Foil Kite Self Landing Stick

[shadylady]

After watching Shingo Hayakawa-sans Foil Kite Catcher video, I liked the idea but thought the catcher could be simplified.
So i took an old walking stick, about 80cm long and added a tennis ball to the end so there,s nothing sharp to damage the kite on.
I also put on a small flag as to make it easy to see, with a note, DO NOT REMOVE.
I then push or hammer the stick about half way in to the ground/sand at an angle in to the wind.
The idea is to fly the kite just ahead of the stick and let it drift back catching the tip and/or tip bridle and the kite lays down nicely every time.
Depending on which bridles catch, the kite will lay down a bit different each time , but it always lays down.
I,ve had a 100% success rate in the few months i,ve been using the stick.
After the kite has landed, weight the tip, lift the bridles off the stick and the kite's ready to launch again.
There has been no signs of wear or damage and i think there is less strain on the bridles compared to flagging out on the safety line.
The biggest kite i,ve landed on the stick is 12m, but i,m sure bigger kites will land just the same.
The hardest part is getting the distance right from the stick, so i often do a couple of practice flyby swoops to check the distance.
It,s actually good fun to land the kite on the stick.
For the record, i can land foil kites all 8 ways as shown in Adventure Logs video.
What i like best about the stick is the kite lands right there where the stick is.
It,s easy to make and fun to use so give it a go.

[irwe]

Thanks for posting.
I have a quarter of the beach area that you show in your video so I will make a landing catcher as well
I will also make one for the ice with a modified ice screw

[LONG]

The bridle lines don't thank....Specially in strong winds..

[Trent hink]

The old flysurfer bars with the safety connected to the rear lines really made self-landing easy.

Just just unhook and let the kite go the the safety, kite backs down and sits there as long as you keep tension on the safety line.

I used to just hook the safety leash to an ice-screw or dig my board into the sand and attach the safety to a foot strap after landing.

The only downsides were that the kite still pulls quite a bit if you are using it in very well-powered or overpowered conditions, and the safety line was rigged to fit the kite, so without tuning, the bar only worked with the kite it came with.

[PullStrings]

Walk up the strings

Much simpler

No gimmicks

Control kite on it's wingtip

Walk up to bridles

Practice often

Get good at it

[Adventure Logs]

I wouldn't recommend this method, especially in higher winds. You are putting uneven stress on bridle lines that aren't designed for this. You'll eventually get uneven bridle shrinkage and the possibility of breakage. If you want to do something similar, get a longer pole, and backstall the kite onto it. Bridle is then unaffected.

[shadylady]

Vey little stress on bridles and kite as the kite lays down very fast with no pressure.
Much less stress on the kite than flagging on one line, especially in higher winds.

[kiteykitekite]

This is a good idea much better than that umbrella one. I had an idea to use a small pilot kite to do similar. You would set it up on a short line with some sort of hook on it. Maybe use a small sandbag to secure it. Fly just as you do but into the small pilot kite and it does the same. But for simplicity your ideal wins, my pilot kite one would just pack up tiny, smaller than a fist.

The bridle lines don't thank....Specially in strong winds..

So most of the final bridles on flysurfers are made from Liros DC100 which is about 100kg breaking force. They are usually split in to 2 but sometimes 3 at the tip. The bridles at the tip are more clustered close together. With this thing you could catch anywhere from 2 to say 9 bridles, that is 200 to 900kg of hold strength. The attachments are also very strong than the rest of the kite. Then as well flysurfer has fuse links called LCLs. These are designed to break well before the bridle or attachment, though the pink ones as used on the Soul are not the best at this. Anyway the force you require to hold a kite flagged like this is at most 5-10kg in the highest wind. There is no way you could hold the fabric with 100kg let alone 200kg and it would likely rip if you tried and certainly get damaged.

There is a small chance the bridles will restretch a little but overall there is little to no risk to anything.

[shadylady]

Thanks kiteykite.
Mine is actually made from a collapsable walking stick.
Packs up pretty small.

[kiteykitekite]

Well that's more cool, I missed that. Given how most kites roll up a stick as big or bit bigger than most bars wouldn't be too much hassle. It's a good idea you have, ignore the naysayers.