I was just about to head out for my second landboarding trip of the year with one of my friends who is getting into kites and decided to take my f-arc 1200 instead of my guerilla 15. Winds where light, around 8-15 mph, so I figured that it was time to test the 1200 on a board. I got out to the field and set up and was wondering if I should have brought the 1600 instead it was so light out there. I got her up and she had very little pull.... till she got moving. Running and doing a few practice jumps I got 5-10 feet off the ground and was feeling confident. I hopped on the board and starting rolling. 2 runs later, I felt ready to fly. I set her back and up I went.

And up. And up. AND UP!!! Before I knew it I was over 3 stories in the air. My friend was yelling and as I turned to glance at him, I saw the top of the 33 foot tall street lamps on the side of the road. The kite was at the edge of the window at around 10:30 position and I was starting to spin. I panicked and kicked off the board on accident. Now I was really scared. I was really, REALLY scared. I had the kite to the side of me rather than above me to act like a parachute and no board to act as a shock absorber with the ground. Thing could not have gone worse.

I quickly turned the kite toward zenith and swung to the left and dropped 10 feet and stopped spinning. I sent the kite past zenith and redirected twice more. I landed surprisingly on my feet and was uninjured. My friend ran up and was very concerned for me. Once he knew I was alright, he could not get over how high I was. I casually walked over to get my mountain board and noticed the truck looked a bit crooked.

Forget crooked, it was almost in 3 pieces! The hanger was broke off the board at the bushings and the piece that broke off the board would have been in two if there wasn't a steel rod in the cast aluminum. That ending the session and we packed up and where gone within 30 minutes of arriving.

What really surprised me what how high I went in 15mph winds. I have went out without a board in 25 plus mph winds and have never went that high. Does a board really make that much difference? Or is the f-arc a beast that can't be tamed? What else could have made me go so high?

F-arc is a beast.

So glad I haven't bought someone's f-arc off them yet. Thanks for the story! That sounds horrifying. Are you sure there was no gust that lofted you?

That story is F-ARCical...

I'm not sure how high you were when you got lofted but it looks like you were pretty high when you posted :P

:o

WOW

:o

Big points for keeping your head together and flying it out. Sounds like if you gave up a 10:30 and twisting it would have turned out worse? I have never been put in this spot and only hope I can keep my wits about me. I have pulled it off when lofted to about 20ft more than that would give me too much time to think / screw up.

Is it possible you were in a thermal and that is what was adding to the lift? Going into a jump with speed always takes me higher naturally, but something else was taking you up past 30ft?

Thanks for sharing that.

Eegad snake! Glad you're okay!

F-arc has a ton of lift and glides for days. Love that kite!!!!


15mph for an F-arc isn't what I would call "light" winds. And a gust factor 8-15 tells me there's potential for a random higher gust. From what you described it sounds like you got caught in a thermal maybe? Had a similar instance a while back with my 1200, cut it loose and the kite did a little of what you described but I didn't go with it.

Either my F-arcs/bar assembly is tuned differently or your F-arcs are like the one that I took in trade and the one Cheddar has. Dog ears off.

I'd be hard pressed to manage my 1200 in 25mph winds with my skis on locked into hard ice. Static flying in that with mine would be impossible for me. On the other hand the new 1200 with the ears cut off that came in that batch that was brought in to Vegas and dumped is completely nutless as well as earless. Flys like a Phantom 1 (kinda).

Curious.

I don't know that one "Tames" an F-Arc. Maybe one comes to an "understanding" but I will say that I'm always a little more cautious on the F-Arcs than I am with any other kites.


Glad you still have all your fingers and toes.

Inland winds can be strange. I flew double length lines last year and I found it hard to keep on the ground even with the bar out. The length of lines made a big difference. Something strange goes on up there.

@Snake, what a ride! I had a similar experience once, but with another arc. The lift was so gentle, I never realized I left the ground (I wasn't attempting to jump; I was static flying trying to see if the kite I had was too much or not :-) ). Fortunately I kept a cool head and came down only slightly worse for the wear with a swollen ankle to land on. Gusty winds are obnoxious.

Feyd, I'm interested in what you mean by ears off / tamed f-arc. I had my first shot at flying one recently and it was a very different kite.

The bar was huge by modern arc standards and filling/launching was an art form, though I learned it's quirks quick enough. On the f-arc itself, it definitely could pull, liked to sit way back in the window and was brutal if you made any mistakes. It doesn't tolerate static air, and goes nuts when you give it some love building apparent wind much like the original phantom.

Cut ears...

On the original F-Arcs, they came with some huge triangle flaps on each end that was used to connect the flying lines to. The material flaps had some webbing sewn through them for reinforcement. These were referred to as the "Dog Ears". What people found out is that in wind, they would flap a bit and actually slow the kite down a little...and could be quite noisy. They can be easily removed from the kite with a hot cut knife and then use some pigtails to attach your flying lines to. This mod does give them some improved performance and has no negative side effects on the kite or flying. It actually helps keep the bowties down a bit as well.


I am super happy that you are ok Snake....what a scary ride. One thing to remember is that the F-Arc's love to get moving. Speed = power and the more speed the more lift. It does sound like you may have hit a gust or thermal at just the right time to get you up that high. But I have flown F-Arcs enough to know that when you hit it right, they are like a high speed elevator for lift. Awesome kites, but ones to be careful with too.

You've been flying those suckers for a while now, so I'm going to with thermal.

Glad you're okay, man

Any landing you can walk away from :D

... I want an FARC now :D

New mood?

ATB,
Sam

So if you kept the kite overhead in this situation would it stall? Would it twist or want to fall off to the left or the right? Would you keep the bar sheeted right in or right out? The FSer manual says "Relax, you've got a paraglider over your head" but all the intentional flying I've ever seen - the kiter is constantly swinging the kite around...maybe they don't just sit there overhead so you need to keep flying it side to side? Is the goal to just keep it as overhead as possible?

I got lofted by the Psycho 13 and to this day don't know what I did nor what I 'should have done'. Not nearly 30 feet but high enough to poo my drawers ; )

In my case - definitely a little thermal pocket of some sort. Glad you're OK Snake.......

Some do, Mac... some don't. Have a Youtube for erm Strawberry Ridge? There's some place in the US with a fruit name that guys soar off, and they don't loop the kite around much.

FS are different kites. Highest lofting I've had on the 21, I kept the kite above me and end up gliding backwards to the water.

But an arc? How do they react? Especially one with that high AR :o

It could have been a gust or a thermal. I don't think it was either or they are only part of the story.

The weird thing is I barely moved downwind and it seemed like I went slightly upwind while going up. The wired thing I notice about my F-arcs is that the jumps are very vertical and they want to keep moving. As long as they aren't stalling they will try to go into the wind. If I run about 45 degrees upwind keep the bar out and just redirect, most of the time I will land further upwind than I jumped from. I have started gliding upwind halfway through a jump before numerous times. I am thinking that how sheeted in you are affects is you go upwind or down wind to some degree.

When I jumped and got lofted up, the trimmer was over half way in. The lines went from slack to taught in about 3/4 of the throw of the bar. I was riding upwind a bit when I jumped. Could this have been the right conditions to cause an upwind jump and lift me like in the top hat video?

I suggest you keep this, your own, post in mind when recommending F-arcs to relatively new kiters in the future. It sounds as though you were very lucky to walk away with no injury at all. New riders may not be so fortunate. These are not beginner kites regardless of how affordable they are.