shaggs2riches - 5-6-2011 at 10:54 AM
While attempting to ride in low winds, do you want the trim pulled all the way in or let mostly out?? My thoughts have been that you would want the
kite completely depowered to avoid backstall. I pulled the speed2 out for a ride on the atb. The wind wouldn't even ruffle the material on the kite,
but it launched easily and sat at zenith with just a little input. With it fully depowered the kite would fly fast to the edge of the window and lose
power. If I had the trimmer pulled mostly in I could finesse the kite enough to get rolling and eventually park it. If I crashed the kite I would have
to depower completely to reverse launch, while running back hard. Seems that there is some theory behind finding the right position to have your trim
set. Anyone able to explain this????
flyjump - 5-6-2011 at 11:36 AM
You need a big kite and a hard surface to ride on. Lol
yeah there's definatly a fine balance in there for those low wind days. It seems like every kite has it's own sweeet spot for days like that, and it
all depends upon your weight and surface you ride on
macboy - 5-6-2011 at 01:42 PM
I remember at the kite fest a couple years ago seeing Mike launch an SA2 19 to go "rescue" some skiiers that were demoing and got skunked. I just
happened to catch him tweaking the trip strap after he launched it and noted that he took a few cracks at getting it "just right" - whatever that was.
So I know there's gotta be a trick to it. My thought was always depower for light winds, power up in strong and depower again if it's getting too
hairy. Thing is I keep flying the SA too depowered and it overflies and bowties........LOVE the bridles when that happens......
If I recall the rule of thumb is that you want to be able to just backstall it when you fully sheet in? Never put this theory into practice however.
The overflying is one of my primary concerns with hitting the water with the foils until I have the board skills locked. The Arcs, no problem. Not the
FSers though.
revpaul - 5-6-2011 at 03:06 PM
you guys are correct. (i might have my def of low and high Angle of Attack [AoA] mixed up)
low AoA = kite is parallel to ground
high AoA= kite is perpendicular to ground.
t'was around the time when i got my Blurr (adjustable AoA) and actually played with the settings that i found i did not understand what AoA and
apparent wind was. i had it all backwards before partly because i did not know about/account for apparent wind and partly because i was just not that
smart
.
i wrongly thought a kite should be more perpendicular to the ground (high AoA) in order to 'catch' the maximum amount of available wind especially in
low wind since ther is not much to fill the sail.
i was informed and found it to be true that a kite (both FBs and depower) worked better with low AoA (parallel to ground) in low winds.
this low AoA let's the kite 'glide/float' easier and you then get your power from it's 'apparent wind'.
i almost always find all my AoA adjustable kites (FB and depowers) are set to the low end of their AoA settings for buggying (low rolling resistance).
to set the depowers trim i adjust the strap all the way (out or in[?]... i cant' recall how it works know it's been too long) so that the kite
overflies very easy then i trim back a bit to counter the overfly issue a bit. for skiing (higher rolling resistance=need more power) i actually work
the trim strap more often to get more power when needed.
later,
BTW anyone want to trade a small hobie (wave) for my traction kite stuff? i'm keeping the stunters.
Kamikuza - 5-6-2011 at 10:50 PM
What macboy said - I think the rule of thumb was something like you should be able to sheet in for a second or two before it starts to stall ...
That's why I prefer harder steering on the FSer kites for now - to get used to the feeling of the bite point, so I don't choke the kites ...
PHREERIDER - 6-6-2011 at 05:33 AM
light air/ apparent wind riding , def smooth surface helps.
kite needs to be trim to "less power" so air flows over the top easier as stated above.
getting it moving and keeping it moving and once you are moving its a tedious balance of point of sail line and kite movement. constant slight up
wind feed. and have to use the entire window.
too much resistance all stalls. really have to allow things to move first, and as apparent wind builds resistance can feed into upwind point of
sail.
WORK, BALANCE and KITE SPEED.
John Holgate - 6-6-2011 at 02:46 PM
I found that a 30m set of lines and lots of big fig 8's and loops generated enough power with the 6.5m Method to get me going in a lull. Needed to do
that for quite a while before I picked up enough speed (and hence apparent wind) in the kite so it would park 'n ride.
Also - I always had to downturn it away from the edge of the window just before it got there - otherwise I lost all my power and stalled the kite.
shaggs2riches - 9-6-2011 at 05:43 AM
In winds a bit bigger I was able ride okay, I had to make very small dives otherwise the kite flew to the far edge and fell out of the sky. If I had
more room, I would have went upwind. Not at a great speed, but I could have done it. I think in these low winds, my truck need to be tighter. I found
myself unintentionally driving upwind too fast while trying to keep tension in the lines. Its not the most fun, but better than on the couch.
PHREERIDER - 9-6-2011 at 06:30 AM
keep the kite busy in the powered sweet part of the window. you have to work the kite deeper in the window and use small point of sail adjustments.
terrain can foul apparent wind threshold.
truly mowing the lawn, a little bit at a time.
in a small spot its all about transitions, really a point of balance, smooth action and continuous. once you start you CAN"T stop..or all stops.
sometimes you may have to wait on the kite to come around if you let stray out of the sweet spot but remain balanced on the board. its a little dorky
but the your body will gain from balanced form and kite guidance even with STATIC action standing on the board, promise
http://vimeo.com/18976286
if you can do it SLOW and BALANCED ...added power and speed will seem effortless
rinse and repeat til .... something else phills your head. thats progression