Self landing North/Duotone

[SpaceRacer]

Tried to search for this but couldn’t find anything. I have a blend of old school North Rebels, Duotone Rebels and Duotone Evos. I fly ALL of my kites with 5 lines on Trust bars. The North Rebels obviously use the 5th line to support the leading edge and with the others, the 5th line is there for safety and looks Normally I ghost land my kites but after talking with a buddy yesterday I am realizing I do not know how to self land these kites (if possible) without a tether from which to ghost land. Any advice would be very helpful. Thank you

[Leon van Bergen]

I have been riding Duotone for some years now, but before that I had Best kites which were very easy to land due to the open v lines. After some testing, I found out that it is even easier with Duotone bars, just release your quick release when your kite is a few meters above the ground and the flagout line put it neatly on ground perfectly against the wind!

[PullStrings]

Have you tried walking up the lines ?
Stay hooked in while you do it.
No QR needed to land.
Unless of course something goes wrong while walking.
Then your QR is at arm's reach.
As you walk progressively move upwind of the kite.
It will stabilize it.
Keep even tension on both front lines.
No rush needed.
Keep a strong grip.
Note: on brand new bars new lines are quite slippery.
After a few sessions it gets easier to grip them.
Winding lines back on bar removes some of the slip.
The stronger the wind the more you walk up to kite.
Real strong at limit of kite range go all the way to LE.
Light moderate wind go 1/2 way up and tug top line.
LE goes down easily in those winds.
Don't chance it in stronger winds.
Kite could fail and then tumbleweed downwind.
Practice and build your confidence.
Can be done with any LEI's.

[SpaceRacer]

Hey PullStrings, thank you on both posts. As far as Trust bar, if I am running 5 lines am I better walking up just the 5th or just the two front lines or all 3 lol?

[PullStrings]

Ok
On 5th ekement Trust.
First walk up single central strong line.
Light medium wind to Y split then tug hard top line.
Stronger to strongest.
Yes grab all 3 above the Y split.
Pay attention that they all are equally being pulled.
Recently i did it all the way to the 8m Rebel LE
It was almost at full upper wind range of 34 kn.
Make sure you end up 30 to 45 deg upwind of kite.
That will really pin it down on itself.

[Peter_Frank]

What does "ghost land" mean???

Never heard this...

Peter

[SpaceRacer]

Funny. Same as tethered. Where there appears to be a ghost holding your kite during launch and land. It’s the term I always heard before tethered.

[PullStrings]

In the mid-80's i practiced a snappy windsurf move that someone later on called GHOST jibe ...soon after the name and move caught on.

Essentially from an observer point of view the board and sail turns around with minimum movement and seem to have no pilot hence the GHOST effect.

Get on a plane with good speed on a beam reach then throw the sail forward while at same time switch your stance & duck under it.

Then quickly the sail is pulled back to normal as you are now facing the sail and backwinding (kind of hiding behind) carving the board very smoothly on a dime.

Always loved backwinding in my windsurf years.

My favorite was carving on a wave face with a laydown jibe... get out of straps... switch stance to what is now my toeside side kitesurfing and ride wave in.

[edt]

I usually use the QR and flag my 5 line kites. More difficult to do those center line tricks with the high Y.