How come when I kite under a helicopter or a helicopter flys over me whist Im kiting there is no turbulance from it
I have even jumped and my mate has jumped under them and their is still no turbulance 
Don't worry I didn't jump high enought to take the copter out 
I have jumped out of a helicoper into the sea a few times when I was a lifeguard 
and remember there been heaps of wind turbulance from the blades affecting the ocean surface
and seen on TV heaps of times the affect the downforce from the blades has on the ocean and the turbulance it creates
Even a passing kite upwind has a fairly big affect on kite downwind
Making it react with a fludder
Select to expand quotegokid said..
How come when I kite under a helicopter or a helicopter flys over me whist Im kiting there is no turbulance from it
Maybe because the chopper is too high up to have an effect. ^^^
The chopper might be flying at say 500 ft...
and your kite is only 20m above the surface.
Select to expand quotewaveslave said..gokid said..
How come when I kite under a helicopter or a helicopter flys over me whist Im kiting there is no turbulance from it
Maybe because the chopper is too high up to have an effect. ^^^
The chopper might be flying at say 500 ft...
and your kite is only 20m above the surface.
Yes I think most of the time the chopper is too high to have an affect
but there have been a few times when the chopper is very low
and I have kited under it expecting at least a light downdraft from it
But nothing , so disappionted 
One time I ducked my head it was so low
Somehow I don't think a helicopter pilot is going to willingly fly low enough to affect your kite, jumping or not. Or it's just powered by magic, so no rotor wash? Or your not jumping as high as you think?
How close was it? I've definitely had choppers mess up my kite before from turbulence. Those big Army ones don't even need to be too close to do it.
If the chopper is low enough the downdraft will effect your kite. This happened to me. I was kiting and the shark alarm went off. I came in and talked to the lifesavers that said a man was missing and someone also saw a shark. Thinking that the dude probably went home and that the general public think a bit of chop is a shark fin I went back out. The Police boats and helicopter were doing searches up and down the beach and when the helicopter flew over my kite fell out of the sky. I pretty much **** myself thinking that maybe I was wrong and a Great White was around. It ended up that the guy had moved down the beach and there wasn't any sharks around.
I think when a chopper is stationary hoovering,there is a lot of downforce from the blades
But when it is moving quickly thought the sky its blades and the angle of the chopper down force is more like 45 degrees
a lot of the force is more horizontal
Select to expand quotesir ROWDY said..
How close was it? I've definitely had choppers mess up my kite before from turbulence. Those big Army ones don't even need to be too close to do it.
The small SLSC helicopter was pretty low and close but moving quite quickly but the big army helicopters were miles away the other day
Well (obviously) the chopper has to be at the right angle to affect you, that really goes without being said. I've still had quite small choppers mess up my kite when they are at the right angle to the kite/ wind.
They definitely have an effect if the chopper is low enough!
A session on the broadwater gold coast years ago with a friend had one of the seaworld choppers take off and pass over my mates kite, completely pushed the kite out of the air into the water. Funny to watch! chopper was only 100m approx above the kite.
One of those pilots that flies those big army helicopters up the northern NSW QLD coast must surf. He does low slow close passes of all the breaks. I thought at first he hated kites, but I've seen him wave. Maybe they're just on the perve. I've had both happen to my kite, where I'm surprised there hasn't been turbulence, and another time nearly forced my kite down. I've seen those f18 so low they look like they'd definetly take out a kite if you were in line, travelling faster than the speed of sound. We have a bombing range a little to the south where all water craft are banned. (Near Evans Head). There is an infamous story of an F-111 doing a low pass over the bombing range bunker breaking every window and lifting the desk off the ground. They don't even need arms if they're low enough and breaking the sound barrier, they could shred buildings.
