Flyboy wrote: ↑Fri Dec 17, 2021 9:12 pm
To put it in perspective: a 5m might be fine at 35 knots, but when it picks up to 60 knots the force acting on the kite is 300% greater. The kite is no longer controllable in that kind of wind.
First of all these 60 knot conditions were gusts, not sustained winds. A big part of the reason he was having so much trouble is that the wind was coming over land and very gusty and swirly. If you look around the area you wont find any sensors that recorded even 60 knot gusts. We are talking about gusty 40 knot conditions here, a 9 or 10 on the Beaufort scale, gale / fresh gale / strong gale.
Here's the reading from the airport that was just a few KM downwind from this incident:
- wind.png (35.24 KiB) Viewed 4674 times
I ride a surfboard with my 4.5m kite in 30-50 knots (gusting to 60). At 25 knots it's just not enough power, even at 30 knots it's very underpowered. There are big air TT people who would take a 7m out in these conditions.
People ride 45g60 at Rooster Rock, Oregon all the time without issue on 5m kites. The big difference with Rooster though is that even though it's cranking it's still relatively steady wind. When you start getting up in wind range you start getting a bigger swing between lull and gust in terms of knots (% wise it's still the same). It's the
variance in lull and gust that make it almost impossible to control the kite, not the raw windspeed.
Flyboy wrote: ↑Fri Dec 17, 2021 9:12 pm
Wingers would not be having a grand 'ol time either. 60 knots is not gale force wind, it's "violent storm" wind.
And what are you basing these claims on? If you watch the video the conditions look pretty amazing for winging during his incident. One of the biggest advantages of the hand held wing is the ability to handle gusty and lully wind.
Everyone has their own tolerance for conditions. What one person might fear can be super fun to another.