If you are referring to my reference about reaching up and grabbing some brake line I may be misunderstood.
What I was referring to is a very low wind situation and usually a big kite. In this case I am usually running with the trim strap almost closed in, leaving the back lines a bit slack and sluggish. I should have stressed that you reach up and grab the brake line that you want to turn on to speed up the turn.

Apparent wind happens by combining your speed on land and the speed the kite is traveling through the sky with the wind itself. Speed = Power!
Diving the kite speeds the kite up. It now sees a combination of the wind speed and it's speed of travel. Use that boost to increase your ground speed. On the next stroke the kite will see a combination of your gained ground speed, the wind speed and the speed the kite is diving at .Try and sort of coast while keeping tension on the lines as you sine ~ the kite back up. On each consecutive dive work at increasing your ground speed on the power stroke. With a kite that feeds on apparent wind after a stroke or 2 you can set the kite and gain speed by pumping power with the bar and your track.

Quote: Originally posted by Bladerunner

If you are referring to my reference about reaching up and grabbing some brake line I may be misunderstood.

No sorry I was thinking about fixed bridal kites and the brake lines
All the best
Woody

Love the discussion guys, keep it up.


Bladerunner, what happens if your kites doesn't have enough energy to fly back to the top of the sine wave. I'm thinking there just wasn't enough wind but I would like to confirm that thought.

As long as you're moving you can bear off, away from the kite to maintain tension as the kite rises towards the apex. Followed quickly by a dive into the power stroke at which point you can either maintain your line and build speed or resume your predive line and maintain your momentum.

This said, "apex" of the sine can be a bit of a moving target. If you can't fly to a high apex, you fly up as high as you can, just short of causing stall, and then dive the kite. The initial power increase will be minimal but it's still an increase. And through repetition, the speed should increase resulting in power increase which allows for speed increase and so on.

Another technique is as Blade described. "Cheating" the lines or reaching up and grabbing the center line leaders (we're talking depower in this case) can encourage a momentary surge in power. Similar to trimming in a little bit to change the AoA of the kite but faster and more flexible.

Here's an example. Lots of line cheating and especially at 4:20 where I made the mistake of uplooping the turn in wind too light. :duh:

https://youtu.be/faCAZM85bfo

Light wind flying is the hardest to get dialed and will make you the best pilot you can be in the shortest amount of time. A lot of finesse is needed to get the most out of a kite in light winds. But You can fly rigged for the gusts and make the best out of the entire wind range on a light wind day.

Its also important to keep the bar and lines from getting tangled or caught on your harness, spreader bar, and buggy/ATB when doing this because the bar can be hanging around your knees.

Some artful arc work there!

Is it just my perception or was that Eric guy being a bit of an :moon: at about 3:20? He seemed to be giving you very little rom below him. I know he would have lost some speed with the kite higher but??? Hopefully you are friends and he was just toying with you?

Thanks, Worked that arc hard in that race.

Never met the guy in my life before that interaction. We met up afterwards and had a light hearted discussion about it. He fully admitted that he was trying to block me out and was a bit surprised when I was willing duck his bar and squeeze through. He said that beast of a LEI would never have gotten back in the air if we touched and crashed so he was happy that it went well.

He's a good rider. Flies predictably. I knew I could get that 24m by if he didn't twitch. ;-)

That was some great flying Chris - a lot of fun to watch.

I'd love to make it up there one of these years for that race - looks like a great time.

nice to take that run with you Chris - when you were passing under I was thinking of some tricks from rokkaku kite battles of using your line to catch an edge of his kite from behind as you raise yours to slightly pivot his into a downward turn .... but maybe that would have been illegal. Didn't matter, you squeaked through.