Any tips to help pre-inflate an arc in very light winds...

Battery powered leaf blower

7mph is the limit and patience.
if there's not enough wind to inflate it in about 5-10min its gonna be a challenge. if it doesn't hold the fill open after the first puff or so considerable effort to fly will be the order of the day'

leaf blower saves time but you still need 7mph to fly with a decent fun factor

Yup. The rule is "if it'll fill, it'll fly" but that only counts if mother nature fills it.

I use a leaf blower. It takes 30 seconds to fill the 15.

Around here there are some days at some spots with next to no wind down low and you can be almost maxed out with your big kite at kite level. The winds will often be rock steady too. Most often happens in late winter, early spring or mid summer. Even the trees will not give you the full story. For the guys in the know, they will launch a kite before deciding to make the drive home. :D

We have one launch that is slightly shadowed if it's got a little too much south in it, so the leaf blower come in handy there too.

Quote:

Originally posted by macboy Yup. The rule is "if it'll fill, it'll fly" but that only counts if mother nature fills it.

yeah I agree with this.

I've even had some days with the 12m Phanny where I got it up but I couldn't keep it up because the wind was too light

I can definitely agree with the need to inflate at a shadowed launch though.

I've actually been out in conditions before with my 15m P4 where I was riding powered but if I crashed the kite on the water there was barely enough wind down low to relaunch it.

Hand-held battery-powered leaf blower fo sho.