The story of my day....(sorry if it gets long - thanks in advance for reading and offering your wisdom)

So, I managed to take what should have been an epic day and turn it into about 90 minutes of struggle with some bonus spaghetti and a broken boot cam mount.

Winds steady from 18-27km/h (okay - a little gusty but not out of my comfort zone). Took out the Access10. Launched it from the edge of the window (which went well by the way), hit the power and rocketed off faster than I've EVER been. Got about 30 seconds out and got yarded. Snapped the camera off my boot, pulled me out of one ski and then dragged me for another 50 feet before I was able to release the primary.

Overpowered? How's that possible? To make things worse, the kite kept flagging up and spinning, yanking me further downwind as I was trying to get to my lone ski and then the camera. I decided after a good struggle and a tight bowtie in my pretty new kite that I should pack it up and grab the Rage.

Hooked in with a strop (first time on the Rage). Got off like a rocket with the Rage too but not bad. Heated up quickly, looked down saw a bigger han average bump that I wasn't ready for - got yarded by the Rage. Today I learned the value of the Wichard. Not happy but glad I had it.

The Rage flagged to hell and back to the point that I actually rolled the kite up, disconnected all the lines and spent 30 minutes sorting out the spaghetti.

aaaargh.

Got the Rage all sorted and flew "home" without the strop. And the return trip went fine!? Got to the pit and thought, "Let's try that again then" and I turned around and went back out across the lake. Not bad. Back and forth three more times, back to the pit to rest and take a drink and then back out this time with the strop again. No issues. Upwind like mad (for me anyways) and no real issues feeling over powered.

What's the deal? The Access "should" have a wind range of 8-40km/h and I got beat up by 25-ish? The Rage just yarded me because I had the brakes too tight - letting them out the kite was able to get out further to the edge of the running window - when they were too tight it just yanked me sideways in a gust. My deduction anyway.

Here's what I noted though. Once I got the Rage back up I was careful about things and left it out at the edge of the window, pulling it back by braking a bit to get some power out of it. Is this what I should have done with the Access? Keep it out at the edge of the window? I inadvertently had the trim in the fully powered mode but that shouldn't be enough to throw the kite to junk. I can't tell you where it was when it yarded me but I assume it was in the powerzone. (A lot was going on in a short time.)

I digress....is this how to fly in stronger winds? Keep it at the edge and slowly work it back into the power like I did with the Rage? (That's how the LEI guys do it, no? I know they launch at the edge...) How do you "work back" a depower? Same as the Rage? Just pulling in the bar (the brake lines) and watching it creep back into the power?

Thanks for the read and any help. The other guys out there make it look so effortless - I must be doing something awfully wrong. Surely I can handle the Access in up to 30km/h? Is it just a matter of me getting used to the speed and the power of a 10m perhaps?

Maybe it was karma getting me back for sneaking out of work for the afternoon.....

To paraphrase an old saying : somedays you eat the kite, somedays the kite eats you....
Whats not to like, a day on the snow with wind beats hell out of working !
When that stuff happens to me I just sit down for a little while think over what happened
tell meself not to do that again. Then I go out and get beat up all over again. Ain't life grand!

macboy, don't get down on yourself. I'm in a similar position in that I'm pretty new to the sport and flying a new Access this winter. Mine is only 8m compared to your 10 and I feel that it's quite a jump to go from a 4 or 5 meter fixed bridle kite static flying to an 8m kite on skis. It's a whole lot of kite in my opinion.

Are you a proficient skier? I am not (haven't been out on the slopes in about a decade and I was no good back then) and I think that's a lot of my problem. I become overpowered easily because I'm not great at carving on the skis to shed the speed. I don't have the lower body strength or balance to dig in when a gust hits.

Using the kite as an engine rather than flying static adds to the learning curve too. I'll get cruising and then accidentally ski towards the kite and luff it sometimes.

I'm also finding that flying a depower is a whole different animal. Knowing when to pull the bar, when to let it out, when to milk it, when to trim it, etc. is taking me a while to get used to. Sometimes I think I'm pulling it when i should be letting it out and I stall the kite.

Anyhow, I was out today in very gusty winds (from 8 to 18 mph) and was pretty frustrated myself. It was stop and go for me and finally I got yanked over and dragged and had to pull the primary safety (which is unfortunately my favorite feature of the Access so far). Very frustrating and I can't say that I didn't think about posting it for sale when I got home. However I packed it up, static flew my 3m Beamer for a little while and settled down and now I'm ready to get out there next time it blows and try again.

Thanks for the encouragement guys. Seems I was just not paying attention and skipped step one - "launch in a controlled manner" ; )

I was out Saturday for the entire day. We started out at 30-40km/h winds so I unpacked the Rage and flew static as I watched in amazement how everyone with their 13m+ Flysurfers and LEIs were just puttering around, grabbing big airs and not having any issues. It occureed to me that they were all keeping the kites out on the edges of the window - not surging straight down into the powerzone.

The winds progressively lessened to the point where by the time I had the nerve to get back on the skis with the Rage I was working the death out of it just trying to keep moving. Got back to the ice screw and packed up the Rage to swap it with the Brooza sitting in the car. Got to the car and figured I didn't want the kite to beat me so I grabbed the Access instead.

I had read through the manual the night before and learned of these things called "loops" on the brake lines that I could pull back and latch onto the bar ends - who knew. Imagine what I was doing before and how frustrating it was: I'd hook into the chickenloop and try to walk (on the skis) up to the primary pulley so I could pull it back, load it while holding the handbrake and then take off. You don't say it was beating me up. In fact this maddening bit of idiocy was the primary reason I packed it up was because it kept flipping and reverse launching on me as I was trying top get up to load the primary. In the strong winds that day, a reverse launch was not so much fun.....

Anyway, I learned a few things. 1) The starting range for me to even take the Access out from this point forward will be 20Km/h steady; 2) When you hook the brake line loops to the bar ends she sits parked nice as can be just like the fixed bridles I've come to love so much and 3) I'll make sure I can hold it at the windows edge with ease for extended periods before I step into the bindings so I am sure I understand the wind.

Thanks again. I'm glad I took it out. Would have been silly not to and had I not I might have then let the reluctance grow like a cancer in me and kept waffling away from unpacking it. It is a beautiful kite - just need to know how to use it. Now to replace the shattered camera mount ; )

i had a bad day yesterday 18mph with a arc 1120. i know how you feel. just keep on trying and like ted said a day of kiting with wind beats a day of work any time.

Sure does. Thanks for the encouragement gang. As it turns out I went out on Saturday and was greeted by hot winds (30-40 km/h). I rolled out the Rage and flew static for a while before stepping into my skis. The winds had progressively lessened and as soon as I got going on the Rage I had to work the death out of it to keep me powered enough to move. I packed it up, went to the car for the Brooza but grabbed the Access instead. Glad I did. I was a little scared of it at first but after watching all the others out there with their 13+ Flysurfers I figured I'd get it up, fly it static and take things from there. I ended up stepping into the skis and had a good hour of great skiing in good clean-ish 15-20 km/h winds.

Glad I "got back on the horse" - it's a beautiful kite. Oh - and I had read the manual over again on Friday night and learned of these things called "loops" on the brake lines that are to pull back and hook onto the bar ends to park the kite. I had been "parking - if you can call it that - by releasing the primary so you can imagine the steps I was taking to take off, right?

Hook in and load the chicken loop, step into the skis, walk up the lines to grab the primary loop to pull it back and load it as quickly as I could just in time to hold on, bear down on the skis and get going. Don't know how disaster didn't hit me harder. It's so much easier to park the kite with the brake loops hooked on the bar, hook in, step into the skis, take a deep breath and drop the brake lines.

Amazing the little things that make such a big difference.....*lesson learned*