The problem with an unattended kite (tethered Launch) is that the kite will move forward in a gust as it re-positions itself in the new upwind neutral zone. When the gust is past, the kite needs to move back downwind to the old neutral position. If the wingtip bites in the sand, the kite will roll facing the kite up into the wind window. It will naturally lift off and screech across the wind window ... unattended!

Don't tether launch. In almost 20 years of kiting, I have never had to tether launch and I have kited almost every kitable beach in Oz and many in Hawaii, NZ, Indo, Thailand and many more. Just don't do it, not worth it.

DM

ActionSportsWA said..
The problem with an unattended kite (tethered Launch) is that the kite will move forward in a gust as it re-positions itself in the new upwind neutral zone. When the gust is past, the kite needs to move back downwind to the old neutral position. If the wingtip bites in the sand, the kite will roll facing the kite up into the wind window. It will naturally lift off and screech across the wind window ... unattended!

Don't tether launch. In almost 20 years of kiting, I have never had to tether launch and I have kited almost every kitable beach in Oz and many in Hawaii, NZ, Indo, Thailand and many more. Just don't do it, not worth it.

DM

You generally have launch bitches in tow
sorry tony

Weta said..

cauncy said..

ActionSportsWA said..
The problem with an unattended kite (tethered Launch) is that the kite will move forward in a gust as it re-positions itself in the new upwind neutral zone. When the gust is past, the kite needs to move back downwind to the old neutral position. If the wingtip bites in the sand, the kite will roll facing the kite up into the wind window. It will naturally lift off and screech across the wind window ... unattended!

Don't tether launch. In almost 20 years of kiting, I have never had to tether launch and I have kited almost every kitable beach in Oz and many in Hawaii, NZ, Indo, Thailand and many more. Just don't do it, not worth it.

DM

You generally have launch bitches in tow
sorry tony

Kite Bitch Tony under Rob's supervision ..................DM kited to the max at MWWF didn't see his crew get out once. How's the ribs after L2L DM? I reckon Tony & Rob floated some weed out on Gage Roads with your name on it.

Either my eyes are worse than i thought or KamiKuza is taking the piss but to me the pegged line in both photos is attached to the bottom steering line????

Anyway i self launch the old way untethered and land with a tether which is what i'm comfortable with. If someone offers a launch or a land i take it.

Huh, is that the old sand on the wing tip trick?
If so you need a lesson with eppo to edumacate you.
Don't get sucked in to having and babychinos with him though.
Muggachinos only

Nah mate not that old skool; just the drag self launch.

I launch perpendicular to the kite rather than upwind unless it's light winds.

ActionSportsWA said..
The problem with an unattended kite (tethered Launch) is that the kite will move forward in a gust as it re-positions itself in the new upwind neutral zone. When the gust is past, the kite needs to move back downwind to the old neutral position. If the wingtip bites in the sand, the kite will roll facing the kite up into the wind window. It will naturally lift off and screech across the wind window ... unattended!

Don't tether launch. In almost 20 years of kiting, I have never had to tether launch and I have kited almost every kitable beach in Oz and many in Hawaii, NZ, Indo, Thailand and many more. Just don't do it, not worth it.

DM

The kite will zoom across the window if it rolls backwards even with no input from the bar?

cauncy said..
Yo, just a heads up to you that teather launch,

Gawd .. There is a Grammar post currently running hot on the Nobodies forum -
BUT I suppose we have to make allowance for Cauncy...and me thinks he runs a Cafe which also serves TEA ..

It is Tether not Tea.

Fly on the Wall. I do need to pee but not up the wall...

It is totally what works in your location and most importantly wind conditions / strength. So Tea man (and obviously serious boot eeekk beer drinker) has a g8 solution to safely killing your kite's lift in OUT there and more regular conditions... ..

JIC for the un-initiated.... Think and plan it thru' - Tethering is not the best spur of the moment solution...The tether is a substitute for the chicken loop linked to your harness hook or equivalent for most landings / launches which occur. It should be non-negotiable - no-brainer - Not trying to lasso a horse - just a non-stretchy short as reasonable link which you can easily access onto something solid capable of handling in bad conditions a 250+ KG load, then hook out/in as per normal.

As Cauncy points out with experience on his side you should be able to go and drink your Tea once your kite is tethered and then land or clip-in. You want to think twice before you normalise trying to control your kite in windy / gusty situations from anywhere except the bar end or the kite end.. Why do you need to try and control your kite as you got to or from the kite ??? You are playing with chance refer to Cauncy's solution..

If your situation has any possibility of putting your kite in a "HOT" condition AKA DM's post zenith zooming.. then his point on not tethering is -- a 101 listen up folks or you are asking for trouble...

FWIW - If you can park kite on water U R going onto or leaving because it is not in the surf zone - this has worked well for me in strong gusty conditions..
Cheers
AP

Please note -- this is an announcement..
On past experience - Aquaplow's statement .. will kill this topic.. so be warned further posts.. require..
Either a cracker point.. or something of above average humour.... The Teather has been set (hi / high / heigh / up there )
hmmmmm baa humbug.

Weta said..
Gold or blue top AquaPlow???

Brian .. you are a naughty naughty boy...
(Re TEA.ther..or my bias Capa.ther chino - Full on Jersey please - but Gold over Silver)

Weta said..

cauncy said..

ActionSportsWA said..
The problem with an unattended kite (tethered Launch) is that the kite will move forward in a gust as it re-positions itself in the new upwind neutral zone. When the gust is past, the kite needs to move back downwind to the old neutral position. If the wingtip bites in the sand, the kite will roll facing the kite up into the wind window. It will naturally lift off and screech across the wind window ... unattended!

Don't tether launch. In almost 20 years of kiting, I have never had to tether launch and I have kited almost every kitable beach in Oz and many in Hawaii, NZ, Indo, Thailand and many more. Just don't do it, not worth it.

DM

You generally have launch bitches in tow
sorry tony

Kite Bitch Tony under Rob's supervision ..................DM kited to the max at MWWF didn't see his crew get out once. How's the ribs after L2L DM? I reckon Tony & Rob floated some weed out on Gage Roads with your name on it.

Either my eyes are worse than i thought or KamiKuza is taking the piss but to me the pegged line in both photos is attached to the bottom steering line????

Anyway i self launch the old way untethered and land with a tether which is what i'm comfortable with. If someone offers a launch or a land i take it.

Hey Mate,

Tony didn't want to ride for his own reasons. I think Rob got out and Kingy spent plenty of time on the water. I did make a bit of a pig of myself as it's such a rare privilage to get water time and I had some stuff to test ride

Ribs are mending, but haven't been game to get out early in the healing process in case I splat back on the ribs and flare up the damage again.

I'm all for assisted launch as a primary option, but am happy to self launch on my own if no other option.

DM

Nope I agree with you. Been tethering for a lot longer than even your 8/9 years. I'm not sure why the tethering rebukes but hey each to their own.

What do people use as their anchor point then,? I seen people use the sand screw jobs and also sand dune fencing uprights what's the goods

eppo said..
Depowering your kite when tethering is a stupid idea. Don't do it. Think about what a kite does when it's depowered in the sky.

Ive seen far more serious crashes (and injuries) from self launching than tethering. Although I do both myself, depends.

Although as mick said there has been a very serious injury recently when one was tethering but there were other factors involved.

Either way take care. Even a modern kite will seriously hurt you or kill when used incorrectly.

And the number of Middle Aged and above lounge chair non water - man kooks that modern kites have allowed to get them on the water, creates a much higher probability of this happening.

Oiy I'm a fat old fart ...dont be dissing the FOF's
we kite up and back successfully , day after day!

holgs said..

quikdrawMcgraw said..

The way you guys are describing is different and safer by the sounds of it (easy cauncy) chicken loop on tow ball, connect safety then move the chicken loop from the tow ball to hook on harness.
As opposed to the tether where guys are hooking in to the kite - while the kite is still attached to the tether and then things go pear shaped your attached to kite and tether, in which case a longer tether would be more dangerous by the sounds of it.

There is no need to be be attached to the tether and hooked in to the chicken loop at the same time. After attaching the safety leash, grab the chicken loop and unclip it from the tether while keeping an eye on the kite. If anything goes wrong at this stage you can just let go of the chicken loop. Then simply hook into the chicken loop and launch the kite or launch first and then hook in.

While I'm positioning the kite at the edge of the window I also have a second tether attached to the safety. If anything happens to the main tether (e.g tether breaking from the kite accidentally launching and powering through the window) then the kite will simply flag out.

I have seen kites power through the window in conventional assisted launches too. I don't think it's that much more likely in a tethered launch.

If I don't self launch tethered then I self launch unhooked with one hand on the bar and the other on the chicken loop controlling the power. If anything goes wrong, like a wing tip wrap, then I can simply let go and flag the kite on the safety leash.

No one has mentioned self landing. A tethered landing of course is also a nice alternative in strong winds, especially if you have a kite with a high Y and there are sharp things on the beach. You avoid having to drop the kite hard on the beach or the kite powering up after not quite falling on its nose, with potential to have the line that you yanked on wrap around a hand as poor Nathe described.
Sometimes flagging the kite on the edge of the window doesn't go to plan either in strong wind even if the safety is attached to the upper front line. The kite may not always drop nose down but instead get blown downwind with the potential for damage if there are sharp objects around.

Tethering avoids all this. Again, I unhook from chicken loop first, then attach the chicken loop to the tether. If anything goes wrong, I'm only attached via the safety, until I clip my leash into the second tether.

I'm interested in your approach here holgs for when I get back to aus and start having to man up pumping my kite manually and not always having a assisted launch.

How exactly do you manage two tethers do you have two of those sand screws with you?

MrFreeze said..

eppo said..
Nope I agree with you. Been tethering for a lot longer than even your 8/9 years. I'm not sure why the tethering rebukes but hey each to their own.

Hmmmmm, if your tethering then that's good enough for me Sir

Happy new year Mr Freeze.

quikdrawMcgraw said..
I'm interested in your approach here holgs for when I get back to aus and start having to man up pumping my kite manually and not always having a assisted launch. How exactly do you manage two tethers do you have two of those sand screws with you?

I don't have any sand screws. If I'm using a good solid structure like a fence post, tow bar or recovery points where the strap is going to break before the anchor point then I attach both to the same structure. If it's not solid then I'll attach the safety to something else. I have used the kite bag filled full of sand to attach the safety leash to. The idea of doing it that way is so that I don't lose the kite or injure people with it if the main tether fails. I have read that people have apparently been hurt by a sand screw or other anchor being propelled down the beach by a powered up kite.

holgs said..
I guess this is what happens if you have a really long tether strap, and hook in to chicken loop and tether at the same time and fly the kite to Zenith :

Whatsisname and the other guy both did that and set actual world records of hundreds of meters IIRC.



And then it goes wrong...