Self Landing Speed 5's

[foilholio]

If it took off in reverse/inverted that was because you had too much rear line pulled. You'll have to work it out with your strap, but with the ball setup if the kite trim strap is fully out it should sit nicely with the bar fully in and both rear leader lines held in the center i.e. next to the chicken loop.

You could get it back on the ground by letting the rears out to open it up and landing again. Maybe try securing the chickenloop and landing strap together so the fronts have some tension and rears less. If you walk to a kite and that happens you can flag it by grabbing and pulling either front or rear single one or both from one side which is easier to hold. Never wrap lines around your body parts!

It can be easier not to secure the kite. Only if the lines are secure can it fly. Merely walking hand over hand up the lines, if the downwind is clear of people etc and there is an object like wall etc to catch the kite, it is not too harmful to just let go. Before that you can attempt to flag the kite with lines in hand, which works very well once you are a 6 or so meters up them. Avoiding the kite flying again is key once it is on the ground. Having said that I have only let go of kites couple of times, however I have flagged them by hand many times, maybe with 10% of my landings I flag after walking up the lines part way. When you walk up lines the pull gets less as you get closer to the kite, because the arc gets constricted. Once you are at the mixer or bridles flagging the kite is a piece of cake.

[Henrik78]

Here are the pics...

Thanks for the pics!!
But I still don't really understand, so you attach the white line to some static object? And then you let the kite flag out since only one rear line has tension?

[corbett]

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[foilholio]

He attaches the pulley to something then walks towards the kite. The effect is the rear line gets shorter while all the others get longer, the bar moves to kite with the rider and the rear line and kite heads to the pulley . He would only need walk half of the lines and bridle length ,~12/13m , and the kite and him would meet, hopefully.

[Big Wally]

Would love to see a video of this technique.

[foilholio]

I would too. It seems simple enough, attach pulley to something, fly kite to edge of the window low, walk to it and grab it. The possibilities of what could happen seem to indicate a lot of space is needed, but it's hard to guess. It looks like it is simple and perhaps easy to use. Speaking as someone after much experience who finds reversing easy and very precise and without the pulley, I would probably stick with that. If you are well powered this may work well. If a pulley you could remove and attach could be used I could maybe use it. Having something extra dangling on the bar,even as small as a pulley, I just couldn't live with it. But who knows, if I try it I may like it so much I change my mind.

[corbett]

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[foilholio]

flying on one line. i.e. flagged on the rear. I see the possibility for it to continue flying on all 4 lines if you walked away from the kite. You could do it on a front line too, but rear bridles have a better flagging shape( I think ), and the fronts wear state is more critical. It should be possible to catch the kite while it is still in the air.