Postby tomatkins » Fri Nov 04, 2005 6:57 pm
PHlOW,
Good point about keeping it simple. Gloves are a good idea. I want something hard between me and a kite string.
Here is a picture of the auto-braking line dispenser I referred to in my last post. I made 2 of them, so that I can try out the idea of doing a "controlled shallow water self launch" by feeding out 2 lines at once on a 4 line kite. The most promising but untested idea, so far, is to dispense out a front line and a back line on the same wingtip, after wrapping the lines in such a manner that you keep the lines that go to the other wing tip, with enough length that the kite can flag out, like a reride safety allows. Those longer lines can be kept from flying around and twisting and flipping over the kite, by securing them with a little Velcro device that I made and have successfully used. A kiter could use a Turbolauncher or some other form of "organized line unwinding device", where the line orientation is maintained by pre-raking, and pre-winding, much like one would do in packing a parachute. I have made many gadgets over the years which allow me to do this in a small apartment in about 5 minutes, usually the night before I go to the beach. Much more to come on that later, along with pictures of the little Velcro line holding device.
The PVC and bungee cord auto-braking line dispenser on the left shows the brake engaged, and the one on the right which is is being held open, shows the open breech, and the line running through the groove. The one on the right shows it in the mode where the line can be controled as it feeds out. The bungee closes the breech and securely traps the line when the center handle is released. The line can then be held in the full braked mode by letting your fingers slip back to the rear handle. You can even hold both devices in one hand to multitask with the other hand, as you may need to do to pull off seaweed, ease out a potential line snag, wave off a motor boater, push the inquisitive dog away, etc. Remember, I haven't tried it yet on a windy, gusty day. That will be the real test. their strength may also be an issue, as PVC is pretty strong, but not intended as a structural material. I did run rope through all the pieces of pipe, just in case the pieces try to separate under stress. I am testing theories at this point, and PVC is an easy material to make prototype models with.
Since these devices are quite big, you probably wouldn’t want to take them with you, but you could put them in a kangaroo pouch in your impact vest, or bungee them to your board. More likely, this dispenser could be used to feed out lines from a boat with one person controlling the drift of the kite and the "on deck" rider easing out the 4 or 5 lines from the "organized line unwinding device". You could also leave the devices in the shallows, bungeed to a little anchored buoy, along with your flip flop sandals.
Tomorrow, I will post a description and pictures of another device, which is simplified and small enough to take kiting with you.
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