Fall is officially here...

[Indiana Gardener]

... and my wild side can let loose now that the field is bare.

15m2 (27 FT x 6.5 FT) Bomba twinskin arc by New Zealand kite designer Peter Lynn.

Flying High

From the Side

Leading Edge

Trailing Edge, wide shot

and a little jump

I didn't get my board out today. The wind wasn't even enough.

 

[Dimka]

Oh man!
Man!
That is waaaay kewl!

 

[Nepfreak]

so what do you do if a strong gust comes and...?

 

[bluebird]

Very neat I seen that on TV before one time looks like fun.

 

[Indiana Gardener]

>so what do you do if a strong gust comes and...?>

That's the good thing about the Peter Lynn twinskin arcs, they have an auto-zenith feature. During a gust, they go to zenith and sometimes overfly the apex. It actually flew behind me during one gust yesterday. It looses power up there because the angle of attack changes to reduce surface area to the wind. It's closer to the ground that it moves faster and pulls harder. After the gust, they slip backwards until they find power again.

It's often a better idea to keep it moving a bit in that situation though so that the lines don't slack. If you're really ripping it up through the wind window (which you aren't supposed to do with these kites!) and a gust comes along, then you either panic or think quick and pull the release. LOL That causes 3 of the 4 lines to go slack. The remaining tight line keeps the kite from drifting away. Of course on one line, it has no power at all and just floats down.

 

[herenorthere]

Somebody posted a link earlier this year showing someone doing that in one of this year's hurricanes. His apparently didn't have an auto-zenith feature and the result was pretty awful. I hope he lived to learn from his mistake.

 

[jimscott]

"There's no place like home.... There's no place like home....There's no place like home..."

 

[Indiana Gardener]

All of the safety features possible on such equipment won't save you if you are flying in the wrong wind. They come with wind ratings for a reason. I think mine is 10-25 mph. Flying outside of those ratings is just stupid. Anyone flying in a hurricane, can't be too bright to start with. LOL

 

[obregon562]

Looks like a TON of fun! Board? Is this like wind surfing? Your very lucky you have such vast ammounts of spcae to do that! Wow looks fun!

 

[Indiana Gardener]

I have a mountain board. It's like a skateboard with big pneumatic tires. Mine has skate trucks, but I would prefer channel trucks. It's just so expensive to upgrade.

Me on it without a kite:

You could surf with that kite too. It's water re-launchable. Not all power kites are, but that one can be used on land or water. I just choose to stick to land.

This gives you an idea of what it's like... if you have the time and area to practice year round. I don't, so this isn't me, but the rider is extremely good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzlLGXVdEG0

 

[blokeman]

i agree, flying one of those would be suicide in a hurricane, don`t think that`s on my list of things to do before i die (flying it in a hurricane)