Depending on the severity of the OBE shows now you might be able to hang onto it or it might be ripped from your hands and end up with a few broken fingers.
I know one of my AQR's broke my little pinky finger because the handles were ripped out of my hands so quickly and severely.

Quote: Originally posted by bigkid

Depending on the severity of the OBE shows now you might be able to hang onto it or it might be ripped from your hands and end up with a few broken fingers. I know one of my AQR's broke my little pinky finger because the handles were ripped out of my hands so quickly and severely.

Yes this is sort of what I see as a downfall of the system. Whenever my chicken loop has popped accidently under power BAM. I can only hope my mind set would allow me to let go of the bar? Kind of counter intuitive at the moment I think?

I thought the same way with the strop falling out of the spreader bar hook. Things changed when the power is on and it unhooked with a bit of power. Of course I can speak with the knowledge of both types of an OBE. The one that was kinda cool how I landed on my feet and walked away from it to the one that in all rights should have killed me. But who cares, right?
The AQR is not for everyone. And it's up to you and nobody else.
The law says I have to wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle, I say no. A state or country can't tell me to wear a helmet when they condone ....... Wrong place to argue my thoughts about life....
Don't use a quick release or use one, it's your choice. It's my choice to use one. I fly larger kites than others in the same situation and I travel at higher speeds than most. I don't worry about being overpowered and enjoy the ability to max out the kite and break lines, and kite parts along with sliding sideways for dozens of feet while waiting for the buggy to catch up with me and the kite.
Not everyone goes Mach 10 with their hair on fire. I'm still working on the Mach 10 part.:evil:
Just saying...

Ken, I've been pulled out while hooked in, and I've had the loop fall out leaving me holding the bar.
In the first instance, I couldn't get to the release fast enough, and in the second I gripped the bar even tighter (but did manage to get the loop back in the hook).
I like flying (handles and bar) with just finger tips, and I'm hopeful that not having to worry about an OBE will let me realize that the kite's leaving for a reason. I will be able to let the 5th line do its job, and then reel it back in.
(I'm looking forward to WBB to really test it out, but hopefully I'll have a couple of sessions at home sooner than that.)

Any updates on the prototype?

I did manage to get in one session at home (with my 7m Lynx) to make sure that the AQR worked before heading to WBB: pulled my butt up out of the seat and the kite went away; reset and threw the kite up overhead and the kite went away. So far, so good.

So...
I rode depowers with the AQR for five days in Wildwood, and I never left the buggy unintentionally. Winds were generally light, but there was a while where I went from 11m overpowered, to 9m well-powered, to 7m (at which point the wind switched off) underpowered - in about 90 minutes.
Through the week the AQR let the kite go once (though a turn that I thought I had under control - I guess not), and held on a couple of times that I was sure it was going to let go - I guess I never came out of the seat far enough to pull the AQR trigger.
I was concerned that there might be more of a reach required to the end of the bar throw, but without the spreader hook the chicken loop was actually closer to me. The only "issue" I had was that connecting the 'biners to the safety line, when wearing gloves, was occasionally a challenge.

(I also flew my Reactor for about half an hour with a strop - my first time ever with a strop. Seemed to work, but I still think I'll keep my FBs to handles without being hooked-in.)

Survey says?
It seems to be doing exactly what I need it to: keep me in the seat, and let the kite go when I don't.
The intangible "feeling" I had was one of greater safety in as much as I have always been concerned about being hooked in with a chicken-loop and not being able to get to the safety fast enough.

Sounds like its going good Howard! Thanks for the update.

Howard,
Sounds like the anchor strap is a bit long. The 5th line connection was a concern during the design phase, that's the reason for the multiple mount points for the beaner to connect to the 5th line ring. You wear gloves?:o
The beaners that are used are designed to break away if you stand up and need to get away from the buggy without disconnecting. Any thing bigger will not break away. Anything over 5lbs of strength is too much for the Beaner. The snap shackle only requires 2 pounds of pressure to release the kite while not deforming or breaking if you forget to unhook before you try to walk away. I modify the snap shackle and pulley block in order to work with the AQR setup.
Glad it worked for you.:D

Quote: Originally posted by bigkid

Howard, Sounds like the anchor strap is a bit long. The 5th line connection was a concern during the design phase, that's the reason for the multiple mount points for the beaner to connect to the 5th line ring. Sounds like the anchor strap is a bit long. The 5th line connection was a concern during the design phase, that's the reason for the multiple mount points for the beaner to connect to the 5th line ring.

I had it loose enough so that there was a little "give" - the beach had some mini-dunes, and I wanted to be sure that the release didn't pop when I got just a little "light" in the seat. But it was tight enough so that my hips didn't get over the side rails.

Quote: Originally posted by bigkid

Howard, You wear gloves?:o

It was cold for the first couple of days. I might be Canadian, but I hate the cold.

Quote: Originally posted by bigkid

The beaners that are used are designed to break away if you stand up and need to get away from the buggy without disconnecting. Any thing bigger will not break away. Anything over 5lbs of strength is too much for the Beaner.

I did manage to stretch one out - I'm likely going to have to get a small supply of them.

Got lots in stock, want a lime green one? Maybe red, blue, black.......

What is stopping you from hooking a shorty leash up the same way you hook up your killers on your aqr? The chicken loop can hook directly into the snap shackle and you have done zero modification besides removing the pulley from the equation. It wouldn't add any length to the bar throw since you are already gaining ground on how short the D-spreader is compared to hook, and you have no pulley, so the bar should be little to no distance farther than if you were using a traditional hook spreader. The aqr would not know the difference as all forces would essentially be the same in relation to what happens from the snap shackle down to the seat.

Your depower setup from the chicken loop to the kite would be no different either. Your safety would still run from the chicken loop up to the kite, so you could still swivel the bar and chicken loop just fine. I've got everything I would need for doing an aqr setup with my depowers or my fb without any modifications.

Try it out and let me know how it works. Or doesn't work

I don't see how it wouldn't work. What problem do you have with it? You don't need the chicken loop to fire to release the kite. The safety line is just a passthrough, and you can trigger your safety by unhooking and just letting go of the bar. I don't see a way that this is prone to failure unless there is something I am missing.

NONE of the snap shackles are set up for this procedure. They are designed for use on a boat. That's why I went through every single kind of snapshackle and quick release before I ended up modifying the snap shackle that I use. It's not quite as simple as just a few parts Off the shelf.

It isn't as easy as do this, do that, don't do this.
Sorry to be in your face with this. Unless you actually do it, thinking about it, reasoning about it, or reading what somebody else did, doesn't work. It's all about practical application. So to explain why it works, what needs to be done, doesn't work in everybody's mind. If that was true I had a bazillion ideas that worked on paper but not in practical use. It was only after hours and hours in the garage connected to a high-speed winch that most of this became apparent to myself and the poor kid I was jerking out of the buggy. But the truth to the matter came out at the beach. And all practical application, that's where it was fine tuned. I did the beach testing, with a carbon fiber chest protector, a full face helmet, and the phone dialed to 911 and the specific instructions to the two people watching, to call the hospital no matter what, was the only way to find out.
All of this testing was done prior to my ribs being healed. That's how serious I was about this and how much I trust it now.
After all the testing in the garage and at the beach there was still time to go back and redesign it and retest it before I came up with an actual application that worked.
I didn't just come up with the idea for Howard with out real time testing. I did go out and tried it out before I redesign it an a second test to make sure it would work.
With all I did won't amount to a hill of beans if Howard doesn't communicate with me while he is actually using it. That means hooked up in the buggy to the kite and on the phone talking to me.
If this system is installed EXACTLY as I specify, I guarantee it will work. If anyone installs it different, then the world only knows what will happen.

I wouldn't want to bet on your life, that's why I bet on my life. It works.