Ok I guess we had different definitions for light wind and also used equipment. If you have short arms or some other reason not be able to push bar out you can pull trimmer in. Some have a bit shorter back lines - even on purpose or shrunk - then you can compensate it using trimmer.Peter_Frank wrote: ↑Tue May 04, 2021 7:53 am
I dont agree!
We dont know what Kitemanmuc (the OP) is talking about, when "light".
If a TT it could be 12-13 knots, if a hydrofoil it could be 6-7 knots.
I was thinking about the latter, as otherwise it is not really light wind...
On a hydrofoil it does not make sense to say you should only pull the trim strap to prevent over powering, if out in wind where it is difficult to avoid backstalling, nor to edge very hard.
On the contrary - you should depower a bit, to get more speed thus more power, in lightwind foil conditions.
Once up and going fast getting more apparent wind, you can power up again if you like yes, but does not work for start power, as you kill the kite
Peter
I don't get much that back stall thing, if you know how to fly kite what's the problem? And if wind is so weak kite is unable to fly, do something else.
Last winter my weakest session was 4-5kn (on nearby weather station at 10m height) on 17m kite. Of course it was a struggle and didn't make much sense. I dropped my kite once and I had to go and turn it LE up for relaunch (it stayed there over 2m high wall without any difficulty, on surface it was about 2kn). (Btw I consider LEI kite easier to relaunch in extreme low wind than foil kite because it stays up and doesn't stick to surface irregularities). Then I waited for wind for about 15min and was able to come back. I got 10km and top speed a bit over 20kmh. Challenge wasn't back stalling kite but to be able to keep moving and returning back. Every time you have to loop you lose some ground.
Another light wind one was more usual 6-8-10kn, then I reached 49kmh speed which is decent for those conditions. That session was not that easy physically, you have to edge hard to get even that high speed. With some race kite I could have reached perhaps 55kmh, but it would have been as hard work (even though race kites pull more forward than LEI's).
If you want to go fast (and you do because it makes low wind sessions somehow meaningful) you have to push hard. Pulling trimmer in is quite a lot giving up because then you lose max power