good beginner articles there, just take away everything after uk to go to the first page.
A firebee will get you off the ground as will any kite, but not made for lift like some other kites. If your going to jump, do it with a kite
designed to generate lift, not one that will get you off the ground and drop you.
I believe firebees were designed more as a buggy race kite.
Scoop
harry.allerston - 12-1-2006 at 10:56 AM
cheers scoop. do you know what the helll 'projected area' means? cos my friend just bought a wipika air blast LEI off ebay and it said it was 14m and
10.4 projected. i know that LEIs are less powerful per square meter than fixed bridles, so in fixed bridle terms what is this equivalent to?
Scoopy - 12-1-2006 at 09:09 PM
Every kite is different, but Im going to say Leis are probably close to have as much as a high performance fixed bridle. Probably somewhere around a
7m, but it again depends on the kite. The newer LEIs are better and better than before, getting more power per sq meter.. but then again, so are the
fixed bridles.
Projected area is what they project how much of the wing is used. The flatter the kite in the air, the higher the projected area, meaning more of
whats up there is being used as a wing. Most LEIs are very curved, meaning you cant get power or lift out of a wind that is vertical to you.
Scoop
LEI's, why its not the best choice
Bucky - 20-3-2006 at 10:18 AM
Hey Harry,
The thing you want to know about LEI's is that they're ineffecient on purpose. And that ineffeciency takes the form of much less increase in power as
the kite begins moving. The reason is that out on the water, you need a fairly stable and uniform amount of pull, (otherwise, you'd sink every time
you turned or tryed running upwind) This is why they are so big (lots on constant power): So ineffecient (so you're not too overpowered when you get
going): And mechanically depowerable (so you can get air only when you want to)
On land however, we don't have to worry about sinking underneath the sand if we don't maintain power, so we can afford to lose much more power at
times. Consequently, we are able to use much more efficient, and therefor smaller kites (i.e. foils) that naturally depower when we stop moving them.
Conversely, we are able to generate LOTS of power by increasing the kites movement (i.e. looping) or by putting it deeper into the window. This is
what makes foils so ideal for land use.
This is also why comparing the relative power of LEI's and foils is so hard. A 10m LEI inflated, but parked on the ground, will generate an identical
about of pull as a 10 meter foil in the same position. Once launched however, the foil's increase in power will far exceed that of the LEI's. And
because it's exponential, as the wind increases, so does the difference in their power.
As far as "projected" area verses actual area. The easiest way to think about it is: Actual area is amount of area the kites takes up when laid out
flat on the ground. The projected area is the amount of space that the kite "appears" to take up when in the sky. (Scoop's definition it technically
more correct though
)
Hope that helps. Later.
harry.allerston - 21-3-2006 at 10:25 AM
cheers for that