Hi,What would you do, if you're self launching, and something isn't quite right?You've walked around the kite, the wing tip caught the wind and the kite is now on its side, ready to launch. But you want to abort, something off with the lines, or whatever reason.How do you go about it? Grab the top center line and try to kill the kite? Release the chicken loop?Keen to hear advice. I'm often kiting on my own. I haven't had an issue yet, but I wonder what would be the best way to deal with it.
Select to expand quoteAlozef said..
Hi,What would you do, if you're self launching, and something isn't quite right?You've walked around the kite, the wing tip caught the wind and the kite is now on its side, ready to launch. But you want to abort, something off with the lines, or whatever reason.How do you go about it? Grab the top center line and try to kill the kite? Release the chicken loop?Keen to hear advice. I'm often kiting on my own. I haven't had an issue yet, but I wonder what would be the best way to deal with it.
Hi Alozef, you are probably referring to the drift self-launching technique.
Lots can go wrong with this technique, regardless of your skill level. The most common issue is bridles wrapping around the wing tip or simply catching on the pigtail attachments on the leading edge. This usually causes the kite to spin into the power zone (aka Death Loop), which can be particularly dangerous in strong winds. Some kites can be more problematic than others and it even varies between sizes for the same kite.
The best possible advice is simply to clip your safety leash on the safety line, then to hold the chicken loop unhooked in one hand while walking around and drifting the kite for a self-launch. This way, if anything goes wrong, you simply need to let go of the chicken loop that is in your hand which will make the kite flag out instantly without the risk of getting dragged and-or damaging your gear. If nothing is wrong your lines or kite, you just hook in and launch.
If the wind is very light or you are self-launching in a wind sheltered area, you may be able to fix small issues with your lines without flagging out your kite, but I would not attempt to do this in stronger winds.
Same goes for self-landing, you always need to have a plan B for when it fails and be comfortable flagging out your kite quickly, then recovering the kite by following the safety line hand-over-hand until you reach the leading edge. In our school, we call this technique the ''Emergency self-landing'' and we teach this on day 1 to complete beginners with zero prior experience.
You will find some in depth tutorials on our website to help you with these various techniques:
www.kitebud.com.au/kitesurfing-online-courses/
Hope this helps
Safe kiting!
Christian - KiteBud
