Landboarding

Hey guys, need some advice regarding using large depower kites, (maybe depower kites in general) for landboarding.

I was at my local flying spot yesturday in about 10-15 knot winds. I decided to have my first real go of riding my board in some reasonable strength breeze. I get the kite unpacked and into the air, started off by doing some static jumps and getting the feel of the wind direction and strength, after a few minutes i decided to attempt to get on the board, only to find that i could not seem to keep the kite low enough to get much pull. The kite seemed to want to sit high in the window and kept trying to lift me instead.

Is anyone able to give some advice as to what i could do to try and get more pull rather then lift ?

Regards,

Dudley

Normally it's as easy as steering it down into the window and sineing the kite to get going once your up to speed you can usually just park and ride.

what kite are you using?
but if everthing is rigged right and you have enough powered for static jumps all yourl need to do is dip it into the power and you will be off like a robbers dog.

ps for speed keep the bar out and have the trim strap set for full power. its possible you are pulling the bar in and causing the kite to back stall down low. the reality with depowerd 90% of the time you ride the kite with the bar out.

Im using a 11m Frenzy FYX.

Thanks for tips guys, guess i still need a lot of practice.

I'll see how i go tomorrow when i get out

ps for speed keep the bar out and have the trim strap set for full power. its possible you are pulling the bar in and causing the kite to back stall down low. the reality with depowerd 90% of the time you ride the kite with the bar out.

Ahh, that explains a lot, thanks Plummet. I had my second go on the board with my Outlaw today, and was playing around with different ways to use it. I let the bar out as you were saying for a few runs, and I shot off so fast at one point I had to jump off the board before I took a rather quick run down the hill towards the river

Someone in another thread explained it to me before but understanding something when I READ it, and when I'm actually DOING it is completely different

At first I kept on choking the kite, cause I was trying to go faster by pulling the bar in and sineing it, thinking that it would be more powered up, but it was actually slowing down and backstalling like you were saying.

@ Alpha, keep me in the loop about tomorrow mate, I might be able to make it up for a while. Theres a bit of rain forecast though

Kind regards

Ant

Its a hard thing to put into words ... but once you understand that pulling in the bar means adjusting the angle, and does not necessarily mean power ... then you got it

Its like when you drive in your car and have your hand out the window

Tilting your hand will give you lift (to a certain angle) then suddenly you have gone too far (choked)

With a de-power ... you have the added fun of when you do choke it and let the bar out the kite can take off very powered.

Its a hard thing to put into words ... but once you understand that pulling in the bar means adjusting the angle, and does not necessarily mean power ... then you got it

Its like when you drive in your car and have your hand out the window

Tilting your hand will give you lift (to a certain angle) then suddenly you have gone too far (choked)

With a de-power ... you have the added fun of when you do choke it and let the bar out the kite can take off very powered.

Both my wife and I are sitting here with AHA! expressions on our faces, brilliant explanation thanks Marty

Sometimes it just all falls into place

Yep Marty has explained it well there

I might add once you have flown de-power for a while and get the hang of it, it's bloody hard to go back to fixed bridle. By that I don't mean you lose the ability to fly fixed bridle but you sort of get spoilt on depower being able to change the tuning of the kite on the fly so to speak.

Wait til you start playing with little tubes

Yep Marty has explained it well there

I might add once you have flown de-power for a while and get the hang of it, it's bloody hard to go back to fixed bridle. By that I don't mean you lose the ability to fly fixed bridle but you sort of get spoilt on depower being able to change the tuning of the kite on the fly so to speak.

Too late for me already I think, my Outlaw's brilliant and I'm sure there'll be enough love left over for my 6m Access when it arrives

Plus I sold all my fixed bridles to be able to pay for my depowerables, so for the foreseeable future there is no going back

welcome to the dark side! theres no turning back now.

oooh 11fyx and outlook very good kites.

some depower tips.

*in light winds pulling the trim strap in a few inches will allow the the kite to fly faster and work better in light winds.

*you can pull the bar in on the down stroke of the sign wave for more power. let it out for the up stroke.

*if you get lofted or go to high let the bar out. pull it back in just before landing for a pollowy soft landing.

* make sure your well aware of how the safeties work

* you need more room than tiny gutless fixed bridles. leave yourself some runout space if it all goes pear shaped.

Hi I am new to landboarding and have a radsails evo 2 6 m and am having loads of fun jumpin. But when I try to use it on a board the kite goes above the apex sometimes even behind me makeing using a board really dificult. Am I doing something wrong. Also I am having trouble reverse launching this kite Thanks in advance. Will

Here's my take on the depowers and the bar:

Pulling in the bar increases the angle of attack of the kite. The more angle of attack the more power.

There is a but:

1) As the angle of attack is increased so is the drag and the ratio of the drag to lift may also increase. You can then pull the bar in to the extent that the drag to lift ratio is high enough for the line angle (angle between your kite line and the ground), that there is no more room for the kite to accelerate forward, it then goes backwards. That is why your kite will not accelarate forward once at it's Zenith, the angle of your line matches the lift to drag ratio.

2) Depending on the kite, if the angle of attack is increased too much then the wing stalls, loses lift and the kite goes backwards. Wing stall is when the flow separates from the wing, quite differnt to point 1. To prove the difference between 1) and 2) you really need a smoke trail, now that would be cool to watch. So to be honest I don't know which one happens in practice with our traction kites 1) or 2) since what you see if virtually the same -- the kite goes backwards.

3) At the lower angles of attack, there is less drag, and the drag to lift ratio is smaller, then there is a bigger difference between the load line of the lift+drag versus your line angle, the result your kite accelerates faster forward. As the kite accelarates forward it picks up speed and with it more power.

Increasing the angle of attack is proportional to lift gained, ie double the angle of attack you double your load (provided the wing does not stall) (assuming speed does not change).

Lift gained is proportional to the square of your net apparent wind (speed of kite + wind speed) (assuming angle of attack is unchanged). So if you double your apparent wind, you quadruple your load and no problems with kite stall.

What works in practice? You need to experiment with your kite. But I find in the light winds I need to fly with lower angles of attack and sine the kite more.

Regards,
Norman