So I'm finally getting the hang of flying and skiiing behind my 9m PL GII (purchased from Kent at Winds of Change).

I find the kite bowties and inverts pretty easily on the ground, especially if I'm in it's lower wind range and am having to work the kite hard to get power from it. The low winds make it hard to work the lines to flip it around, cuz there's not enough wind to blow the kite out and then it also starts to loose pressure and shape, making it even harder to work the kite around. I end up staking the kite, walking out, sorting it out, and relaunching. It feels a lot like the antics one goes through relaunching a nose forward 2-line stunt kite back into the air without doing the "walk of shame." My 4 line foils never need this attention, 'cuz you can reverse launch.

Anyone have any tips? Would a fifth line to the leading or trailing edge at the center make it easier to work the leading or trailing edge back into position after an inversion? Any thoughts or experience would be appreciated.

BTW, it's set up on a 55cm Airrush bar with 15" chicken loop line throw and and 8" depower strap adjustment. It seems to work best with front lines on knots 5" above the stock leader knots at the kite, otherwise it stalls and reverses before the bar is fully in even with the depower strap fully sheeted in.

Thanks,

krumly

Sounds like your line attachments are set up right. One thing to check with all the Peter Lynns is the intake vents. Sometimes when they are new the vents can be stuck together or even stuck behind the braided strap that runs from tip to tip. If the vent is stuck it may not inflate properly and it won't hold the air inside the kite like it should. This makes inflation a little bit harder as well as keeping the kite inflated in the air. You can reach up through the zipper to check the middle vent but you have to work the others on both sides with your hands to make sure they are laying out completely flat inside the kite.

5th lines do not work because the kite is not rigid like the LEI kites are. A 5th line will also put all the stress on a single point in the center of the kite which could possibly rip or tear your kite at that point.

A couple launching tips:
Use plenty of sand/weight to hold the kite down during setup. Lay the kite out and then fold the upwind tip over about 8 to 12 inches and put a good solid weight on to hold it down. The weight should be in the middle of the kite or towards the trailing edge a tiny bit depending on the amount of wind you are going to be launching in. Put extra handfulls of weight on various parts of the trailing edge until the kite is firmly set on the ground. For weights you can use sand or fill plastic soda bottles with water/sand or fill softer bags with rocks. Some use ankle weights or other. I love the bags full of rocks or water bottles because nobody will bother taking them when you are out flying.

Once the kite is staked down, run your downwind lines along the trailing edge of the kite and bury them good and solid so they will not flip around while you setup.

Make sure your launch angle is good, minimum of 45 degrees from the wind direction, sometimes you may need to adjust this angle to more or less depending on the conditions and how full the kite is. If the kite is very full (near 90%+) then get a little more angle 50-55 degrees. If the kite is less full then you may need to be around 35-40 degrees.

Launch good and solid. Pull up the downwind tip and step back while driving the kite towards the edge. Make the launch in one good solid motion so the kite can take up shape right away and move towards the edge of the window. If you launch to slowly the kite will half-form and start to drag directly downwind which could give you a hot launch. Snap the kite into position quickly. Because you folded over the upwind tip, when you pull on those lines the weight will simply roll off the kite easily and will not hang or drag the kite while you launch.

Once launched, let the kite hang out low and on the edge while it finishes filling up. You will need to keep a little bit of rear line tension while the kite fills to keep the wing tips from clapping together. While the kite fills don't try to flip the kite around to quickly or it can collapse or invert on you. Once it is full then you can get as aggressive as you want.

Relaunching:

If the kite happens to invert on you while flying just carefully land the kite directly down on its leading edge and walk forward a couple steps. The trailing edge will flop down and the leading edge will pop back up and the kite will automatically re-invert itself back to normal flying position.

If the kite crashes belly down, the thing you want to do is to get the kite into the "taco" position. That is the kite folded over on top of itself with both ends even. You can pull in one side of the kite (usually the downwind side) and it will tuck itself under the kite and the kite should fold over into the taco. When in this position you just give BOTH leading edge lines a good solid pull and the leading edge of the kite will pull around into the wind and the kite will open up and launch. Once the kite begins to launch it will be just like launching it off the ground. Drive the kite up off of the ground with good rear line tension on the tip in the air so that the kite flies towards the edge.

One thing to remember is that the Peter Lynn's are awesome high wind kites. Unfortunately they are not the best performers in the super light winds. With proper technique you can get a lot better low wind performance from the kites but it does take a little work. In the stronger winds the kites totally rock!!! Light wind flight can be a little misleading because these kites fly so well that they can actually be launched in winds that are so low other kites wont even fly. Just because the kite is flying does not mean it is optimal winds for that kite. The 9M GII has been flown in winds upwards to 35mph + on water and still rock solid and smooth. Flying this kite in winds under 12mph is pretty darn light and it will be difficult to keep it in the air without really good flying technique....but it will fly!!!

In light winds you will do better with a much larger kite but even the larger sizes still have a minimum recommended wind range even though they will also fly well below that minimum recomendation. The new Venom II and the all new Scorpion kites have much better low wind performance and grunt than the previous models of ARC's and this has been a main focus of the Peter Lynn R&D department. All of the PL's fly awesome and are the most stable and forgiving kites on the market. If you are having some difficulty it may be that you are flying the kite too far below the suggested wind range of the kite.

Kent -

Thanks for all the additional launch pointers. I have found ground handling is much easier and inversion/bowties much less in higher winds; both because they don't happen often when the kite is full, and if they do, the full kite and higher winds makes it much easier to get it back into position.

I was flying it in variable winds from 8-12 mph, and that made it tough to get any power. But I could still ski behind it because I only weigh 127# sans gear.

And thanks again - I did notice one LE vent was bunched around the strap and didn't want to straighten out in light winds. Working it out by hand helped keep the kite full.

Gotta say I like how it autozeniths and sits up there while I put on my skis, hands-free.

krumly