Launching in strong winds

[Herman]

What Plummet says makes total sense to me. I have yet to aquire any modern closed cell kites but i have started flying open cell snow kites for landboarding. Even these need loads of top backline control to open the cells and set them in the cobra. Presumably with closed cell it requires even more patience.

My attitude for higher wind would be more sand and more patience setting the cobra. Any kite donation so that I can validate this theory would be gratefully received.

Richard has got very strong flip flops or the air was pretty thin that day!!

[evan]

Indeed, no need for pre inflation, small kites in high winds inflate in seconds with the right preparation and technique. Just make sure the bridle is 100% free of tangles and keep the kite stalled until it is completely inflated.

You can pull the trailing edge slightly Upwind and bury it completely with sand to keep the kite from flapping and tangling. Or have someone hold the Downwind tip from tangling.

Have a few 100m's of space to slide around and always be ready to punch out when launching foilkites in high winds.


Hyperlink should be easy, try launching a 9m Chrono v1 in 30kn, even a 400m beach wasn't enough on my first attempts

[Herman]

Thanks Evan, I will need more balls as well as more sand. I am happy on my stormchaser LEI 5.5m at 30knts and I weigh in at ~210lbs .

[tomtom]

Having heavy back stall accessible on bar is quite useful for such things. I also managed something like classic LEI assisted start in sketchy launch site with no room. I also think that hot start from powerzone is sometime safer /if you have plenty of space/. Yes you will get dragged - but usually not much longer than line lenght - and about half of this without pull cause kite is not inflated yet. Inflation will be symmetrical and more predictable.

[Foil]

i had some scary kite misbehaviour in strong gusty wind on one odd day at Flag beach, Gunnar was watching and I was then given some great advice to stop this happening.
"pre inflate" a little by just shaking the kite when laying out, holding the top edge this unsticks the two layers and lets in just enough air in to help the first lift from the sand, the cobra shape mentioned above.
Gunnar then told me not to use the landing strap to open the ears out, which I was doing, just hold the bar floats high up in each hand from the start and this allows total control of the steering, and at the same time allowing me to hold the kite steady at the edge of the window whilst fully inflating the kite, greatly helped by pulling in on the floats to open out the kite.
Holding both floats high up enable me to do both required actions of applying enough controlled back line tension to open out the kite for fuss free inflation
and to enable precise steering inputs keeping the kite under full and safe control (I also pull in around 5cm of depower before launching the kite, then engage full power only when happy to do so after full inflation)

Another big help was Gunnar fine tuning my kite by reducing the Z line tension by around 4 or 5cm, this prevented "soft ear syndrome" when launching and landing or in very gusty conditions .
I copied this on my next most used kite, my 9mtr, and this had the same stabilizing effects, and gave me kite ears that stayed hard.
happy days!

[foilholio]

I usually find in light wind but not high wind some preinflation is more important . The vent areas always need enough air to open. I always downwind launch, backstall on the bar. It can be worth while to hold the kite on the ground for a while while it inflates, otherwise in strong wind you can end up with a kite that won't inflate. The air gets pushed from the air intakes down and they then refuse to open.

[mgs]

I was in a situation where I considered it to be too risky to launch my HL 9m!
The wind was 25 to 30mph,even with sand on the upwind wing tip to secure the kite, the bridles with the speed system were flapping so violently I couldn’t guarantee a tangle free safe launch.
As confident as I am and "never complacent" in launching my kites, I wasn’t comfortable with the situation and felt the risk of launching in such conditions presented a risk that I wasn’t prepared to take.

[Foil]

I was in a situation where I considered it to be too risky to launch my HL 9m!
The wind was 25 to 30mph,even with sand on the upwind wing tip to secure the kite, the bridles with the speed system were flapping so violently I couldn’t guarantee a tangle free safe launch.
As confident as I am and "never complacent" in launching my kites, I wasn’t comfortable with the situation and felt the risk of launching in such conditions presented a risk that I wasn’t prepared to take.

blimey i don't blame you,
in that wind my 5mtr HL would be called into action, the 9 chrono would take control of me and not the other way round.

[mgs]

@foil Yes quite.
The wind was initially 20mph when I arrived at the beach and just ramped up.
My smallest kite is a 9m. A smaller kite may well have been a better option as long it stayed in position on the beach long enough in order to get to the bar to launch.
I’m not a fan of higher winds and prefer winds from 12 to 20mph. 15mph being just perfect for me.

[S2000kitesurfer]

I was testing my new 10m aurora2 today im 65kg the wind was gusting 29 knots.
And yes it half inflated and sat in the middle of the window dragging me slowly across the grass .
Didn't know what to do so I pulled full depower thinking bloody Chinese kite. Managing to get back upwind as I thought about the problem .
Fully powered up sheeting in as I started sliding again across the grass the wing tips inflated .My tuning worked the kite sat there at 12 without falling out the sky (YES).
Landing was easy pulling the release only a minor tangle to sort out .

Sitting nicely at 12.