From which jumping height the heliloop is mandatory?

[longwhitecloud]

seen plenty of huge jumps without, maybe it's a bow kite thing

[Blackened]

There is no requirement for a heli-loop. It's just a way to control the kite to make sure it stays above you. Active flying will do the same thing, but more difficult to land reliably as HPR said.

It also looks awesome when you get that little lift 1-2m from the water for super smooth landings.

[Kitemenn]

For me it also depends on where your kite is when you are decending. You want to generate that lift just before you land, to do this you want the kite to go one more time overhead. So if it is behind you direct it to the front and land "normal". Is the kite in front you redirect behind and make a heliloop! I know this is not a must but for me it def makes the landings better. In addition you can also use your heli loop to slow down your forward momentum (like parachute on a F-16)

[Robsw6]

V nice thread, I agree with the above comments

I would say that up to 12m (as indicated by WOO - so that's 7m in the real world ), there's no need to heliloop, but it is worthwhile practicing them, as when done well, the landings are really nice and controlled.... but for the "oh Sh1t" jumps, when really powered, you load up, hit a ramp, go up and up, then go up again, then start checking out the logo's on the top of other kites, its definitely mandatory, as there is no way I can land these by just moving the canopy around and re-directing forward.

I had a brief chat in Tarifa with Maarten Haeger regarding heliloops and admittedly his smallest jump is larger than my max, but he did say he heliloops on almost every jump. So I think so long as you go up, feel the kite oversheet/go upwind, I now try to heliloop as practice, albeit on lower jumps I tend to do a half heliloop and then re-direct (or possibly dont hang on long enough or bottle out of a full heliloop!!).

[Kash]

Heliloops are awesome when you get them work for you. I can give a very valuable tip for the starters that helped me a lot:

When you are learning first heliloops remember:

1. After completing your trip to the zenith, you start to go down. Before you initiate your heliloop make sure that your bar is sheeted in to the max as this will choke your kite a bit, so it will not yank you at all.
2. Initiate a very aggresive downloop (reverse side comparing to your front leg).

As you get more comfortable with it try to give it less aggressive turns, it will increase radius and the power of the loop for even more softer landing because of the bigger heliloop radius.

[Faxie]

I land with heliloops most of the time, but I feel I really need them a lot at 12+ jumps in gusty winds. Not really in the mood to check it the landings still work without downloop with the kite so much behind me...

I also think it's dependant of things like rider weight, board size/position during jump, line length, kite type, wind/water conditions, technique/timing/sheeting etc, that will affect how much of a pendulum effect you're gonna get. So it's different for everyone.

[Eckhardt]

I love to do them on basicly every jump because my landing get so much smoother. Average jumpheigh 7-11m i guess

[alexeyga]

There is no requirement for a heli-loop. It's just a way to control the kite to make sure it stays above you. Active flying will do the same thing, but more difficult to land reliably as HPR said.

It also looks awesome when you get that little lift 1-2m from the water for super smooth landings.

You've pretty much nailed it. The main "requirement" has nothing to do with "how high" you jump, but rather - what's your position in relation to your kite - in relation to the wind? Basically - whenever you're over-shooting your kite - throw a loop. A very nice feeling to it when done right.