So... Over here in good ol' Idaho I have flown in so far 3 different locations with my kite and what i have found is that even though I had a good amount of wide open area at the park i was at, the window kept changing locations. It could just be the Idaho weather but I'm wondering if any of you (inlanders) have this happen to you? It's kinda weird when you're flying and you go back to the window and realize it's not as strong as before, then you go about 90 degrees over and WAM you get hit again. Might just be considered "dirty wind" from the location or it might be something I have to deal with because of idaho weather.?

obstructions can change the wind direction for sure. While water skiing, I have often marveled at how the wind can blow down the main channel and down a perpendicular cove as well. could make kiteboarding at the lake interesting.

Even on the coastal beach the wind can clock around- not often but it happens. Last weekend in the time it took to set up a customer's new kite, the wind changed from due south to east, and it was clear sky with no obvious frontal activity.

I kite inland and have had the wind do nearly a 180 in me within ten minutes! Yeah its notrious for being gusty, and shifty.

Alright cool, good to know i'm not hallucinating

Hey f0rgiv3n,

As you can tell you are not alone. Just yesterday I experienced exactly what dylan had mentioned. Man, was that frustrating. On days that are steady and one-directional, I feel blessed.

I often like to think that if I can fly my inland gusty shifty winds, I can fly anywhere. Figure it's going to make me that much of a better kiter. After all, anyone can fly calm ocean winds :singing:

hahahaha, here here!

With my 3 times out with kites and many times out kiting the paraglider, I, locally, get 90+ degree wind changes a lot....and the gusts....which scare the nose hair off of me if I'm hooked into the paraglider!! :o

My first question on this forum, as a brand spanking new newbie, was will this be fun inland when it becomes "gusty"....or will it be frustrating....or will it be "gutsy"?!?!

It's fun!!

Lobo :singing:

The larger the kite, the more trouble the gusts cause you. More important is the difference between the normal winds and the gusts. It can be very frustrating and scary at worst. With a small kite, the power doesn't go from not enough to way too much as bad as a big kite will do. I read somewhere that the power goes up exponentially when you increase wind speed or kite size, so you can see how you could get in trouble with a big kite AND big gusts. Size your kite that day for the gusts and you can still have fun without hurting yourself or tearing something up.

BeamerBob is right about sizing fixed bridle kites for the gusts, not the lulls. It generally works the other way around for depower kites - you go out powered up, with the ability to depower in the gusts.

In central Minnesota, winds are usually gusty. I've found the opposite of what BeamerBob found. When the wind is listed at 25 mph, that means a range of more like 18-36 mph. When it says 10 mph, you may range from 7-14. You get spanked worse on the small kite if hit by a gust. Lift is proportional to velocity squared. Lift is only linearly proportional to kite area.

I prefer PKD Broozas as a fixed bridle kite for our gusty conditions. Moderate aspect ratio, pretty darned fast, rarely overfly the window, and the small openings slow down collapse if they do. I also like my PL Guerilla II when the winds are above 10-12mph, and am getting into LEI bows (1'st generation Cabrinha Switchblades and Crossbows), which totally depower if required.

krumly