I land my Screamer this way no problem, sometimes I will pull the trim strap in as mentioned too.
I wait till I can see the kite kind of stall...I.e not pull quite as much(lull in the wind) and then pull the top front line sharp.
This technique will always have its risk no matter what kite it is.

www.blastkitesurfing.com

Hello aleks,
I can see you are having problems self landing your kite.
Ok these are few ways you can do it:

1) Bring your kite down to the ground and then once the wing tip touches the ground pull the RED GRAB HANDLE that is on the left floater. This will flag the kite. It might get messy but at least your kite is secure.

2) Put your leash on one of the Grey lines that is after the Mickey Mouse ears. But in order to do this since it is hard to reach because of the distance, you will have to bring the kite to touch the ground and then once the wing tip touches the ground, grab and pull towards you the Mickey Mouse hear so it can come close to you and then put your leash on the gray line that is attached to the wing tip that is touching the ground. Once you are ready let it touches the ground, let the bar go and pull on your leash. This will pull on the gray line and will make the kite turn looking into the wind.

3) Once you find the spot you want to land your kite, bring it down until it is ready to touch the ground. Once it touches the ground. Grab above the entire "Depower" material which is where the middle gray lines are and pull it by fishing it in. Remember to pull the depower strap but the entire thing. This will kill the kite and turn it looking into the wind. But at the same time release the bar.

4) Find a wind shadow from a dune, a house, a tree and so on, then bring your kite on the back side of this big object and once it goes on the back side because of the lack of wind it will drop of. Make sure to have your Donkey Stick and Leash off the Hook of your harness. Then once you drop the kite pull on the Grey line to turn it around facing the wind. Then run or walk fast so you can secure it 100%. This is what I always do.

5) Have an anchor on the water or on the ground so once you are ready to land, remove your CL from your harness, bring the kite down so the wind tip touches the ground and then hook your CL to the anchor. Then go and grab your kite.

I made few videos on "HOW TO LAND" a kite under the WWW.EPICKITES.COM web site. But I guess I have to make a new one with all these methods so you get a better understanding.


P.S. I love my job

If you are going to make some new videos of self landing make sure to demonstrate in real wind. Say 20 knots and up. Half the time the videos out there are showing only light wind conditions and to be honest the trouble starts when the wind is really blowing.

Thanks, look forward to the new videos.

Hello Mr.KevinTheKiter,
I am so sorry I did not respond to your post about why we are not having "DACRON" on our trailing edge of all our kites.
Well...their is a really good reason why
You have to understand that the materials have to be light, strong, UV resistant, impermeable, durable, low stretch, airtight, breathable, watertight, waterproof, tough, stable, and so on...
Most of the kite companies use these 2 types of material on their kites: Teijin & Dacron which is made out of polyester in case you did not know. Few other kite companies use a different type of Nylon for their Canopies.
So let me explain so you get a better understanding why we are not using the "DACRON" material on our Trailing Edge, and instead we use 2 layers of Teijin’s canopy fabric, known as T9600.
Kites have tendency to stretch after a good period of use. I don't know if you know this, but a 6 months kite will fly different then a bran new kite depending how much use you have on it. This is due to the stretching of the canopy material. And so far most kite companies use the Teijin material made out of Japan which it has much higher UV resistance and less stretch then other materials such as nylon.
After doing lots of R&D and talking to dealers, manufacturers, and customers, we realized that after a good six months use, the kites that had "DACRON" material had more stretching on the Trailing Edge then other prototype kites that had only a double layer of Teijin material.
This is because the "DACRON" material is heavier and won't stretch like the rest of the canopy material and because of the excessive flapping and turbulence of the Trailing Edge, it will tend to make the kite flutter more after an excessive time period and also will might start ripping the Trailing Edge.
This is the reason why we decide not to use "DACRON" material on the Trailing Edge because of so much disturbance and the effect it has on the kite after a long period of time. But we use "DACRON" on other places of the kite where you don't have so much flappering.
I hope this helps you understand the reason why we are not using "DACRON" on the Trailing Edge of all our kites and use Teijin material but folded in two to add thickness. By doing this they both can stretch at the same level and it doesn't put weight on the Trailing Edge, compare to the "DACRON" material.
Once again, thank you for addressing this. Now people have a better understanding why we and few other kite companies don't use "DACRON" on the Leading Edge of their kites..

Is there anything else I can help you with?????

I'm certain that the big companies who have much more experience than Epic with a much larger R&D department and budget and who use dacron would not agree with your findings but if your kites stretch that much then maybe you could use a better grade of rip stop.

I was looking at the bar on the beach the other day. The rust stains that come from the cheap screws that hold the bar together look quite bad after 6 months. Will you be using marine grade parts on your new bar system as rust always worries me from a quality point of view.