Large flowforms, care and feeding

[rreed3]

Hi,
Friends of ours have just added a Sutton 450 to his kite bag.
?? How do we pull this kite down in an emergency situation?
We usually just walk our big kites down, but wanted another
plan, just in case.
??Anyone use a "kill" line for a Sutton?

[Outerspaceman]

Post by rreed3
Hi,
Friends of ours have just added a Sutton 450 to his kite bag.
?? How do we pull this kite down in an emergency situation?
We usually just walk our big kites down, but wanted another
plan, just in case.
??Anyone use a "kill" line for a Sutton?

We just walk our flowform ( it's more or less the same kite ) down
with a pulley attached to a carabinier which in turn is attached to a big
loop of seat belt webbing
long enough to fit around your back & under your arms
on a windy day make sure you have sufficient ballast to drop it ie. a big "
anchor man "
Or if your 10 stone like me, you could end up heading skywards??
It's easier than walking it down with gloves etc.and the pulley prevents
friction burns to the the line

Steve

www.kitecollective.com

[MCruzzer]

Post by Outerspaceman

Post by rreed3
Hi,
Friends of ours have just added a Sutton 450 to his kite bag.
?? How do we pull this kite down in an emergency situation?
We usually just walk our big kites down, but wanted another
plan, just in case.
??Anyone use a "kill" line for a Sutton?

We just walk our flowform ( it's more or less the same kite ) down
with a pulley attached to a carabinier which in turn is attached to a big
loop of seat belt webbing
long enough to fit around your back & under your arms
on a windy day make sure you have sufficient ballast to drop it ie. a big "
anchor man "
Or if your 10 stone like me, you could end up heading skywards??
It's easier than walking it down with gloves etc.and the pulley prevents
friction burns to the the line
Steve
www.kitecollective.com

I've used the pulley and webbing method with flowforms, but I would
really not recommend using this in an "emergency" situation if that
involves trying to get the 450 down in high winds. A 450 can lift you
up quicker than you can imagine!

We've actually been in situations where we had to drive a truck over
the line to bring down a 252, let alone a 450! I have modified my
pulley/webbing system so that it can be attached to my trailer hitch to
avoid driving the line under the truck. Kill lines don't always seem
to work, especially if the winds are pretty strong, unless you can
somehow close the cells down.

Jim

[Andrew Beattie]

Post by rreed3
We usually just walk our big kites down, but wanted another
plan, just in case.

There are three main plans.

1) Bring it down by hand. Driving vehicles across the kite field is
inherently dangerous. You are moving a ton of steel round a play area.
The driver has reduced visibility and communication. Best avoided
where possible.

2) If the line tension is such that the balance of risks favours using
a vehicle then the usual plan is a tandem pulley on a vehicle, such as
this one:

http://en.petzl.com/petzl/SportProduits?Produit=369

The idea of running a vehicle over the line sounds unsafe to me. The
underside of a car is covered in sharp things and hot things.

3) There are rare times when the best plan is to walk away. In extreme
wind, leave the kite to the elements. You should design your rig such
that in the case of excessive strain, it will break anything other
than the anchor. For minimum damage, the weakest point should be the
bridle attachment.

I believe that plan 3 is a valid strategy for an electrical storm.
Walk away. Make sure everyone else does too.

Andrew

[rnc]

There are two choices for emergency kill systems. One is to tether the
trailing edge points and be prepared to cut or release the main line.
The second is to run a parallel line to the flying line attached to
only the center rib line. when pull that line in the kite should flod
in and drop. This method was used in the early nineties by Bob Anderson
on very large true foils. Rob